Keith Earnest
Keith Earnest

VanTrust Real Estate, LLC announced Wednesday that Keith Earnest has joined the firm as its executive vice president and market leader to grow and manage the local VanTrust real estate portfolio.

Prior to joining VanTrust, Earnest spent nine years with RED Development as executive vice president of development. While at RED his resume included the development of the 565,000 square foot CityScape office building and the 224 unit Residences at CityScape. Prior to RED, Earnest was vice president of development for Opus West Corporation for 11 years. His resume at Opus included the development of Collier Center, Scottsdale Spectrum, Discount Tire’s corporate headquarters, and over 500,000 square feet on the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Reservation.

“I’m truly thrilled and eager about joining the VanTrust culture and growing the Phoenix office,” says Keith Earnest. “After assessing the market and recession recovery, the timing is right to find opportunities and grow responsibly.”

“VanTrust Real Estate focuses on a wide-spectrum of real estate opportunities where Keith’s extensive experience developing office, residential and retail real estate will play an integral role. We see Arizona as a key expansion market for our company and look forward to completing the Village at Aspen Place in Flagstaff and with Keith’s leadership, finding new development opportunities across the state”, said Dave Harrison, President of VanTrust Real Estate.

While VanTrust is not new to the Phoenix area, a new office opened in Phoenix this week, located at 2525 East Camelback Road, Suite 880, Phoenix, Arizona 85016. John Orsak, Senior Director of Development, and Jamie Heusser, Executive Assistant, will accompany Earnest at this new office location.