San Francisco Retail & Mixed-Use Showcase!

Josh Callahan is a Senior Vice President of Asset Management at Jamestown. He leads the West Coast portfolio from Jamestown’s San Francisco office. Prior to joining Jamestown, Mr. Callahan was a Project Manager at Wilson Meany LLC, where he worked on notable redevelopment projects including 140 New Montgomery, and the re-use of Naval Station Treasure Island. Prior to Wilson Meany, he held development and finance roles with Community Housing Developers, a non-profit provider of low-income housing, and Catellus Development Corporation. Mr. Callahan is a member of ULI’s local commercial council, and volunteers with the San Francisco Produce Market. He received a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science from the Huntsman Program at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Brett Christopoulos joined Merlone Geier in 2016. His primary responsibility is to serve as project manager for owned assets in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to joining Merlone Geier, Mr. Christopoulos was part of the west coast leasing team for Federal Realty Investment Trust. At FRIT, in addition to a number of grocery-anchored centers, he focused on their core properties in Northern California, from the high street retail asset Santana Row to the repositioning of Westgate Center. From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Christopoulos was a leasing manager for Property Development Centers with oversight of a portfolio of new power and grocery-anchored developments in Northern and Southern California, Washington, Hawaii and the greater Washington D.C. markets. His responsibilities entailed working with the acquisition and development teams on the feasibility of new sites, developing merchandising strategies and implementing the marketing and leasing of the developments. From 2009 to 2012, Mr Christopoulos held various leasing roles with the Browman Development Company with responsibilities throughout the company's power and grocery center portfolio in Northern California, Washington and Alaska. Mr. Christopoulos graduated from California State University, Chico with a BS in Financial Management. He is an active participant in the Internnational Council of Shopping Centers and a licensed real estate salesperson. He is resident in the firm's San Francisco office.

Mr. Kathrein is a Director in the San Francisco office of HFF with more than seven years of real estate investment experience. He is responsible for institutional-grade properties concentrating on retail and mixed-use assets located throughout the western United States. Mr. Kathrein joined the firm in December 2016. Prior to HFF, he was a Vice President of Capital Markets and a partner on the Cushman & Wakefield Retail Investment Advisors Northern California team, closing more than $1 billion of asset dispositions during his tenure. Mr. Kathrein is an active member of NAIOP’s Young Professionals Group and is on the ICSC Next Gen Planning Committee. Additionally, he is co-founder of the Cal Young Alumni Blue & Gold Bash, which created formal programming for young alumni engagement, and for which he received the UC Berkeley Alumni Association Bradford S. King Award for Excellence in Service in 2015. He previously served on Jill’s Legacy, an advisory board to the Lung Cancer Foundation.

Patty joined Ghirardelli in March, 2016 and leads the Restaurant and Retail division which includes the Ghirardelli shops, Ecommerce and Business to Business channels. Patty brings to Ghirardelli more than 20 years of experience with prestigious retailers in North America. Prior to joining our team, Patty spent the past six years as Vice President of Merchandising for Trader Joe's. Patty previously held roles in Retail, Catalogue and Ecommerce as well as in-store roles with companies such as Restoration Hardware, Williams-Sonoma and Neiman Marcus. Patty earned a B.S. in Apparel and Merchandising from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. She also holds a Nutrition Educator Certification from Bauman College - Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts in Berkeley, California. She is engaged in many philanthropic organizations, loves cooking and has traveled extensively. Read more at https://www.ghirardelli.com/executive-profiles#goXeQZihRg3AwBFY.99

Leslie Lundin is co-founder and Managing Partner of LBG Real Estate Companies, LLC. Leslie is primarily responsible for overseeing all aspects of capital raising and reporting, as well as asset management, due diligence and documentation of LBG transactions. Prior to co-founding LBG, Leslie was Senior Vice President for Inland Mortgage Capital Corporation, in charge of their national opportunistic debt investment program which she formed in 1995. Leslie directly oversaw all of Inland’s origination offices, directed all marketing of the program, oversaw the pre-approval process of pending loans, and was engaged in strategic investment decisions to determine the direction of the program. Before joining Inland, from 1990-1995, Leslie was a lender at ITT Real Estate Services, where she originated participating bridge and construction loans. In 2014, Leslie was named as one of Bisnow’s Los Angeles Power Women in CRE and has been nominated as one of East Bay CREW’s Most Influential Women in CRE. She was also named as one of Real Estate Forum’s 2009 Women of Influence and one of Southern California’s Most Influential Women by Real Estate Southern California Magazine in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. She is frequently published and interviewed by industry periodicals and routinely speaks at industry conferences, including ICSC, NAIOP, Crittenden, Realshares, IMN, iGlobal, Trigild, Biznow, CREW, ACRE and Women’s Leadership Counsel. From 2007 to 2009, Leslie was Chair of the ICSC/NAIOP Capital Marketplace Conference held annually in New York and now serves on the committee. She chaired the 2010 and 2011 ICSC/NAIOP/LAMA Capital Marketplace West Conference (one that she started). She is also on the first ever ICSC Recon Committee and the Chair of the ICSC International Capital Markets Committee. Leslie also chairs the Final Frontier Conference: a Seminar on Women as Entrepreneurs in Commercial Real Estate, which she conceived of in 2009. Leslie received a Master of Science degree in Real Estate Appraisal and Investment Analysis and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literature and Communication Arts with a Minor in French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a licensed California real estate broker.

Jack Sylvan is founder and principal of SDG, LLC, a San Francisco-based investment, development and advisory company delivering exceptional value to investors, partners and clients on complex and innovative mixed-use development opportunities. Jack has 25+ years of real estate investment and development experience on transformational, multi-phase, extremely complex mixed-use real estate projects in the San Francisco Bay Area leading acquisition, entitlement, negotiation of complex transactional and public-private partnership agreements and development activities. The projects represent more than 16 million square feet of mixed-use, commercial office, life science/biotech, multifamily, retail, historic rehabilitation, arts and community space, and hundreds of acres of parks, streets and infrastructure. Prior to forming SDG, Jack served as Senior Vice President of Development for Forest City Realty Trust and Brookfield Properties where he built and led the local development team responsible for all aspects of entitlement and development of three of San Francisco’s largest redevelopment projects -- Pier 70, 5M and Stonestown Galleria -- representing 8 million square feet of residential and commercial space. Prior to this, Jack spent 8 years in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office overseeing large public-private real estate development projects including leading the planning and negotiation process for the approximately 8 million-square-foot Treasure Island redevelopment project, where he successfully negotiated agreements with the private development partner, an affordable housing consortium, and the historic agreement with the U.S. Navy for the transfer of the property. Early in his career, he spent time with CB Richard Ellis/Sedway Group providing real estate consulting and financial analysis to private and public clients.

Christen is a principal with Field Paoli Architects and provides clients with a comprehensive understanding of food venue design, including branding, food preparation and delivery, equipment specifications and sustainable materials. Her extensive experience with retailers has taught her to look at design through the eyes of the consumer to understand the role of architecture in merchandising strategies.

John Schmid, Studio Director for the Restaurant and Retail Design Studio, is an indispensable mentor and member of the MBH Architects leadership team. His work in retail architecture began with 14 years at Gap, Inc., where he acquired a wealth of knowledge about the client-side of the architectural relationship. His ability to lead the execution of projects nationally, work with clients to understand their needs, and manage his team internally to meet client expectations has resulted in many long-term relationships with clients like Yard House, Peet’s Coffee, and Target. His business acumen has led to successful projects for Kona Grill, Earls Kitchen + Bar, Back of the House concepts (Super Duper Burger and Delarosa), Cloud Kitchens, and chef-driven concepts like Michael Mina’s Pabu, International Smoke, and Trailblazer Tavern.