Future of SoMa & Transbay

On November 10, 2016 the TJPA Board of Directors unanimously appointed former TJPA Senior Program Manager and Interim Executive Director Mark Zabaneh as the new Executive Director. Mr. Zabaneh came to the TJPA in 2013 after a 26 year career with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). He worked in various capacities with Caltrans in the Bay Area, including as Hydraulics Engineer, Assistant Structures Representative on the Cypress Reconstruction Project, and Project Manager on the San Mateo/Hayward Bridge East Approach Widening Project and the State Route 92/I-880 Interchange Project. Mr. Zabaneh also oversaw the project management activities of several projects including the Caldecott Tunnel 4th Bore Project. Mr. Zabaneh’s most recent assignment with Caltrans was as the Deputy District Director for Program/Project Management in charge of the Capital Program for the nine Bay Area counties. He is a licensed civil engineer in the state of California and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering.

Aidan Hughes leads Arup’s 300 person San Francisco office. He is a chartered civil engineer, LEED Accredited Professional, and since joining Arup in 1986, has worked in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States. Aidan led the planning efforts around the redevelopment of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, the infrastructure design for the University of Merced campus, and continues to advise developers, owners and regional agencies on transportation and infrastructure strategies. He led the firm’s expansion in the US in 2000 as a founding member of the San Francisco transport and infrastructure team. He headed Arup’s Planning and Consulting practice in the Americas from 2004 to 2013 and served on Arup’s Americas Board from 2004 to 2009. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of SPUR

Todd Rufo is the Director of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. As Director, Todd oversees Business Attraction and Retention, Small Business, Film, International Trade and Commerce, Workforce Development, and the Neighborhood Development divisions. Todd was previously the Deputy Director for the Department, where he lead the City’s business attraction and retention efforts, with a focus on key business sectors including technology, biotech, cleantech, financial and professional services and manufacturing. Todd received a Masters in Urban Planning in 2004 from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, after which he worked for the City of New York.

Ben is head of the West Coast regional office, primary responsibilities include development and implementation of investment strategy, oversight and coordination of the West Coast investment activities. Responsible for joint venture structuring and the origination of new investment opportunities for the firm’s West Coast regional office.

Real estate professional with more than 15 years of experience in development, land planning, and project management. Experience includes planning and implementing the Transbay Redevelopment Project in Downtown San Francisco, which involved serving as the lead negotiator on a variety of complex real estate and public/private development transactions, including more than $400 million in land dispositions.

Robert Sammons is a Research Director for Cushman & Wakefield (C&W). Based in San Francisco, Robert’s principal roles include working closely with the C&W research teams across the Northwest - including Northern California, Portland and Denver - to provide superior market expertise to clients, procure new business opportunities and augment the overall research capabilities for the entire region. Robert is author of numerous documents that delve into a wide variety of real estate and economic trends. He meets regularly with internal and external clients to discuss how various market forces might affect everything from an individual property to an entire region. He has been a quoted source for all manner of real estate and related economic information. The list of media outlets include interactions with: CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, San Francisco Business Times, Crain's New York, The New York Post, National Real Estate Investor and Bloomberg (radio and TV). While in New York, Robert also contributed to the Commercial Observer, a division of the New York Observer with a weekly column, “Sammons Says.” Now in San Francisco, Robert writes a blog entitled “The Research Rant.” Robert has 29 years of real estate experience as both an appraiser and researcher. His career includes prominent positions with Cushman & Wakefield in New York and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Robert was a Vice President of Research with Cassidy Turley (formerly Colliers) and Head of Research for the New York Tri-State region for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Robert earned a BBA in Real Estate from The University of Georgia and an MS in Real Estate from Georgia State University. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute.

A name partner of the firm, Anton N. Natsis is Chair of Allen Matkins’ Real Estate Department and is one of the top real estate attorneys in the United States. His practice focuses on development, leasing, purchase and sale, and portfolio investment sales transactions involving office, retail, and industrial projects, as well as arbitrating numerous fair market value disputes, CAM disputes and other significant landlord/tenant disputes. He also has extensive experience in debt, equity, and joint venture workouts, and the purchase of distressed assets and distressed debt. Tony is continually sought out by some of the largest national land owners, such as J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Blackstone Real Estate, Brookfield Properties, HCP, Vornado Realty Trust, Regent Properties, The Irvine Company, Boston Properties, Equity Office Properties, Kilroy Realty, Inc., Beacon Capital Partners, MPG Office Trust, Kamehameha Schools (The Bishop Estate) and Westfield Corporation. He represents many governmental entities, including the LAUSD, State of California, and City of Anaheim. Tony is also frequently retained as counsel for major national office tenants, such as AT&T, Citicorp, the FDIC, AIG, The Walt Disney Company, and the Los Angeles Times. A frequent lecturer and author, Tony is the chief consultant for the California Continuing Education of the Bar Commercial Leasing Series, the legal education reference book on leasing for California attorneys, is an adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School for a course covering commercial real estate transactions, and has spoken before such national real estate groups as ULI and BOMA. Tony is a founding board member of The Ziman Real Estate Center, which is governed under the joint auspices of the UCLA Anderson School of Business and the UCLA Law School. In the past decade, Tony has closed commercial office leases exceeding 50 million square feet. He has worked on real estate purchase contracts with a total consideration of more than $30 billion and on development transactions with a total consideration in excess of $25 billion. Since 2006, Tony has represented clients in office building portfolio investment sales transactions involving over $75 billion of consideration. One of Tony's most significant transactions is the largest real estate acquisition deal in the history of the United States. He provided extensive real estate services in connection with Blackstone Real Estate's purchase of Equity Office Properties Trust, at that point the largest owner of office space in the U.S. other than the Federal Government, for $43 billion. Subsequently, Blackstone contracted to sell over 50% of the properties it purchased with such sales closing in the first and second quarter of 2007. Tony assisted Blackstone in its acquisition due diligence related to EOP and the subsequent sales of the properties. The transactions related to this deal included Maguire Properties' purchase of Blackstone/EOP in Orange County for $2 billion, Irvine Company's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Diego for $1 billion, Morgan Stanley's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Francisco for $2.5 billion, and Beacon Capital Partners’ purchase of Blackstone/EOP Seattle for $6.3 billion.

John Rahaim is the Planning Director for the City and County of San Francisco. Mr. Rahaim is responsible for overseeing long range city planning, development entitlements and environmental reviews for most physical development in San Francisco. He was appointed Planning Director in January 2008. Since Mr. Rahaim’s arrival, the San Francisco Planning Department has completed several comprehensive neighborhood plans, several neighborhood historic resource surveys, and updates to the City’s general plan. Major initiatives completed under Mr. Rahaim’s direction include the Transit Center District Plan, enabling a new high density core for Downtown San Francisco and the Better Streets Plan, a comprehensive strategy to upgrade the quality of the city’s public realm. The Planning Department also plays a key role in the city’s strategy to accommodate the state’s High Speed Rail Corridor and regional planning efforts to address the nine-county region’s Sustainable Community Strategy. The ongoing work of the department includes reviews for 8000 projects per year, of which nearly 2000 require detailed review and analysis, more than any city in the US.

Mr. Yarne manages the project development teams at Build Inc. He brings over 17 years of expertise in entitlements, project management, and public-private partnerships to his management role

JP Walsh is the Director of Finance for Panoramic Interests, a development firm that has been building housing, live-work space, and commercial property in the Bay Area since 1990. The firm has focused on dense mixed-use, mixed-income, infill developments, typically financed with private funds. All the firm’s projects incorporate the Smart Growth principles designed to discourage auto use, mitigate sprawl, encourage local business, and enhance the pedestrian streetscape in the places where they are located. JP received a Master of Laws with a concentration in real estate from UC Berkeley and obtained the CFA certificate in 2013.

Mr. Eudy is a founder and Senior Executive officer of Essex Property Trust, Inc., the proven West Coast leader in multifamily investment. Mr. Eudy oversees all development activities, from the point of acquisition through construction and stabilization. He joined Essex's predecessor, Essex Property Corporation, in 1985 and initiated the development activities of the company. During his tenure the company has developed over 15,000 multi-family units and is recognized as an industry leader. The financial performance of its development portfolio, through good cycles and bad, demonstrates a proven, disciplined approach to multifamily development. The company has also received national recognition and awards for Architectural Excellence, more than any multifamily developer in the country. Prior to joining Essex, Mr. Eudy was a Vice President in the Commercial Real Estate Investment Group of Crocker National Bank from 1980 to 1985, and Home Federal Savings from 1977 to 1980. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from San Diego State University in 1977, and is a graduate of the University of Southern California's Management Leadership School. Mr. Eudy is a member of the Urban Land Institute, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and is a Board Member of the California Apartment Association.

For over 30 years, Paul Zeger has been the definitive source of information for new construction sales and marketing in the Bay Area. His leadership in identifying and capitalizing on residential development opportunities is unparalleled. Paul’s client relationships include some of the most successful real estate development firms on the west coast – TMG Partners, Emerald Fund, Lennar Urban and Wilson Meany to name a few. Paul believes in making commitments to his clients, and building trust by delivering on his commitments. Paul earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics at Colgate University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.