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Southern California is one of the most active regions of the nation when it comes to commercial real estate. Be it leasing or investment, operations or advising, the CRE professionals in the area have their hands full. The active market is also providing the perfect platform for young women and men who have entered this industry in recent years. Real Estate Forum has scoured the market to identify 20 rising stars who are on track to take leadership positions in the next phase of the commercial real estate business in Southern California.

David Alvarado, 35
Partner
Elkins Kalt Weintraub Reuben Gartside LLP
Los Angeles

Alvarado often says that his value as a transactional real estate attorney at Elkins Kalt Weintraub Reuben Gartside lies in helping clients capitalize on opportunity. Colleagues claim Alvarado “has a unique ability to cut to the heart of a deal, to find opportunities that are not readily apparent and to overcome challenges.” The attorney's current responsibilities include business development, representing the firm in trade organizations, managing client transactions, training and mentoring associates, and recruiting new talent. As one of the highest business-originating attorneys in the firm, he works to garner further brand recognition for the firm and for his practice. His notable accomplishments since 2014 include representing owner/operators in connection with the acquisition of over $300 million of commercial property, including two regional malls, retail pad sites, industrial parks and an office building.

Heather Border, 31
Managing Director
National Real Estate Advisors
Costa Mesa

Border began her career in commercial real estate while working in the banking and lending sector. While managing several state and city pension fund portfolios during the economic downturn in 2009, Border realized the inherit risk her clients were assuming in the real estate space and wanted to make a difference going forward. As the managing director for National Real Estate Advisors, which oversees more than $7.5 billion in AUM for its pension fund investors, Border's responsibilities include overseeing relationships with institutional investors across the US and abroad. Border also aids in the creation of new investment products, presentation materials and manages the investor relations team. Border, says a colleague, is “committed to providing risk-adjusted returns to her clients on a long-term basis with a fiduciary mindset in place at all times.”

Steven Gabbert, 33
Director of Sustainability
Snyder Langston
Irvine

As the director of sustainability at local builder Snyder Langston, Gabbert landed the job after many years of passionately championing the firm's sustainability efforts while working as a project manager in the company's operations group. The 10-plus-year veteran of the firm oversees corporate sustainability as well as all project work from a sustainability lens. As a result of his work, the firm has received numerous kudos, including being the first West Coast firm to receive full certification from the Sustainable Performance Institute's Green Firm Certification program. In addition, last year, the Urban Land Institute awarded Snyder Langston's sustainability initiative a Best of the Best in sustainability award for Organizational Leadership. Also in 2014, the builder was awarded the 2014 Eco Award for being the “most sustainable contractor” from the US Green Building Council of Orange County.

Seth Grossman, 34
Managing Director
Meridian Capital Group LLC
Carlsbad

In 2011, Grossman moved from New York to California to open a San Diego office for Meridian Capital Group—even though he had no existing contacts or clients. Four years later, his office, which now includes five other employees, has originated, placed and closed in excess of $1.6 billion of commercial mortgage debt and equity financing for new clients, including more than 50 loans totaling $775 million. His team is responsible for bringing in new clients and servicing its existing ones, maintaining lender relationships and placing, negotiating and closing loans for stable, transitional and construction projects ranging from $1 million to $150 million. Significant transactions Grossman has handled include a $150-million multifamily portfolio in Arizona, a $114-million mixed-use development in Los Angeles, a $90-million multifamily portfolio in Orange County and an $85-million hotel repositioning portfolio across four states.

Spencer Hull, 33
Senior Vice President
Coldwell Banker Commercial Sudweeks Group
Temecula

As a senior vice president at Coldwell Banker Commercial Sudweeks in Temecula, Hull conducts brokerage tasks pertaining to his office and industrial specialties. From a young age, he was interested in pursuing a career in the field, and before joining Coldwell Banker, he was instrumental in providing commercial real estate brokerage services to a large number of clients at Lazar & Associates. Consistently, Hull is cited by others as someone who is enjoyable to work with, and his notable clients include IEHP, Granum Partners, Loma Linda University, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools and ESRI. In addition, Hull cultivates his brand by actively seeking opportunities to participate in radio programs, news articles and speaking engagements, aiming to establish himself and partner Rick Lazar as experts in the region.

Nicholas Ilagan, 34
Managing Director
SVN | Rooted Commercial
Irvine

Colleagues routinely call Ilagan a visionary in his field. He has always had a passion for real estate, beginning with his family being active investors in the residential market. His passion for small business and entrepreneurship coming out of college led him to the commercial real estate market and filled his passion for both. With 15 years in the field, he has recently served as the national director of property management for Sperry Van Ness International Corp. His values as they relate to doing business revolve around technology, transparency and communication with his clients. Currently the managing director of the Southern California office, he provides property and asset management services solely to local real estate investment companies. Often meeting with at least five people from various disciplines within the industry per day, he continually looks to build new relationships and foster current ones.

Mitchell Laufer, 31
Associate
Goodwin Procter LLP
Los Angeles

Before he turned 30, Laufer had closed more than 200 commercial real estate deals. With an expertise in debt and equity financings, acquisitions and dispositions, and joint venture structuring, he also has significant experience in the hospitality space, including negotiating hotel management agreements, franchise agreements and technical services agreements. Remarkably, Laufer has developed a “comprehensive understanding of the complex legal and business issues surrounding real estate transactions and is able to guide his clients to arrive at fair and appropriate solutions and incorporate them into the drafting and negotiating of key transaction documents,” says a colleague, despite having only worked in the field for four years. To that end, Laufer feels strongly that networking is the key to success—from the standpoint of opening up to new opportunities and allowing himself to learn from the attorneys, clients and other professionals that he meets.

Kyle Matthews, 32
Executive Vice President
Colliers International | Matthews Retail Group
El Segundo

Matthews was ranked the No. 1 real estate investment professional at Colliers International across all product types and service lines last year. He has built a very large team and has successfully performed for 13 of the 20 largest retail-focused institutional owners in the United States. In just three years at his current position as executive vice president of the Matthews Retail Group at Colliers, he has grown his team to 16 agents, a support staff of 10 and four interns, and he has no plans to slow down. With a year-over-year growth rate of over 175%, he plans to grow even more each year. In 2014, he sold over 115 transactions totaling over $280 million and more than 1.9 million square feet.

Kevin Miller, 33
Co-President & CEO
Thorofare Capital Inc.
Los Angeles

Miller is founder of Thorofare Capital, a private equity debt fund manager that provides short-term bridge financing to opportunistic and value-add commercial real estate properties. As co-president and CEO, he's helped to grow the firm into a mortgage lender that has originated almost 100 transactions nationwide totaling over $445 million. Thorofare's funds now serve over 300 limited partners. Last year, the firm's most notable deal was for $28 million on a seven-property multifamily portfolio in Brooklyn that was sourced and closed within five business days. As a result, the volume and size of Thorofare's loans have continued to increase and point to steady signs of growth for the future. Colleagues say Miller was drawn to commercial real estate due to its fast-paced, profit-driven environment. In addition, the nature of Thorofare's quick-to-close bridge loans adds a level of excitement.

Victoria Miller, 29
Property Manager
Passco Cos. LLC
Irvine

An integral part of the management of more than $250 million in retail properties nationwide, Miller has established herself as a highly respected property manager overseeing Passco's entire retail portfolio. Despite facing a recent bout with cancer, she has continued to excel in her career, spearheading the management of a portfolio encompassing more than a million square feet nationwide. Today, Miller is cancer-free, and she continues to serve as a role model to others in the industry. Recently, Miller raised one of Passco Cos.' most notable properties in Arizona above the debt service ratio by filling all five vacancies in a short period of time. The property is now generating a positive cash flow to Passco's investors.

Mathew Mousavi, 30
Senior Managing Director
Faris Lee Investments
Irvine

Mousavi has completed more than $2.4 billion in retail property transactions over his career. So it's little surprise that at 30, he's the youngest senior managing director in Faris Lee Investments' 20-year history. Colleages say Mousavi has achieved such success at a young age due to his work ethic, drive and focus. He also has a passion for what he does, and started at Faris Lee as an intern, then became an analyst, before becoming an investment advisor. Last year, he completed 76 transactions in over 36 states, and currently has over 40 individual properties on the market, representing some of the largest REITs in the country, along with prominent developers and owners of retail real estate. During his tenure at Faris Lee, he has completed over $2.4 billion in retail property transactions.

Grant Newman, 32
Executive Director
LA Realty Partners
Los Angeles

As executive director of LA Realty Partners, Newman aims to “amplify value and mitigate risk in his job.” It's a simple goal, and it's one that's served him well. With areas of expertise including new business development, strategic planning and consulting, and client-specific market analysis, Newman excels at site selection, financial analysis and transaction negotiation. His notable career accomplishments include larger transactions such as Activision (200,000 square feet), Guthy-Renker (95,000 square feet), Entravision (50,000 square feet), Sony (100,000 square feet), Verizon's land site (a $70-million land sale in Santa Monica) and Variety (60,000 square feet). Newman has family roots in real estate and pledged from day one to play a key role in shaping the landscape of Los Angeles and to continue saving his clients valuable capital and grow their businesses.

Tim Olson, 34
Senior Vice President
JLL
San Diego

During his 11-year-career, Olson has marketed office, industrial, R&D and biotechnology properties and has also worked on the tenant side, heading up numerous corporate tenant representation projects. As a result of his experience and reputation, he has represented some of the biggest names in San Diego commercial real estate, including Kilroy Realty, AIG, LBA Realty, Beacon Capital and Legacy Partners. As senior vice president at JLL, he is an integral part of the agency (landlord) leasing team. Through strategy, marketing and deal negotiation, he has worked with over five million square feet of office properties throughout San Diego. For the properties he represents, Olson develops marketing plans that leverage multiple platforms, appropriate technologies and best practices to drive tenant interest. As a result, he has completed more than 2.9 million square feet of sale and lease transactions with a value exceeding $650 million.

Ryan Patel, 32
Vice President, Global Development
Pinkberry
Santa Monica

As vice president for global development at Pinkberry, Patel oversees all international and domestic real estate/store growth, business development and non-traditional development/operations teams. Since joining the company in 2011, he has seen the company go from less than 95 locations to over 260 stores in 21 countries. Prior to Pinkberry, he worked for Wet Seal Retail Inc. (Arden B and West Seal), Jamba Juice, BJ's Restaurants Inc. and Panda Express. While working for a wide range of brands, he has developed a unique and diverse view of the changing nature of trends impacting retail. Colleagues say he loves building and growing brands. His aim is to continue empower and build a great team. In addition, Patel maintains an active speaking and engagement schedule.

Greg Pieratt, 34
Principal
Lee & Associates
Carlsbad

Developing a reputation for consistency, Pieratt has been the top-producing agent for Lee & Associates throughout the San Diego County for two of the past three years. As a principal, he's become a leader within the firm, designing the training program used today and personally mentoring four agents in the last three years. A tenant representation specialist focused on providing an exceptional level of consultancy style service to the companies he works with, his responsibilities include evaluating the unique real estate needs of businesses, establishing long-term real estate plans, touring property and negotiating leases and purchases, assisting in tenant improvement project management, lease auditing and administration and relocation services. Associates say he loves the art of the deal and the analysis that goes into prudent decision making with each commercial transaction.

Carle Pierose, 33
Partner
Industry Partners
Los Angeles

Pierose was an early champion of the movement toward creative work environments. In 2009, he co-founded and became principal of Creative Space, the first brokerage east of the I-405 to exclusively specialize in the product type. Pierose joined Industry Partners in 2012 to open the firm's Downtown Los Angeles office and has been at the forefront of the city center's revitalization. Today, he oversees approximately five million square feet of creative office buidlings for lease or conversion. Among his notable accomplishments was the conversion, repositioning and leasing of the PacMutual campus in Downtown Los Angeles, an approximately 450,000-square-foot project that was previously 50% occupied and achieving $1.70 per square foot in rents. Over the last two years, he has completed in excess of 80 lease transactions at the building alone, bringing the occupancy to over 90% and rents to $3.65 per square foot.

Luke Raimondo, 35
Corporate Managing Director
Savills Studley
Los Angeles

Prior to joining Savills Studley in Los Angeles as corporate managing director last year, Raimondo worked for a national tenant representation firm and was a co-founder of his own brokerage company. And before entering the brokerage industry, Raimondo was a real estate attorney with a boutique Los Angeles law firm. Having made an immediate impact during his first year with Savills Studley, he earned the right to attend the Savills Studley 2015 Winter Trip, an annual event for the firm's top producers and senior executives. Based in the firm's downtown Los Angeles office, he has successfully negotiated and managed transactions for major clients in the legal, financial services, banking and creative industries across the United States, executing transactions totaling two million square feet and valued at over $1 billion. Raimondo's team has a particular expertise with law firms and has led over 50 law firm transactions across the western US. He is an expert in law firm trends and has been published in various publications.

Julie Schoenbachler, 34
Senior Vice President, Operations
Bascom Group
Irvine

Schoenbachler is the first and only female leading principal at Bascom in Irvine. Throughout her 12 years at the real estate investment firm, she has served in various roles. Throughout her tenure, the portfolio she's overseen has been as large as 34% of the company's holdings, with equivalent investment basis as high as $740 million (2011/2012), and maxed at $983 million (2010). Her future goals include maintaining a strong presence in the highly male-dominant company and industry. She also aims to continue to learn and expand her knowledge of the real estate industry through seminars and courses.

Christopher Wei, 24
Acquisitions Manager
TruAmerica Multifamily
Los Angeles

Wei started his career three years ago, serving for the past year as an acquisitions manager at TruAmerica Multifamily. With a “uniquely broad perspective,” he has experience with the secondary market (JPMorgan MBS), institutional lending (Freddie Mac Multifamily) and now principal investing (TruAmerica Multifamily). Wei was among the few selected out of thousands of applicants for JPMorgan Securities' summer analyst class in 2011 and joined Freddie Mac Multifamily out of college, where he was deeply involved in the origination of over $1 billion of commercial loans (and was promoted within a year). He then joined TruAmerica Multifamily as an analyst on the acquisitions team before being promoted after a only nine months. His track record is exemplified in the growth trajectory he's undergone in a such condensed amount of time.

Erik Westedt, 35
Vice President
CBRE
Los Angeles

Over his career, Westedt has completed retail sales and lease transactions with total consideration in excess of $1 billion. Currently, he specializes in retail development, redevelopment, strategic planning and consulting services for owners, retailers and municipalities. In addition to Southern California, he's recently elected to focus on the burgeoning Downtown L.A. retail scene. Westedt and his team have channeled their considerable experience and proven intuition to help shape and inspire the Downtown L.A. renaissance. He is hard at work on game-changing projects such as the BLOC, Metropolis, USC Village and Apex, and others throughout Southern California.