PHOENIX, ARIZ. (Dec. 20, 2022) – NAIOP Arizona’s Developing Leaders Young Professionals Group (YPG) mentorship program closed out its 11th year with the annual team competition and graduation of 25 protégés.
Mentors and protégés of the 2022 class gathered on Dec. 7 at The Henry for a reception, presentations, and dinner. The 25 protégés, grouped into five teams, each pitched a development proposal for a site located in an Opportunity Zone at 48th Street and Washington near Phoenix Sky-Harbor International Airport to a potential equity partner.
As part of their equity partner’s review of the development proposals, presentations were judged by the projects’ ability to provide the highest and best use of the site while generating a positive yet realistic projected return on investment.
Chris Beall with JLL and Alex Boles with ViaWest Group served as 2022 program chairs.
“This year’s group was a special combination of young professionals who received a crash course in due diligence, underwriting, and development. The YPG program offers a unique opportunity for each participant to grow, learn, and, most importantly, network with other driven young professionals who are hoping to increase their understanding of the industry,” Boles said.
The 2022 winner, Crosswind Logistics, is a two-wing industrial park. Team members included Alex Briestensky, ViaWest Group; Sid Carrell, Layton Construction; Mark Dorsey, Cushman & Wakefield; Lauren Lovell, CBRE, and Ryan Short, Cotton Architecture + Design. The team was led by mentor Collin Weisenburger of Trammell Crow Company.
“As a mentor for the 2022 YPG class, I was able to benefit from the program as much as the participants,” Weisenburger said. “Each team provided creative solutions to develop the site. It was great to see the participants use real-world data to inform their proforma.”
Additional mentors for this year’s class were Derek Flottum, The Opus Group; Dave Krumwiede, Lincoln Property Company; Steven Schwarz, ViaWest Group and Josef Pappas, Sunbelt Holdings.
“I know I speak for my group when I say that the NAIOP YPG program was an incredible learning experience,” Lovell, an associate at CBRE, said. “So many factors contributed to the complexity of the project. The fact that our site was located in an Opportunity Zone – the easements and soil remediation needed at this particular site, the rise in construction costs, and the instability of the debt market – all of these real-world factors helped us better to understand the development process as a whole in real-time.”
Other program graduates included:
Team Krumwiede: Molly Ahrens, Adolfson & Peterson Construction; Tim Kempton, CBRE; Drew Kiel, SPS+ Architects; Joe Pierson, Lincoln Property Company; and Sydney Setnar, JLL
Team Flottum: Drew Butler, Willmeng; Jarrod Howard, JLL; Sam Jones, Colliers International; Taylor Rice, Butler Design Group; and Spencer Wood, Enterprise Bank & Trust.
Team Schwarz: Molly Hunt, Cushman & Wakefield; Colter Kilgour, George Oliver; Samara Miller, Kimley-Horn; Brian Silverstein, CLAYCO; and Hayden Thomson, FirstBank.
Team Pappas: Jonathan Jaggard, Fundamental Income; Ryan Lehane, Hines; Connie Nelson, CBRE; Nick Whitehouse, Lee & Associates Arizona; and David Wilson, Corgan.
The NAIOP Arizona Developing Leaders Young Professionals Group class of 2022.
About NAIOP
NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, is the leading organization for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate. NAIOP comprises 20,000 members in North America. The Arizona Chapter is among the largest in the bi-national network with over 1,000 members. NAIOP advances responsible commercial real estate development and advocates for effective public policy. For more information, visit naiop.org or naiopaz.org.
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