San Francisco Construction & Development

Mike Futrell began serving as City Manager of South San Francisco, California, in April 2014, bringing broad executive experience in local, state and federal government. He was Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; served on staff in the United States Senate; and was an elected member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and of the Baton Rouge City Council. He served as a submarine officer in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of Navy Captain in the Navy Reserves. He previously practiced law with a private firm and was Executive Vice President of a public utility company in Hawaii. Mike holds a bachelor's degree in Business/Public Administration and a Juris Doctorate degree from Louisiana State University, a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Learn-Engage-Accelerate-Disrupt (LEAD) Certificate program in Corporate Innovation.

David Beaupre has over 30 years of experience in project management, real estate development, planning, and urban design. Mr. Beaupre joined the Port of San Francisco in 2001 as a Senior Waterfront Planner and grew within the Port to hold the position of Senior Development Project Manager. He was responsible for complex and difficult waterfront development projects. Previously, David led the City and Port Blue Greenway project, including the recently opened and cherished Crane Cove Park. He managed the planning and development of the Port’s Pier 70 Preferred Master Plan and the Piers 80-96 Maritime Eco-industrial Center. In his new position, he will oversee strategy development and entitlements of large planning and real estate development projects, land use, economic development, transportation, open space, urban design and environmental issues. He will continue to be critical in fostering and maintaining positive and trusting relationships with the Port’s diverse stakeholder groups. Prior to joining the Port of San Francisco, Mr. Beaupre worked on numerous planning and urban design projects along waterfronts around the world for a variety of consultants in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Chicago.

Zac Shore is the Co-Founder and Principal of Avenues Development. Avenues Development is a real estate development company located in San Francisco. The company serves as an owner’s representative for a range of development companies and high net-worth individuals throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Services include all aspects of real estate development; from an initial highest and best use feasibility analysis, entitlements, financial analysis, construction management, and general value-add consulting services to get projects on the right track and set up for success. Zac has entitled nearly two thousand units in the Bay Area, built the first modular project constructed overseas and erected in California, and is involved with other emerging technology construction projects. Zac was a general contractor for 10 years, then attended MIT for a degree in Real Estate Development. After MIT, Zac has been involved in many facets of Bay Area Development over the past decade.

Charles “CJ” Higley is a real estate generalist. His practice is focused on real estate development, land use entitlements (a notoriously complex undertaking in the Bay Area), and construction law. With respect to the latter, CJ has a particular expertise in negotiating contracts, ranging from architect’s agreements to the contracts with consultants and contractors that are typical for a development. The projects in which he’s been involved have been equally diverse, including large-scale residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional developments. Sixteen years of experience have also given CJ an intricate matrix of relationships in the political, administrative, and real estate communities of San Francisco that has inured to the benefit of his clients. City planning staff, the Board of Supervisors, and the larger community find him relatable and pragmatic. He’s someone they can work with to find common ground, and help move a project forward. CJ's knowledge of the real estate and construction players in San Francisco saves his clients time and money, and improves the odds of success. He knows the issues that are sensitive, and can either avoid or prepare for them, depending on the situation. The acuteness of the Bay Area housing shortage has altered the process of permitting and obtaining the necessary entitlements for construction projects, particularly for developers engaged in affordable housing projects. The ability to delay, or in some cases, stop a project through a prolonged environmental review process is decreasing, and the political landscape is shifting towards streamlining the process, and sometimes exempting it from environmental review altogether. In this context, an experienced entitlement attorney with relationships throughout the various administrative bodies involved in the development process is invaluable, particularly when augmented by expertise in environmental law. By integrating experience, expertise and the versatility of an attorney who’s been actively engaged in a wide variety of projects, CJ is a significant competitive asset for his real estate and construction clients. CJ serves on the Housing Policy Board for San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) and is a member of the Legislative Committee for San Francisco Housing Action Coalition (SFHAC). He has served on the Legislative Committee of the Environmental Section of the State Bar of California. He was recognized in The Legal 500 United States 2016 Land Use / Zoning practice area. He was recognized among the Northern California Super Lawyers - Rising Stars 2013. CJ has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Real Estate Law (2021). CJ received a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2002, where he served as an articles editor for Ecology Law Quarterly, and a Masters of Studies in Environmental Law (M.S.E.L.), magna cum laude, from Vermont Law School in 2001. He earned his B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1995.

David Blackwell is a partner in the San Francisco office of Allen Matkins. He practices real estate law with an emphasis on land use entitlements and litigation, and his experience includes representing landowners, developers, businesses, and governmental entities before administrative agencies and state and federal courts. David's practice involves all areas of land use law, including affordable housing and the state density bonus law, state and local planning and zoning law, the California Environmental Quality Act, the Subdivision Map Act, initiatives and referenda, development agreements, traditional and sustainable energy projects, wetlands regulation, eminent domain and inverse condemnation, and the Williamson Act.

Suzanne is a Principal at ECB. With 25 years of experience as a real estate advisor, project manager and structural engineer, Suzanne offers a broad range of expertise in all phases of the development process. She has particularly strong skills in real estate finance, entitlements, and project management. Suzanne enjoys cultivating partnerships and solving complex development problems. She is committed to the community and helping nonprofits use real estate to further their missions and provide a sustainable future. Suzanne’s work includes the development of new buildings, renovation of existing facilities, and historic rehabilitation. She has worked on an array of project types- including housing, office, theaters, recital halls, museums, educational facilities, health care centers, and community facilities. Suzanne leads the firm’s highly successful efforts to integrate the use of New Markets Tax Credit financing into a broad range of non-profit development projects – a source of capital that has significantly enhanced the fundraising efforts of the firm’s nonprofit clients. Prior to joining ECB, Suzanne was a project manager at Swinerton Management & Consulting and a structural engineer at Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco. Suzanne received her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Rensselaer and her Masters in Structural Engineering from Georgia Tech. She holds Professional Engineer and Structural Engineer licenses in California.

Richard brings over 40 years of architecture, design and development experience to Forge. An acclaimed Bay Area architect and serial entrepreneur, Richard leads the Forge team, driving the creation and implementation of our solutions model for innovative, impactful, sustainable and affordable residential real estate development. Under Richard's leadership, Forge currently has over $500 million in development and almost 1000 units in the current pipeline. The entire portfolio is targeted to Essential Housing and Impact investment. Richard has been on the leading edge of sustainability and innovation throughout his career. In 1978, Richard served as the interior architect for 505 Sansome Street, the first “fresh air building” in the U.S. Even today, the building operates so efficiently that it was recently recertified as LEED Platinum. Similarly, Richard designed and delivered as Executive Architect, the first pre-fabricated concrete office building in Northern California, 1101 5th Avenue in San Rafael, CA. As an early LEED AP professional, his projects have looked to advance the implementation of new technologies in sustainable building practices. Richard’s innovative efforts in architecture and development have paved the way, numerous times, for record-breaking profits. For example, Richard served as the Executive Architect for Belvedere Place, a 103,000 square foot office complex in Marin County. The project sold in November 2016 for $46.75M, or $454 psf, one of the highest prices ever paid in Marin County. Similarly, Richard served as the Design Architect for Piers 1.5, 3 & 5 in San Francisco managing the architecture and redevelopment on behalf of Pacific Waterfront Associates and CalSTERS. The award-winning $50M mixed use renovation of the Piers was sold in March 2017 for $103M or $1,250 psf, a record high for office space in San Francisco at the time.

Rachael A. Tanner has dedicated her life to generating positive social change. A passion for leadership development in tandem with strategic thinking undergirds her work. Rachael is committed to developing strong systems and leaders that support institutions and organizations, because it is through these institutions that people can unite for collective action. Rachael serves as the Assistant Director of Planning & Development Services for the City of Palo Alto, assuming this leadership role in June 2019. She has served local governments as a bureactivist—as distinguished from a bureaucrat—since 2013; serving the City and County of San Francisco (2016-2018) and the City of Long Beach (2013-2016). In the late 2000’s, Rachael served as Executive Director of Interfaith Strategy for Advocacy and Action in the Community (ISAAC), a community-based organization in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There she learned how to organize, build winning coalitions for policy change, and hold government accountable to implementing successful programs. She earned her Political Science Bachelor’s Degree with minors in Spanish and also Urban Studies from the University of Michigan. At Michigan she co-founded the Semester in Detroit program, which continues to serve students today. Rachael earned her Master’s in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She focused on Housing, Community, Economic Development. Upon graduation, Rachael was recognized as the AICP outstanding student of the year. Rachael lives in San Francisco with her partner Nathan Baird. In her free time, she serves San Francisco as the president of the San Francisco Planning Commission and officiates weddings through her business Officially Hitched. You can find her biking to Caltrain (once Shelter in Place is over), playing board games, and exploring the peaks and valleys of California.

Michael Keinath is a Principal with Ramboll Environ and leads the San Francisco Air Sciences and Climate Change Group. He has over 15 years’ experience in environmental science and engineering, with specialist expertise in air quality and climate change, human health risk assessment and product stewardship. He has advised clients from various industries, including ports and rail, quarries and mines, foundries and recyclers, chemical manufacturers and consumer products suppliers, in addition to property developers and local planning agencies. Michael has led the air quality and greenhouse gas analyses for entitlement of a number of San Francisco’s landmark waterfront projects, including Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Phase II, 34th America’s Cup and James R. Herman Cruise Terminal, Forest City’s Pier 70 and the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center. For the Warriors, Michael also led the effort to gain Leadership Project (AB900) designation from Governor Brown through a detailed climate change analysis showing no net additional greenhouse emissions. Michael is currently co-chair of Ramboll’s Liveable City initiative in the US, which aims to bring Ramboll’s proven track record of designing healthy, safe urban areas in which people can thrive, communities can grow, and the environment can flourish. The initiative draws on Ramboll’s complete and integrated service that combines urban development strategy, city planning, and world class technical expertise within transport, water and energy infrastructure, buildings, and urban landscaping. Since 1945, Ramboll has enabled sustainable development in the Nordic capital cities of Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki, which like San Francisco, are examples of waterfront cities that are dedicated to minimizing environmental impact and improving the lives of people while maintaining economic growth and social equality.

Shawn J. Zovod is a Partner in Lubin Olson’s Natural Resources, Land Use and Real Estate Practice Groups. She specializes in environmental and natural resources law and strategy, with an emphasis on Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Historic Preservation Act permitting, and the preparation of environmental documents under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Ms. Zovod represents local agencies, institutions, developers, energy companies, and other property owners in negotiations with federal and state regulators, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Office of Historic Preservation, and the Regional Water Quality Control Boards. She has extensive experience with Section 7 consultations under the Endangered Species Act, and in preparing and processing Habitat Conservation Plans, Safe Harbor Agreements, complex individual Clean Water Act permits, Nationwide Permit authorizations, Lake or Streambed Alteration Agreements, Special Area Management Plans, Historic Property Treatment Plans, NEPA and CEQA documents, conservation easements and mitigation funding agreements. Ms. Zovod has successfully represented clients throughout California and the western states in evaluating the suitability of properties for development, securing federal and state resource permits, implementing wetland and species permits and mitigation plans, and when necessary resolving violations and securing after-the-fact permits. She also acts as general counsel to a wetlands conservation organization. Prior to joining Lubin Olson, Ms. Zovod was Counsel at Ebbin Moser + Skaggs LLP and a member of the Environmental and Land Use practice group at Bingham McCutchen (formerly McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen). Throughout her career, Ms. Zovod has authored several articles regarding trends in land use and natural resources law, and she speaks regularly at professional conferences.