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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— November 19-December 2, 2014
Chris Wiedenmayer
joined
Legend Investment Group,
the new investment arm of
Legend Retail Group.
Wiedenmayer, who most
recently was an investment
adviser at Marcus & Millichap,
will head the group that will
enable clients of Legend Retail
Group, which specializes in
the representation of retail ten-
ants and landlords, to sell their
properties following lease-up
efforts by the firm.
Widenmayer has specialized
in the acquisition and disposi-
tion of multitenant and single-
tenant, net-leased retail assets
in Colorado and the Western
United States for the past 18
years. He has been involved
in more than $100 million
worth of investment real estate
transactions in Colorado,
California, Florida and Ari-
zona. At Marcus & Millichap,
he focused on multitenant
and single-tenant investment
properties.
s
David Egeland
joined
The
Laramar
Group
as
vice presi-
dent of mar-
keting.
Egeland
comes to
Laramar
from Gen-
eral Growth
Proper-
ties, where
he spent 14 years in several
senior marketing positions.
During his 27-year career,
Egeland also has worked as a
brand director at Sears Roe-
buck and Co., senior brand
manager at Kraft Foods, media
supervisor for Leo Burnett
advertising and roles at GGP,
including vice president of
marketing-Western region.
Egeland holds a Bachelor of
Science degree in communica-
tions from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and a Master of Business
Administration from the Kel-
logg School of Management at
Northwestern University.
s
Hillary Ellis
joined
Kutak
Rock LLP’s
real estate and
commercial group.
She will specifically assist
with complex commercial
real estate matters, includ-
ing acquisition, disposition of
commercial properties, and
development and leasing of
retail, office and industrial
properties.
Ellis graduated with her
Juris Doctor from the Univer-
sity of Denver Sturm College
of Law and her bachelor’s
degree from the University of
Vermont.
s
Brandy E. Natalzia
joined
Otis, Bedingfield & Peters
LLC.
Her practice at the firm will
focus on real estate and busi-
ness transactions, including
the preparation, review and
negotiation of contracts and
entity formation.
Natalzia relocated to North-
ern Colorado from Florida,
where she
was a judi-
cial intern,
an associ-
ate attorney
with a small
law firm in
Jacksonville,
Florida, and
worked as a
legal project
manager.
Prior to law school, she
worked for a national home-
builder for which she pre-
pared and implemented a
training program for new
home sales and dealt exclusive-
ly with contract preparation
and negotiation.
Natalzia graduated cum
laude from the University of
North Florida with a Bachelor
of Arts degree in communica-
tion. She earned her law degree
from Florida Coastal School of
Law.
s
Phil Walker
was named
director of business develop-
ment of
Opus Design Build
LLC’s
Denver office.
In this new role, Walker will
build relationships with clients,
consultants and industry stake-
holders in the Denver market,
supporting the organization’s
business development strategy.
With more than 25 years of
experience in business develop-
ment in the construction indus-
try, Walker comes to Opus from
Foothills Commercial Builders,
where he was director of busi-
ness development. Other previ-
ous professional experiences
include business development
roles at Apishapa Renewables
LLC, Playtime LLC and Allied
Floor Services Inc.
Walker earned a Bach-
elor of Science in mass com-
munications from Bradley
University.
s
Andy Smith
joined
Chrisland
Commercial Real Estate Inc.
as an adviser.
In this role, Smith will serve
clients in
a licensed
brokerage
capacity and
help them
navigate
challenges
related to
entitlement,
design and
due dili-
gence.
Smith recently served an
eight-year term on the city of
Fort Collins Planning & Zoning
Board, including the last two as
chairman.
Prior to joining Chrisland,
Smith worked in private enter-
prise roles that included com-
mercial banking, turnaround
business consulting, the launch
of a successful Internet technol-
ogy venture and chief finan-
cial officer of an e-commerce
company. Additionally, Smith
worked in the public sector as
a downtown redevelopment
planner and also as an econom-
ic analyst.
Smith graduated from Colo-
rado State University with a
degree in economics.
s
Mej Ellsworth,
senior
commercial escrow officer/
underwriter with First Ameri-
can Title Insurance NCS, was
named the 2014 Iconic Woman
at the
Commercial Real Estate
Women Denver
annual
Woman of Influence Awards
Gala.
She is a top producer for
First American and an active
mentor and community vol-
unteer.
CREW Denver also named
Karla Nugent,
chief busi-
ness development officer and
founding member of Weifield
Group Contracting, as the 2014
Emerging Iconic Woman.
s
Stephen B. Sanders
is the
newest addition to
Fidelity
National Title’s National
Commercial Services
division.
He joins the firm as senior
vice president.
Sanders has 30 years’ experi-
ence, including commercial
title experience as a foreclo-
sure trustee,
real estate
industrial
development
manager, real
estate para-
legal and
title plant
manager. He
will facilitate
commercial
title and
escrow transactions for apart-
ment, retail, industrial, office
and other industry sectors
across the nation.
s
David Egeland
Andy Smith
Brandy E. Natalzia
Stephen B. Sanders
Joblon liked it, especially since
the ‘70s product he had been
buying were getting insanely
expensive.
“I’ve walked away from
hundreds of deals,” he said,
because the numbers didn’t
pencil out.
There was also a lot of com-
petition for the Cherry Creek
North site.
“There were 40-plus bidders
for it,” he said.
Still, he wasn’t initially sold
on developing it himself.
“We looked at it from every
angle,” Joblon said.
With his background in Los
Angeles, he figured he could
clean up the zoning deficiencies
and other problems with the
site.
He also calculated that if
worse came to worst, they
could sell the land and return
the money to his investors.
Or they could bring in a fee
developer or sell it outright to a
developer.
“There were a lot of options,”
he said.
“Then, in 2012 and 2013,
the market really started to go
nuts,” he said.
“We realized it would make
sense to do it ourselves,” he
said.
While there were plenty of
banks and insurance companies
willing to supply debt, there
was a dearth of equity inves-
tors.
His investor pool had agreed
to put in $10 million, but they
needed double that amount to
get a loan.
Because of his lack of a track
record in development, inves-
tor after investor turned him
down.
“Equity investors want to
know what you’ve done before
and I hadn’t built anything
before,” Joblon said.
They also were spooked that
no apartment tower in Denver
had ever cost north of $400,000
per door to build and no one
was getting the rental rates they
were projecting, he said.
He hired CBRE of Los Ange-
les, which put together a slick,
detailed 114-page report on the
potential of the property.
CBRE pitched it across the
country and throughout the
world.
Ironically, the money ended
up coming from Joblon’s back-
yard.
UDR, a real estate invest-
ment trust based in Highlands
Ranch, stepped up to the plate.
Thomas Toomey, CEO of the
$7.7 billion market cap REIT,
in a recent conference call with
analysts said that UDR had
issued about $100 million in
equity, which primarily will be
used to fund its “accretive $92
million Steele Creek participat-
ing loan.”
Joblon said UDR understood
the dynamics of Cherry Creek
North better than others from
outside of the area.
“UDR has been a great part-
ner,” Joblon said. “I would
gladly do a thousand deals
with them.”
Joblon said two economic
fundamentals are key to all of
his investments.
The first is the power of com-
pounding.
“Everyone has heard of Don-
ald Sterling,” who was forced
to sell the L.A. Clippers basket-
ball team after making racist
comments.
“He bought the team in 1981
for $12.5 million and sold it this
year for $2 billion,” he said.
“That’s a 16,000 percent
return, or about 16 percent each
year. It really shows you how
powerful compounding is.
That’s how people get rich – by
earning 13 percent or 14 per-
cent or 15 percent each year.”
The other lesson is that if you
lose 50 percent of your invest-
ment “you have to make 100
percent just to return to where
you started.”
Before he came to Denver, he
saw investors who were over-
leveraged get hammered dur-
ing the national downturn.
“I hated what it did to peo-
ple’s lives but it was a great les-
son for me,” Joblon said.
“If you walk around our
office, you will never hear peo-
ple talk about what a killing we
will make, or how much money
we will make. You will hear
people ask about what are the
risks, what are the downsides,
how can we get screwed?”
Every investment Joblon
makes is based on risk-adjusted
returns.
He underwrites everything
conservatively, based on cur-
rent incomes with inflation
adjustments not on big rent
increases that would jack up
internal rates of return and net
operating income projections.
Projections on rent increases,
he notes, can always be wrong.
But he applauds those who
take the kind of risks he did
when creating BMC.
“I just spoke to an entrepre-
neurial class at DU,” Joblon
said.
“I did it because the idea of
starting up a business really
excites me. I told the class that
I am no different from you. My
dad didn’t help me. He would
have, but he didn’t know any-
body in real estate. He only
knows people in his little textile
world. He didn’t give me any
money; I was on my own.”
If Joblon isn’t working, he
knows how he wants to spend
his time.
“I work a lot, so what little
free time I have I really want to
spend with my wife and two
baby girls,” he said.
He also likes to hit the ski
slopes.
“I learned to ski on the icy
slopes of the Northeast, so the
worst day here is better than
the best day there,” Joblon said.
He also likes to read, but not
novels.
“I can’t read fiction,” he said.
Instead, he likes to read
everything he can on business,
from real estate publications to
biographies of business people.
“I love a good story,” Joblon
said.
One of his favorite books
is Zeckendorf, about the life
of New York City real estate
developer William Zeckendorf.
Zeckendorf lost much of his
fortune by developing Zecken-
dorf Plaza along what is now
the 16th Street Mall, at Tremont
Place and the mall.
Zeckendorf Plaza has been
described as the first major
development in the U.S. to
incorporate a hotel (Hilton), a
department store (May D&F)
and a plaza.
“It’s interesting that Zeck-
endorf’s grandchildren are in
the real estate business, but
they won’t do highly leveraged
deals because of what hap-
pened to their grandfather,”
Joblon said.
Going forward, Joblon said
he will always be looking for
opportunities as they arise,
which is why he is doing a
hotel on the former U.S. Post
Office site in Cherry Creek
North and a medical office
complex by Fitzsimons.
“I know what I don’t know,”
Joblon said. “The hotel indus-
try is unbelievably complex,
so I’ve teamed up with Walter
Isenberg of Sage Hospitality on
a truly trophy site. And if you
look at everything that is hap-
pening at Fitzsimons, that is
just an unbelievable market for
medical office buildings.”
Joblon plays down the fact
that he bought almost 3,500
apartment units in just a few
years.
“Honestly, we should have
bought 10,000 units,” Joblon
said. “I didn’t have the right
people in place, so I was doing
everything myself.”
That has changed, he said.
“I am now surrounded by
great people,” he said. “It all
comes down to people, people,
people.”
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