Philly Construction & Development

Greg spent more than 30 years working at all levels in corporate and private industries. He graduated from Howard University, Washington, DC, with a BS in Chemical Engineering. He began his career with McNeil Consumer Products Company. Greg then joined Merck and Co. Inc., where he received eight promotions and held eleven different positions during his tenure with the company. Greg left Merck and started a consulting company, where he assisted pharmaceutical and real estate companies with marketing and crisis communications. After learning more about the real estate industry, he joined a mid-size real estate development company, where he became a member of the executive team. Greg established his Mosaic Development Partners in 2008, and together with his partner Leslie Smallwood-Lewis, they have completed projects in Philadelphia totaling more than $150 million in investment and have an additional $2.7B in projects in its pipeline.

Shelah has over fifteen years of experience in commercial real estate. Prior to joining Nuveen Green Capital, Shelah had various lending roles including Commercial Real Estate Lending Specialist for Capitol Bank, VP Commercial Real Estate Loan Officer for Bancorp Bank, and Senior Investment Analyst for PGIM Real Estate Finance. Additionally, Shelah spent many years working as an advisor to commercial real estate developers, aiding in structuring their JV partnerships, and helping raise debt and equity. Shelah received a BS in Economics from the Wharton Undergraduate program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ernie is a Senior Principal with GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. (GZA) and is President of its New York State Affiliate. Ernie started his career with GZA in its Buffalo, New York office in 1986, starting as a Project Engineer, then relocated to GZA’s Metro Philadelphia Office in 2009 after managing the Buffalo Office for over 10-years. He initially managed GZA’s Metro Philadelphia operations (offices in Fort Washington, PA and Hammonton, NJ) and worked to expand its geotechnical practice in the Mid- Atlantic Region. Ernie sat on GZA’s Board of Directors from 2013 – 2016 and served as the Mid-Atlantic Region’s Operational Officer from 2012 through 2016. In February 2016, he relocated the GZA Fort Washington, PA office to its current location in Center City Philadelphia (1515 Market Street, Suite 945) and transitioned the office management. Ernie lives in Center City, Philadelphia overlooking the City’s Art Museum. His professional contributions have covered a range of environmental and geotechnical projects from multi-site due diligence to remedial action, and building foundations, to bridges, dams, and tunnel infrastructure. He is a licensed / registered professional engineer in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Michigan and Wisconsin. GZA is a Massachusetts based corporation with over 700 staff in 32 offices within the Northeast quadrant of the United States. GZA’s holding company is GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, a Delaware Corporation. The Company focuses on five core service areas – geotechnical, environmental, water, ecology, and construction support.

Dailey Tipton has spent many years in senior positions of management where he is recognized for his expertise in energy and sustainability. He has a long history of growing companies, from start-up to Fortune 500 in size. As the leader for revenue generation for Evolution Energy Partners, Dailey focuses on creating opportunities for customers to drive impact to their bottom line through energy management projects while increasing their sustainable footprint. Prior to EEP, Dailey worked at CPower as a General Manager, SAP as the leader for Energy Management and Sustainable Applications Center of Excellence, DATUM as part of the management team and created, launched and managed a highly successful SAP sustainability practice for ERM. Dailey started his career as a Naval Flight Officer and is a Veteran of Foreign War with multiple recognitions including two Navy Achievement Medals. He holds two degrees in Engineering: MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University. In his off time, Dailey is a competitive runner, cyclist, long distance open water swimmer and sails boats competitively. Dailey is on the Board of Directors for US Patriot Sailing, a wounded warrior program that provides support to the “Silently Wounded” warriors. Married 34 years to Jessica, who he met at Auburn, with two children Nate 30 and Leah 27.

Ken is an active entrepreneur and real estate developer in the Philadelphia area. He serves as President of Philly Office Retail, which has renovated and restored more than 300 vacant and deteriorated commercial and residential units in the Philadelphia region during the past 30 years. Philly Office Retail currently owns and manages more than 800,000 square feet of commercial and residential space in the Philadelphia region and has received four Preservation Alliance Awards for its adaptive reuse projects. Ken founded and operated Cresheim Cottage Cafe from 1996 until 2004, Trolley Car Diner, Deli and Ice Cream Shoppe in Mt. Airy from 2000 until 2019 and Trolley Car Cafe, serving breakfast and lunch and hosting private events in East Falls since 2010. Previously, Ken served as Chief of Staff for Philadelphia City Councilwoman Happy Fernandez from 1991-1995 and currently serves as President of the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (PHDC), as a Mayoral appointee, and Chair of the Mt. Airy Business Improvement District which he co-founded in 2007. Ken is Founder of the Trolley Car Teacher’s Fund, which contributes $25,000/year in grants to public school teachers and Trolley Car Table Tennis Club, the only full-time table tennis club in the Philadelphia region. Ken was an Organizer/Board Member of Valley Green Bank for 8 years until it was sold to Univest Bank in January 2015. Ken regularly lectures on subjects ranging from real estate development to entrepreneurship to social impact investing and taught a graduate level class, entitled “Empowering Communities Through Real Estate Development,” at University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government. In 2015, Ken founded Jumpstart Germantown, an award-winning community development program that works to revitalize the Germantown section of Philadelphia, and surrounding communities, by providing training, mentoring, networking and financial resources to local aspiring developers. Now with seven Programs throughout the City of Philadelphia, Jumpstart Philly has graduated more than 1,000 mentees from its training programs and made hundreds of loans to its participants. In 2004, Ken was awarded the Business Leader of the Year Award by West Mt. Airy Neighbors, in 2005 was given the Community Service Award by the Center City Proprietors Association, in 2006 was named one of Philadelphia’s 101 Connectors by Leadership Philadelphia, in 2009 received the Distinguished Leadership Award by Community College of Philadelphia, in 2010 received the My Block, My Business Award by the Empowerment Group, in 2011 was awarded the Edgar Baker Community Service Award by East Mt. Airy Neighbors, the 2012 Retailer of the Year Award by the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and was honored by the Philadelphia Parks Alliance in 2013. In 2015, Ken received honors by the Waldorf School of Philadelphia, the Wissahickon Charter School and the Philadelphia Business Journal as “Do Gooder of the Year.” In 2018, Ken was honored by Mt. Airy USA and Historic Germantown as a community champion, by the Commonwealth Youth Choirs with its Founder’s Award, by SustainPHL with its Social Impact Award and by the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia with its ImpactPHL Award. Ken’s mission is to revitalize neighborhoods by renovating vacant, deteriorated properties along Philadelphia’s commercial corridors. He believes that you can do well by doing good.

In 2007, at the age of 26, Mike Stillwell resigned from his career as a foreman to pursue his aspirations to create a thriving construction & development company. He had a vision to simplify the process for residential construction in urban neighborhoods. While beginning contracting work in Point Breeze, he crossed paths with another young entrepreneur who had a similar vision as himself, Sean Schellenger. Their instant bond, trust, and shared business goals quickly blossomed into a partnership. In 2008, at the height of the recession, the Streamline brand was created. Mike, self-driven, competitive, & opportunistic, took the lead on creating efficient workflow processes & procedures for the development & construction side of the business, setting the duo up for future rapid growth. In 2010, the 1st Streamline office was opened on Washington Ave. The company began as a General Contractor for the 1st years. Mike learned the obstacles & opportunities that came with urban development. He realized that in order to become a leading company & stay at the forefront of their industry, continuous utilization of technology was going to be crucial. In 2011, Streamline invested in Salesforce to begin building out their project management and CRM procedures. Streamline received the 1st company awards: Philadelphia 100, PBJ’s Fastest Growing Companies, and SmartCEO circle of excellence, in 2013. That following year, Streamline began construction on their first condominium development as the developer. Mike was now leading 10 employees between development, construction, & accounting. In 2015, Streamline partnered with an investor group to receive their first fund & was now an urban residential developer– a huge accomplishment and milestone in the company’s history. Mike was now COO, focused on making the teams vision to become the leading urban developer, happen. At this time the company had grown to 16 employees with a revenue of $7.9MM & continued to put significant investments into technology to support the vision. Custom systems were developed to identify hundreds of off-market opportunities for acquisitions, in a short period of time, daily. Standard operating procedures, scripts, and training were established to truly set Streamline apart from the competition in how the company data mines & acquires off-market lots. Over the next 2 years, Mike led the operations with a focus on the customer experience. A 2nd office opened in Feb 2018 for a sales team. Mike managed a team to establish new positions to enhance the consumer experience, giving the client an expert to walk them through the process, every step of the way. One of the biggest differentiators for the company is the use of Virtual Reality. Urban development does not have the luxury of hosting a Model Home to sell homes during pre-construction. Mike & Sean put significant time and dollars into building out a new experience for the consumer to be able to visualize their home in a virtual realm before it’s built, preparing to launch The Streamline Experience in the beginning of 2019. Tragically, on July 12, 2018, Mike’s business partner, Sean Schellenger, was murdered in Rittenhouse Square. To say the loss of Sean was absolutely devastating for Mike is an understatement. The partners had worked together every day for the past 10 years to build what was now a thriving company in Philly. Overnight, the company was now on Mike’s shoulders. To ensure stabilization for the company’s lenders, investors, & employees, Mike put together a Strategic Planning team with an advisory board to set a clear path for the next 3 years of the company. He had key members on the board such as the CFO of Toll Brothers & a retired CEO from the biopharmaceutical industry. Despite the emotions that came with the unexpected loss of his business partner, Mike powerfully began to make the shift into the role of CEO for his company. He spent the next 3 months working feverishly with his leadership team & advisors to create an in-depth action plan, to ensure the vision and goals of Streamline stayed on course. In 2019, his company delivered nearly 200 homes within Philadelphia, a revenue of $45MM and 70 employees. The company placed #11 in the 2018 Philadelphia 100, & launched their Virtual Reality technology into the Sales Office to complete 2018. Today, the company has begun their expansion to an additional urban market, Chicago.

As a Vice President and Pennsylvania native, Greg is leading the efforts to build DAVIS' presence in the greater Philadelphia region. Greg has established an impressive construction career managing critical projects, including multiple complex healthcare construction projects for a world-renowned healthcare provider based in Pittsburgh. Earlier in his career, Greg worked for DAVIS in the DC Metro region until he moved back to his home state. Now, he's using his business development skills to build strong relationships and take DAVIS to the next level.

William Sproule is the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (EASRCC). EASRCC represents more than 41,000 members in Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the Territory of Puerto Rico. Our members come from many different trade groups, including: commercial/residential carpenters; heavy highway; piledrivers; floor-layers; mill cabinet; and tradeshow. William is the former President & Regional Manager of the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters which was dissolved and merged into Keystone + Mountain + Lakes Regional Council of Carpenters on May 30, 2018. After the merger William was appointed as the Assistant Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Keystone + Mountain + Lakes Regional Council of Carpenters which would be renamed to the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters in December of 2019. In April of 2019, William was appointed Executive Secretary-Treasurer. As Executive Secretary-Treasurer of EASRCC William’s duties include managing and leading the development of the organization’s policies and procedures; overseeing all of the day-to-day operations for the Council’s local unions in developing collective bargaining agreements; and organizing and expanding work opportunities for union membership.

Palak Shah is an engineer who traveled the world for 17 years training CEOs. After the birth of her two children, Palak decided to quit her job and pursue real estate full time. Since then, she has purchased, renovated, rented, and refinanced their way to an 8 figure rental portfolio in 5 years and retired from the corporate grind, all while watching their 2 kids grow. Palak strongly believes that profitable growth can be achieved, sustained, and even enhanced, by embracing diversity and by engaging with local communities. Open Spaces accomplishes this by providing high quality developed real estate and rental homes, with great customer service, at prices that are affordable. You can find Palak on Instagram at @openspaceswomen or at www.openspaceswomen.com

For anyone who has dreams of building their own real estate empire, Jhanel Wilson is a testament that the opportunities to succeed in the industry as a minority and a woman are truly endless. With grit, creativity, and finesse, she started her journey with a lack of capital and, nearly two decades later, has built a portfolio worth over $10 million, comprising 100-plus units. A chemical engineer-turned-investor, Jhanel’s mission is to assist others in removing the fear and complexities around breaking into real estate. By equipping people with knowledge and resources, she wants to show how real estate can be a powerful tool for achieving financial freedom.

Lorraine Wilson-Drake is the Owner of Wilson-Drake Development, LLC, a company that provides well designed, moderately priced apartments in the City of Philadelphia. The company develops exclusively in neighborhoods that have higher levels of poverty and disinvestment. The value proposition is an affordable apartment with good amenities in a neighborhood that is undergoing change. Lorraine is extremely proud of the niche she has carved out and the social impact of her developments. In addition to providing quality housing, her developments have impacted crime and safety and increased surrounding property values. Currently, she is developing 3 projects in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Originally from San Francisco, Lorraine earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from San Francisco State University. She also holds an M.A. in Journalism and an M.B.A from Columbia University. Lorraine spent seventeen years in sales and marketing in the television industry working for CBS, FOX Television Network, ESPN and ABC Television Network. She also spent time in business development at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, attracting companies and investment to Harlem. Her last job before becoming an entrepreneur was Vice President of Sales at ABC Television Network. She married and moved to Philadelphia in 2001. While searching for a place to live in Philadelphia, she saw a gap in the housing market for moderately priced apartments with good amenities. The concept of affordable luxury housing has been extremely successful for Wilson-Drake and they have completed sixteen projects since inception. Lorraine lives in Cherry Hill, NJ with her husband and business partner Anthony Drake and their son AJ. In her spare time she enjoys running races and completing triathlons. Last year she completed both the Chicago and New York Marathons.