Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Shea Properties is diving headlong into mixed use, assembling a team of executives with the experience to make the company a prominent players.
Forest City Enterprises' former chief, Colm Macken, has replaced W. William Gaboury, who retired after 21 years at the firm's helm. As Forest City president and CEO, Macken was involved in developing mixed-use projects throughout California and Colorado.
Kirk Roloff, the former executive at Irvine, Calif.-based Archstone-Smith who negotiated the acquisition of Del Mar Station, a transit-oriented development (TOD) at the head of the region's new Gold Line in Pasadena, Calif., also joined Shea as senior vice president of acquisitions and development.
Additionally, the firm picked up the former president of San Diego-based Sedona Pacific Corp., Greg Shannon, mastermind behind the redevelopment of the Padres Ballpark District, to head operations at the firm's new San Diego office, and David Newsome, former vice president of development for California retail developer/owner Westrust, to lead Shea's expansion into Ventura County, Calif.
Shea also inherited Peter Culshaw, former president of Denver Technological Center/Meridian, when the firm last month acquired DTC's assets, including 900 acres with nearly 11 million square feet of office and retail space and 3,500 residential units.
“Shea already has the capability to do mixed use” says Macken, pointing out that the firm is best known for its residential and retail developments, albeit separately. “From a strategic perspective, the people taken onboard recently are experienced in mixed use, and that will be the focus of the company going forward,” he continues, noting that everything in Shea's pipeline involves a mix of uses.
“Shea Properties' expanded presence in Colorado presented us with an opportunity to add to our team an executive with vast commercial experience to maximize this collaboration process, and leverage these strengths,” Mack says.
Mixed use is not new to Shea, which built two projects in Northern California and is constructing TRIO, a $70-million luxury apartment community in Pasadena, Calif.'s Playhouse District that will have 304 residential units and 14,600 square feet of retail space. But the beefed-up emphasis illustrated by the new hires and the unification of Shea Homes and Shea Properties.