Page 38 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— March 16-April 5, 2016
Cindy Harvey, AIA,
joined
RNL
as an associate principal
and market lead for the archi-
tecture, design and planning
firm’s commercial practice.
She brings more than 20
years of experience to the role,
including
significant
work in mul-
tifamily and
mixed-use
projects.
Prior to
joining the
firm, Harvey
spent much
of her career
with Keph-
art, where
she was a principal and team
lead for the Urban Multi-
family Studio. Her work there
included high-density, urban
multifamily; mixed-use; transit-
oriented development; historic
rehabilitation; and resort prop-
erties. Her Colorado projects
included Kent Place Residenc-
es, The Logan, Two-Nine North
and Skye 2905.
She also is the creator and
director of CRASH, a creative
think tank for the exploration
of alternative delivery methods
and advancing concepts related
and connected to the future of
living.
Harvey is a graduate of the
University of Colorado, where
she earned both her bachelor’s
degree in environmental design
and her master’s degree in
architecture.
s
Mike Harms
joined
PCL
Construction’s
Denver opera-
tions as vice
president and
district man-
ager.
Harms will
oversee the
organiza-
tion’s build-
ing presence
in the Colo-
rado region.
He is a
30-year
construction veteran who has
spent the majority of his career
in the Colorado commercial
construction market. He joins
the company from the owner
representative firm Icon Venue
Group, where he served as
senior vice president and proj-
ect executive. Harms worked
on projects that include the
new Minnesota Vikings Sta-
dium, rehabilitation of Wrigley
Field and the new football sta-
dium at Colorado State Univer-
sity. His background includes
work in the health care, hospi-
tality, sports and entertainment,
higher education, aviation and
mountain resorts markets.
Harms graduated from the
University of Nebraska with a
Bachelor of Science in construc-
tion management and worked
for Mortenson and GE John-
son before joining Icon Venue
Group in 2013.
s
Mortenson Construction
added
Dave
Espinosa
and
Jen Riedl
to
the Denver
operating
group.
Espinosa
joined as
senior project
manager.
He has more
than 15 years
of experience
delivering complex commercial
building and infrastructure
projects. He joined the team
delivering the Halcyon Hotel
currently under construction in
Cherry Creek.
Riedl joined as senior busi-
ness devel-
opment
manager. She
has nearly
10 years of
experience in
commercial
design and
construction,
and her pri-
mary focus at
the firm will
be the continued development
of the corporate, office and hos-
pitality markets, in addition to
other responsibilities.
s
William Stow, LEED AP,
joined
CSHQA
as
an architect
in its Colo-
rado regional
office.
Stow brings
14 years of
professional
experience
to the firm
and will be
involved
with a variety of commercial
and retail projects.
He has worked on a variety
of retail, restaurant, office,
education and multifamily
residential projects throughout
Colorado and California.
Stow is actively involved in
master planning, feasibility,
programming, design develop-
ment, permitting, construction
documents, specifications and
construction administration.
Previous clients include the
Department of Veterans Affairs,
University of Colorado, Foot-
hill Baptist Church, Pacific
Dental, The Covenant Group,
Farmer Boys, Red Rocks Coun-
try Club, Kiewit Western, Mar-
athon Petroleum Corp., AMLI,
Corum Real Estate Group and
Wood Partners.
He completed his bachelor’s
degree in environmental design
from the University of Colo-
rado Boulder and his Master of
Architecture from the Univer-
sity of Colorado Denver.
The firm also announced
Timothy R. Higley, PMP, HCI-
R/C, Ted Isbell, AIA, HCI-R/C,
and
James G. Murray, AIA,
HCI-C,
all recently the passed
Cindy Harvey
Mike Harms
Dave Espinosa
Jen Riedl
William Stow
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Transwestern’s Denver office
market didn’t have an invest-
ment sales team until Brad
Cohen came along, and with
only six months in the indus-
try, he wasn’t the most likely
individual to create one.
Yet build a capital markets
platform he did. When mutual
clients suggested he meet
Larry Thiel, he did that too.
He is very glad he did.
Partners for the past six
years, Cohen and Thiel are
managing directors of Tran-
swestern’s Capital Markets
group. Both are committed to
adding value for clients.
“We are very passionate
about the deals we work on
and very passionate about our
client’s success when we sell
a property for someone. From
passion you get thorough-
ness,” Cohen said. “When
there’s a difficult negotiation,
we’re going to be there, side
by side with our client, to
make sure we get the best
possible solution for that cli-
ent out of the deal. We’re very
proud of that and believe peo-
ple who work with us would
say we’re 100 percent in their
corner with every facet of the
deal.”
“We have a granular focus
on our clients, constantly
working to add value to their
business, to make them more
profitable and more success-
ful,” added 44-year-old Thiel.
“We do the little things. We
get down in the trenches. It’s
blocking and tackling, to use a
football reference. That’s what
we do,” said the former Uni-
versity of Kansas linebacker.
“We’ve been really fortunate
to work for some great cli-
ents,” he added. Those include
DPC Development Co., LNR
Partners, Matrix Group, Skan-
lan Kemper Bard, Diversified
Investment Partners, Pruden-
tial Real Estate and others.
For Cohen, a Colorado
native with a Bachelor of Sci-
ence in business management
from the University of Colo-
rado, commercial real estate is
a second career. His first pro-
fession was teaching golf and
managing golf courses in the
Denver area.
“The golf business really
had a ceiling to your success
over a period of time, espe-
cially if you wanted to stay in
the Denver market,” he said.
In sort of a “Meet the Fockers”
moment, his father-in-law,
who was regional president
for commercial real estate firm
Carey-Winston in Bethesda,
Maryland, had Cohen fill out
a grueling personality profile.
It turned out commercial real
estate was a good fit, and 13
years ago he joined Transwest-
ern as a tenant representation
broker.
Thiel’s dad was in the golf
business and brought his fam-
ily to Denver to run what was
The International PGA golf
tournament. Thiel earned his
law degree at the University of
Denver and quickly decided
“no way” was lawyering in
his future.
“I chose to go into real
estate,” he said. “I felt like on
the broker side, meeting peo-
ple and trying to help them
realize their goals as owners
was something I wanted to
do.”
Thiel started in investment
sales at Marcus & Millichap
and worked at Grubb & Ellis
and SRS Real Estate Partners
before partnering with Cohen,
a Certified Commercial Invest-
ment Member, at Transwest-
ern in 2010.
Both had come off a very
challenging year for invest-
ment sales due to the recession
and had gotten “into the mix”
with bank-owned properties
and working with lenders. “It
was a time of confusion for
them and I think that really
gave us an opportunity to
go out and work on and sell
those deals,” Cohen said. “We
were really able to hit the
ground running as a team.”
In 2013, the team, which
includes financial analyst
Corinne Helms, completed
the largest office transaction
that had been done in the U.S.
in two years: the sale of a 6.2
million-square-foot portfolio
involving 23 properties in 18
states, including Colorado.
Cohen and Thiel said rela-
tionships with sellers and
buyers, and the inherent, ever-
changing challenges are what
make commercial real estate
enjoyable.
“It is about the relationship
with both the buyer and seller
that is always such a great
part of this job,” said Cohen.
One of the reasons he got out
of the golf business was the
game plan changed little from
year to year.
“In real estate the unknowns
are what make this job so
much fun,” he said. “The
unknowns of the deal, the
curve balls that get thrown at
you, and how you’re going to
handle them and make that
deal work is really a fascinat-
ing, enjoyable part of this, and
it changes every single day,”
he said.
“For me, this business is
about relationships. I believe
working hard to build trust,
deliver results and add value
is the most exciting and
rewarding part of this busi-
ness,” added Thiel.
One of the biggest changes
they’ve witnessed so far in
their careers is the stature
Denver has achieved among
institutional investors. “In the
13 years I’ve been in the busi-
ness, Denver has gone from a
city that was a regional look-at
to an internationally known
city,” said Cohen.
Competitive individually,
Cohen, 42, and Thiel are stron-
ger as a team. When he under-
went surgery last year, “My
team completely and totally
had my back during that
time,” Cohen said. “That’s just
an incredible feeling to know
you’re part of something like
that.”
Outside the office, they
enjoy spending time with their
families. Thiel and his wife,
Hailey, have an 18-month-old
daughter, Annabelle. Cohen
and wife Kelly have two girls,
Samantha, 11, and Lilie, 7.
Thiel also likes to fly-fish
and snowboard, while Cohen
is more musically inclined,
playing the drums. Both love
to golf and often can be found
on the course together or with
clients.
They believe having built
the investment sales business
at Transwestern gives them a
leg up on the competition.
“We have an analytical
approach to our business.
We’ve automated a lot of the
systems, the day-to-day things
that we do, so we can spend
time doing what is going to
make our client the most pos-
sible money when they sell a
deal. We have have a system
in place where we can oper-
ate like a 15-person team
when it’s a four-person team,”
Cohen said.
“We are quality over volume
every time. If we can’t do it
100 percent right, we’re not
going to do it,” he added.
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Profile
Brad Cohen
Larry Thiel
