Bay Area Prefab, Modular and Mass Timber Conference

Thor Hoskins joined the Sares Regis Group of Northern California (SRGNC) Development Team in 2017. Thor brings with him over a decade of project management experience ranging from development, design, and preconstruction to project closeout and everything in between. Hoskins is akey member of the award-winning development team for a public-private partnership between a non-profit foundation and the City of Mountain View that delivered 124 homeless beds in response to COVID-19. As a part of this team, he managed relationships with the modular vendors to ensure that the project was delivered within six months of the start of construction to satisfy government funding requirements from the CARES Act. Hoskins holds a B.A. in Architecture with a minor in Construction Management from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Patrick Kennedy is the owner of 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 of the multi-family housing projects include below market rate units. The firm’s projects incorporate the Smart Growth principles designed to discourage auto use, mitigate sprawl, encourage local business, and enhance the pedestrian streetscape. Mr. Kennedy grew up in the East Bay, and attended Claremont McKenna College, majoring in Economics and English. He is a former member of the Carpenters Union and Steelworkers Union, and the California Bar. After college, he worked as a contractor, and then attended Harvard Law School and MIT, graduating with a J.D. and a Masters in Real Estate Development. Early development work included building his own house, and renovating several small commercial properties. His hobbies include open water swimming and ultra-light backpacking, both of which have furnished surprising insights into his work in development.

Muhammad A. Nadhiri is the oldest of three children and was raised in Central Florida, in a household rich with educational, artistic, and social justice history. Muhammad’s father, retired from a lifelong career in education, is a poet. Muhammad’s mother, also a former educator, is the Executive Director of the Zora Neale Hurston Museum in Eatonville, Florida, the oldest incorporated African-American town in the United States. Muhammad’s family has numerous ties to the arts, politics, and the struggle for equality; these basic principles, which formed the foundation of Muhammad’s childhood, continue to drive his philosophy as a developer, businessman, and volunteer. Muhammad lives in San Francisco, with his wife, Rochelle, and daughter, Zahra. Muhammad is the Co-Founding Managing Partner of Axis Development Group; he brings deep experience developing residential/retail/commercial mixed-use projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and select urban markets nationally. Axis is a privately-owned San Francisco and Los Angeles based real estate development firm that specializes in the creation and execution of highly-serviced, uniquely-stylized urban-infill and mixed-use projects. Axis’ Principals bring over 40 years of acquisition, structuring, entitlement, construction, marketing, and sale/lease-up experience to the projects the firm pursues. Axis’ core strategy is to take the experience of its Principals and leverage that knowledge into projects that respond to the complex urban environments in which the firm operates. Prior to forming Axis with Theo F. Oliphant, Muhammad was a Co-Founding Partner at UrbanCore Development and the Founding Managing Partner at M.A.N. Associates, both of which are San Francisco Bay Area-based real estate development firms; Muhammad served as the Principal-in Charge for each firm's development activities. Previously, Muhammad was a Senior Project Manager at AF Evans Development in Oakland, where he was responsible for the development of two downtown-revitalization residential/retail mixed-use projects, totaling 433 for-sale units and 70,000 square feet of retail over five city blocks. Muhammad began his real estate career as an Associate at Wilson Meany in San Francisco, where he co-managed the development of rental and for-sale residential/retail mixed-use projects in San Francisco and the Bay Area; one of which was as a member of the project team for the redevelopment of the historic Ferry Building. Prior to beginning his career in real estate development, Muhammad was an investment banker; he was an Analyst at Nationsbanc Securities and an Associate at RBC Dominion Securities, in New York City. Muhammad holds a B.A. in Business Administration with a concentration in Corporate Finance from Morehouse College and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. Muhammad is a Past Chairman of the Board of Directors for the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, a Member of the Board of Directors for the 100 Black Men of America, and a Member of the Board of Trustees for Katherine Delmar Burke School. Muhammad is also a Member of Urban Land Institute, San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, and San Francisco Housing Action Coalition.

Aaron Alhady is General Manager of Clark Pacific’s Structural solutions, overseeing client services and operations for the design-build parking group. With over 30 years in the construction industry, Aaron has varied experiences and roles including business development, preconstruction, and operations. Aaron’s market expertise includes healthcare, research laboratories, higher education, k-12, and hospitality. Aaron is an active board member of DBIA, as the Sacramento Chapter Leader and Region Builders of Sacramento.

Tim Ritter is the Founder and Owner of BayStone, Inc., a design-build manufacturer and installer of architectural elements, themed environments and prefabricated exterior systems. With a career spanning 40 + years, Tim came from the field as a fireproofing and plastering Superintendent for one of the largest California exteriors contractors, transitioning to his own business in 1994. His approach has always been forethought, creativity and preplanning. The more difficult and extraordinary the project, the more likely BayStone can bring a solution with prefabrication applications being at the core. BayStone is known for its innovative approach to prefabrication in various building application aspects, conceptually rethinking how projects can be made more efficient. Under his leadership, BayStone has revolutionized construction methods with cutting-edge solutions and a commitment to excellence throughout a variety of building scope and projects.

Nick brings more than 20 years of experience in designing and shepherding multifamily developments in California including affordable, market-rate, student housing and senior living communities. He is an industry leader in off-site construction and modular design having permitted more than 2,500 units of factory-built housing in California. Nick is passionate about urban infill housing and inspired by the opportunity to develop projects that contribute to the unique and complex fabric of the cities they are in. A graduate of California College of the Arts architecture program, Gomez is a native Californian and proud of his Bay Area roots. He is active in the East Bay community and serves on the Modular Building Institute (MBI) Design Professionals Advisory Council and the Alameda Public Art Advisory Council (PAAC).

Professional of the Year, and 2013 US Dept of Energy Grand Award for Housing Innovation. Earning building and design accolades year after year, Weiss most recently garnered US Green Building Council Outstanding Single Family Project of the Year in 2017. Weiss is a pioneer in the “green building movement” and his expertise is in building high-quality, durable, efficient homes. A certified master builder with numerous professional affiliations Weiss is also a PHIUS Certified Builder, Living Future Accredited, RESET ApP and LEED Accredited Professional who has spoken on panels about building energy, health & wellness in the built environment, and housing innovation. He spends his spare time mountaineering, trekking, and dedicating his life to improving his own health and that of others.

Randy Miller is an 18-year industry veteran. He founded and was the CEO of RAD Urban, Inc, an award-winning and pioneering manufacturer of pre-fabricated, pre-finished volumetric modular buildings specializing in steel-frame non-combustible construction. Mr. Miller developed a vertically integrated and highly technical approach to building development bringing real estate, architecture, engineering, manufacturing, and construction all under one roof. Mr. Miller grew RAD Urban from inception to a 300-person firm delivering up to 50,000SF of finished building per month. Mr. Miller has focused his career on developing advanced building technologies and leveraging these technologies in the pursuit of better, and more economical real estate development and construction. Mr. Miller holds a master’s degree in civil engineering and construction management from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a licensed civil engineer in the State of California and is a California licensed general building contractor, general engineering contractor, manufactured housing contractor, and fire sprinkler contractor.

Wong, the Cloud Apartments CEO, is a former engineer for SpaceX and worked on the spacecraft company's launch pads. He hopes to bring the innovative approach at SpaceX to his new company. “We see ourselves as a product company and a technology company,” Wong stated on his LinkedIn page

Randall Thompson is the Senior Preconstruction Manager at Nibbi Brothers General Contractors and NibbiPrefab. From preconstruction through project delivery, NibbiPrefab works directly with clients, design teams, modular manufacturers, and Nibbi operations staff to ensure the successful design, procurement, and construction of its modular projects. With over 20 years of construction industry experience, Randall excels at merging modern methods of construction with tried-and-true practices. His leadership at NibbiPrefab further demonstrates his dedication to advancing the construction sector through innovations in industrialized construction. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Michael Mathews is the Founder and CEO of Assemblage Works, Inc. (AWI), a multi-disciplinary, vertically integrated architecture, construction management and development company that operates throughout the nation. We specialize in the creation, management and execution of sustainable urban infill multi-family, hospitality and commercial projects across the western United States. Mathews’ expertise as a senior development, design and construction executive spans all facets of complex and large-scale ($500MM+) real estate projects for a variety of prominent design, development and construction organizations nationwide, including executive roles with KB Urban, Forest City and Davis Reed Construction, among others. In these roles, he has delivered over 6,000 units to the markets in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Southern California, Texas, Seattle and Denver metropolitan areas. Mathews, a licensed Architect, is also an expert in off-site construction methodologies, including prefab, volumetric, panelized and mass timber construction. He has national experience in project due diligence, entitlement, design, finance, construction and construction management. Through the formation of AWI, Mathews has created a collective of experienced and dedicated design, construction and development professionals that believe in the use of modern methods of construction and progressive delivery techniques to provide clear and predictable outcomes to their clients and investors. AWI was created to understand the needs of development, investigate emerging technologies and collaborate with our construction partners, pushing the practice of architecture and development into the future. We eliminate unnecessary time designing systems that can be repeated, leaving more time to solve the unique design challenges of our clients, the environment and the places we design for.

Cynthia NeSmith-Montanez, a Senior Director in MGAC’s San Francisco office, has over 37 years of experience working on a wide variety of projects, from small tenant improvements to multi-building projects. She has worked on teams big and small for medical office buildings, hospitals, biotech facilities, corporate campuses, hotel renovations, and financial institutions. Cynthia brings deep knowledge of the industry, combining practical knowledge and theoretical understanding developed from her time in both owner’s representation and as a general contractor.

Andrea lead’s Eden’s Real Estate Development team and is responsible for Eden’s new business and pre-development pipeline, new construction, real estate acquisition and portfolio renovation efforts. Under her leadership, Eden currently has a pipeline totaling nearly 5,000 homes for lower-income households across California. Since joining Eden’s development team in 2008, Andrea has overseen the development of over 2,500 new units and the acquisition of over 1,500 existing units in six California counties – from Sonoma to San Diego County. She is currently managing Eden’s expansion into new regions in California, with a growing department of 27 development professionals. Andrea has significant experience in construction management, construction litigation and public contracting. She worked as a construction management consultant for Capital Projects of UC Berkeley where she was involved in large rehab and new construction projects – from planning and development through funding and construction. Additionally, she was the lead paralegal in the construction group at Hanson Bridgett Marcus Vlahos & Rudy, a San Francisco law firm. Andrea serves as President of the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County (board member since 2013) and is an inaugural board member and Treasurer of SV@Home, a housing advocacy organization in Santa Clara County. Andrea Osgood earned her Bachelor of Arts (BA) with Honors from Pomona College and a Master of Arts in Urban Planning from the UCLA Graduate School of Public Policy and Social Research.

Joanne has two decades in real estate development, focusing on homelessness initiatives for the past several years. She drove the LifeMoves|Mountain View project funded by the State of California’s Homekey program, delivering 100 new construction units in an eye-popping six months. She helped surpass this effort on Labath Landing, Rohnert Park, a second wave Homekey project, that also used prefabricated construction, delivering 60 units in a draw-dropping four months enabling the city to achieve an Early Occupancy Bonus and additional funding. It’s Joanne’s unique, creative and ‘out of the box’ way of thinking that allows her to tackle challenges and come up with new ideas and solutions to help push boundaries and achieve the impossible. She wants to share this magic across communities to bring our unhoused and most vulnerable neighbors indoors and firmly believes our homelessness crisis is not rocket science and can be solved. Jo holds a BSc (Hons) in Architecture, Building, Planning & Environmental Studies from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London and a MSc in Project Management (with a major in Private Finance Initiatives) from the University of Reading, UK.

Justin Stewart is the CEO and Owner of 8-time National Excellence in Construction Award winning Synergy, Inc, and industry disrupting Synergy Modular. Synergy has built over 10,000 units and countless commercial projects as a GC over the last three decades in the Pacific Northwest. In 2017, in response to a demand for predictability, Justin founded Synergy Modular, building projects at a fixed cost, in 30-50% less time.

What I like best about architecture + design: I’ve always enjoyed the process of combining creative and critical thinking to design buildings that respond to the needs of the ultimate occupants. From starting with developing the initial concept to fine tuning it until it feels ‘right’. Documentation through construction is just as interesting since there is always something new to learn as we strive to achieve the concept/design! What I add to a project team: An extensive archive of technical knowledge mixed in with very many lessons learned that I like to share with the team. I also bring strong leadership and mentorship.

Brian represents developers of mixed use and multifamily real estate in California, the Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest. He is the Director of Modular Construction for AMJ, a Los Angeles- based firm focused on modular building in affordable housing, where he brings to bear decades of real estate experience and lessons learned. He was a founding member of RAD Urban, an Oakland-based developer and builder innovating first-of-its-kind steel-frame volumetric modular for high-rise. At Wilson Meany, Brian was responsible for the development and construction of the Residences at Yerba Buena Island and the first ever high-rise on Treasure Island. He now lives in Idaho with his wife and daughter. Brian’s experience as a developer, designer and builder spans over 20 years of ground up and renovation projects in California and New York, including residential, institutional, commercial, and high-rise. He is a structural engineer by education, a builder by trade, and an innovator in the real estate space. Brian is active on several advisory boards and also develops his own apartment and townhome properties in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. All of his projects are funded by local incentives and capital and utilize modular construction of locally-built modules.

Rick Van Duzer is chair of Farella’s Construction Practice Group and maintains a multifaceted civil trial practice, with an emphasis on the construction, real estate, and wine industries. Over the past 30 years, Rick has represented wineries, grape growers, vineyard nurseries, and many other wine industry businesses in a variety of matters, including grape contract disputes, defective cork and rootstock litigation, negligent wine processing claims, trademark infringement actions, and ABC/TTB trade practice negotiations and litigation, as well as partnership dissolution and real estate disputes. His practice is a general one, and encompasses the full spectrum of legal issues related to the wine industry. In his construction practice, Rick has represented contractors, owners, subcontractors, and design professionals in connection with disputes over delay and cost overrun claims and construction defects arising out of a variety of projects, including commercial office buildings, hospitals, mixed-use developments, hotels and resorts, underground subway stations, rail systems, dams, and cogeneration power plants. Although every case is different because every project is different, Rick has a particular knack for understanding how projects are built, working with experts to marshal the facts and analyze important technical issues, and distilling every dispute, regardless of project size, to a handful of key bones of contention which will drive the outcome. Rick’s approach is to identify and focus on the key issues as early as possible, so as not to waste his clients’ time and money pursuing needless or irrelevant details. Outside of the Wine Country, Rick is experienced in counseling clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in a variety of real estate matters, including sales/purchase disputes, partnership disagreements and dissolutions, partition actions, commercial landlord/tenant claims and disputes, easement and boundary claims, CC&R enforcement actions, and entitlement protests. Rick sees himself as a practical problem-solver and a “peddler” of good judgment. Although some cases need to be tried and Rick is very capable of trying them, he believes that if you reach the point of having to try a case, someone has in all likelihood failed along the way. Through the exercise of sound business judgment, common sense, and legal skill and acumen, Rick helps clients get what they need, even if it is not always exactly what they want. Rick regularly speaks on construction and wine industry issues of interest. He is a past member of Farella’s Advisory Board. He is recognized by Northern California Super Lawyers (2011-2023), The Best Lawyers in America (2013-2024) and in The Legal 500 United States (2016-2021) in the Construction practice area. He is recognized by Chambers USA in Construction law (2020-2023). Rick obtained his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He received his B.A. with Honors in Economics from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.

Danny Haber is the co-founder of oWOW, a B2B and B2C real estate company. An innovative entrepreneur, with a flair for providing workable solutions to the burgeoning housing crisis in California, Haber has been labelled the ‘Oracle of Oakland’ with visionary solutions to the housing crisis. His company, oWOW develops, designs, and constructs net new housing units for consumers and also builds modular units for resale to developers. As a vertically integrated corporation, oWOW operations are geared towards cost-cutting measures, and luxury living courtesy of adaptable units.

A “unicorn” in the world of construction technology, Lisa offers 15 years of design and construction management experience focused on prefab and modular buildings. Her unique blend of expertise in building codes, structural engineering, acoustic performance, building envelopes, embodied carbon analysis,fire science, permit approvals, cost planning, supply chain, procurement, logistics, scheduling, and sequencing is topped off with a deep personal network in the emerging mass timber and construction innovation field. As one of the leading experts in the US on Mass Timber, she sits on several industry and professional advisory boards and supporting mass timber market development through individual research projects and organizations like the Tallwood Design Institute and the Council of Tall Building and Urban Habitat. As a co-author and peer reviewer for the 2012 United States Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) Handbook, Lisa began her contributions to the market development of CLT and mass timber well before the design and construction industry realized its potential. In 2016 she peer reviewed the Nail Laminated Timber Design and Construction Guide and by 2018 had completed a two phase research program establishing a new design methodology for the blast resistance of CLT, accomplished through seven full scale live blast tests and opening a new market for timber structures.