San Francisco Peninsula Boom

Salil Payappilly heads Real Estate Development in the Bay Area for BioMed Realty, a Blackstone portfolio company, and a leading provider of real estate solutions to the life science and technology industries. He has worked in the industry for 20 years, and with BioMed Realty for over 10 years in various markets including Boston, Cambridge, New York, Seattle and San Francisco. He holds an M.S. from Stanford University and an MBA from Yale University.

Andrew Baker oversees Anton DevCo’s Bay Area market rate multifamily development platform from inception through asset stabilization. He is responsible for land acquisition, joint ventures, entitlements, development and construction. Prior to joining Anton, Andrew held the position of Vice President of Development at Essex Property Trust, where he delivered over 1,000 units and was part of a team that delivered over $1.2 billion in asset production over nearly a decade. Prior investment experience includes roles in capital markets and trading with financial institutions including Bank of America, Blackrock (previously BGI) and Wedbush Securities.

Steven G. Wood, Esq., Of Counsel: Steve earned his B.A. (1984) degree in History Summa Cum Laude and his J.D. (1987), both from UCLA. He is a member of the Business, Litigation and Real Property Sections of the California State Bar and has handled real estate and related matters throughout California and in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, with asset values ranging from $5M to $450M. He is admitted to practice in all California State Courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the California Federal Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern District Courts. From 1986-1990, Steve worked at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe in San Francisco, where he practiced transactional corporate and real estate law with an emphasis on troubled assets and real estate workouts, land use and developments, and secured lending, involving over 30 transactions with property values ranging from $1.5M to $95M. From 1990-1993, he worked at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, where he handled over 25 corporate and real estate matters that involved documenting and overseeing development, leasing, and loan transactions with property values ranging from $5M to $250M. From the mid-1990’s through 2005 in private practice Steve handled real estate arbitrations, litigation, start-ups and transactions in matters ranging from $12M-$450M with some of the top real estate experts, forensic accountants and workout specialists in California and Utah. In 2006-2007, Steve consulted with McKenna, Long & Aldridge in Los Angeles, handling ground/retail leases, and purchase transactions, development agreements and CC&Rs for the rollout of over 300 “Fresh & Easy” stores in Arizona, Nevada and California for Tesco, Ltd., the fourth largest retailer worldwide. From 2008 through 2013 Steve advised and represented real estate investors, brokers, developers and so-called “vulture funds” in charting the treacherous waters of the “Great Recession.” During this period, he also successfully handled several writs and appeals, most notably, writing the winning Appellant’s Opening and Reply Briefs for appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Fortune Dynamic, Inc. v. Victoria's Secret Stores Brand, Case No. 08-56291 (2010). Steve currently advises and represents commercial real estate investors, brokers, developers, tenants and landlords. Within the last couple of years, he successfully handled several dozen complex commercial lease transactions with lease values ranging from $1.5M to $17.2M, a variety of mixed real property and hi-tech personal property purchase and sale transactions, ranging from $6M to $40M that involved major Silicon Valley companies, and advised a variety of real estate and other early to mid-stage companies on investment strategies and structures, as well as risk alloction and management. Steve has worked with in-house counsel, CEOs of major corporations, and investors, as well as local business and family interests, on multi-million dollars transactions, litigation, and dispute resolution. Steve has provided real estate clients—adjoining landowners, developers, providers (lenders, lessors), and users (borrowers, lessees)—with business-oriented, results driven counsel based on substantial experience at the beginning, middle, and end of the investment or project cycle. Many deals involve disputes at some stage in the cycle. Virtually all commercial disputes, in particular those involving real estate, require a “resolution transaction” (i.e. the settlement). Having worked the entire spectrum in a variety of complex and high value matters, he sees the “big picture” in any given transaction or dispute and always operates according to the mantra,“Advocacy for Solutions.”

Cameron Johnson currently works at Netflix, where he is Director of Product Innovation. He leads a team of designers and engineers to build and test improvements to the Netflix service. Prior to Netflix, Cameron was a Director of Product Management at Yahoo. Mr. Johnson serves on several regional boards including the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, the San Mateo County Library System, and the City and County Association of Governments of San Mateo County. He previously served as Chair of the San Mateo County Mental Health and Substance Abuse Recovery Commission and the San Carlos Economic Development Advisory Commission. Mr. Johnson has an MBA from Stanford Business School and a BA in political science from Reed College Mr. Johnson and his wife, Celina, have two young children, Josephine and Ellis.

Mayor Joe Goethals is a life-long resident of San Mateo. Joe was elected in November 2013 and is currently serving his first term. He works as a prosecutor in the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. Joe served on the Public Works Commission 2010-2013, and was serving as the Chair of the Public Works Commission when he was elected. Joe also has a Master’s degree in Public Health and he served on the Peninsula Health Care District Board prior to being elected to the City Council.

Jim Ruane was reelected to the San Bruno City Council as Mayor in 2015 to serve a two year term. He has served on the City Council since 1995. His term expires November 2017.

Gene Klein is the CEO of BarkerBlue, a Bay Area-based document and digital asset management company that acts as the central hub of information on thousands of construction projects across North America. Gene has led the company’s expansion into professional services and jobsite staffing as well as As-Built management of facilities and maintenance information for organizations worldwide. BarkerBlue also provides Environmental Graphics for workspace interiors of the fastest-growing companies in the region.

Jeff Brink has over 20 years of structural design experience with significant developments up and down the west coast, ranging from Performance Based Design high-rises to mixed-use projects at Candlestick Point, the SF Shipyard, and Yerba Buena Island. Current projects include the City of San Francisco’s new office tower at 1500 Mission Street and the Virgin Hotel adjacent to the Moscone Center. Jeff’s technical expertise at integrating innovative structural systems, combined with his broad understanding of the construction industry, allows architecturally decisive projects to be achieved while still maintaining the project budget.

Michael Dern, AIA is the Principal of Dern Architecture + Development, an architecture led design + build firm. His experience throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with mixed-use and urban infill developments, multi-stakeholder community-based projects, and commercial interiors provides a proactive, collaborative solution-oriented leadership to Michael’s clients. While primarily in architecture and design, the firm’s experience provides project management and construction management. Michael has been part of the early residential high-rise developments including The 88 in downtown San Jose as an Associate at HKS Architects, and has helped architecture firms with the Waverly in Foster City and a hospitality project by Homewood Suites in north San Jose. Dern Architecture + Development as architect of record recently completed the Lyric for Laconia Development and helped Essex Property Trust through construction of the Agora in Walnut Creek. Michael Dern is the 2018 President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Silicon Valley Chapter, and holds a Bachelors of Architecture with a minor in Construction Management from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.