In the last couple years, Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation and Generation X as the largest share of the American workforce.
With this comes a growing demand to replenish the labor talent pool with this next generation of workers – Millennials.
Whether it’s working long hours, joining a trade association, attending networking events or educational programs, each person featured on this list demonstrates a dedication to the industry.
While they may be young, these aspiring CRE professionals aren’t wasting any time in making a name for themselves in the industry and at their respective companies.
Hungry, motivated and eager to learn and produce, these aren’t your typical Millennials. Despite being the younger half of the Millennial generation, the sky looks to be the limit for their careers based on what they’ve already accomplished in such a short time in the industry.
Patrick Anthon
Retail Associate at NAI Horizon
Age: 26
As one of four brokers on NAI Horizon’s “G.O.A.T. Team,” Anthon has a major role with both landlord and tenant representation in deals for the team, which is also the exclusive brokers for Planet Fitness’ expansion, totaling over $20 million worth of deals across the Valley. The “GOAT team” has a total of $45 million worth of transactions in 2017, including a $2.9 million lease for a Texas-based sports bar along Mill Avenue in Downtown Tempe that Anthon repped the tenant on.
Justin Beall
Superintendent at Layton Construction
Age: 29
After joining Layton in 2012 as a project engineer, Beall was promoted to superintendent a year ago and selected as a member of NAIOP’s Developing Leaders program. During that time, he’s overseen construction on a public works project for Maricopa County Clerk of Courts, tenant improvements at Rivulon and two phases of a masterplan hospitality project at Cibola Vista in Peoria.
James “Jimmy” Crawley
Associate, Multifamily Investment Sales at Marcus & Millichap
Age: 25
As a multi-faceted advisor and sales representative for multifamily communities in Southern Arizona, Crawley has transacted a total of 23 deals totaling $153 million since joining the firm in 2015. He’s also the pupil to Hamid Panahi, Cliff David and Steve Gebing at Marcus & Millichap, which as a collective team with Crawley, completed over $1.2 billion worth of deals in 2017.
Jaymee Geelan
Real Estate Attorney at Quarles & Brady
Age: 29
Geelan’s practice focuses on a variety of commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, leasing and real estate secured lending. Since relocating from the Midwest to Arizona and starting an active role in ULI, she has worked with institutional investors, local and national homebuilders, publically traded REITs and local retail developers on several high-profile deals both locally and nationally, including a number of large portfolio transactions.
Nicole Hanson
Associate Attorney, Real Estate, Financial Services,
Debt Finance at Squire Patton Boggs
Age: 28
Starting her career in New York City as a transactional commercial and corporate real estate attorney put Hanson at the forefront of the industry to help drive investments and ensure development ventures are able to come to fruition. She represents clients on all sides of real estate deals including acquisitions and dispositions, borrower and lender-side mortgage and mezzanine financing, refinancing, CMBS transactions, master-planned community and homebuilder developments, joint ventures and other transactions in Arizona and nationally.
Tim Hurley
Associate, Retail Brokerage at JLL
Age: 23
Hurley specializes in landlord and tenant representation for the Arizona retail market. He is responsible for developing and executing strategies, and assisting retailers in identifying and securing optimal locations to reach customers and drive value for their organization. In his first year at JLL, Hurley has successfully completed 11 retail deals, including the full lease-up of Hurley Plaza at the border of Downtown and Midtown. He is quickly growing a tenant representation client roster spanning requirements statewide.
Justin Kinsler
Project Engineer at Alexander Building Company
Age: 26
Assisting the project managers and superintendents on projects like a $7 million mixed-use project in Scottsdale called Main Street Place and The Vig at McDowell Mountain Ranch, Kinsler touches every part of a project from submittals to owner change orders and more. In addition to being selected to Valley Partnership’s Advocates program last year, Kinsler’s exemplarily work also earned him recognition from Owner Shane Alexander for helping expand the firm’s client base to include more than four school districts.
Jordan G. Kravitz
Associate and Sustainability Champion at HKS Inc.
Age: 28
A self-described “architectural explorer,” Kravitz holds certifications for AIA, NCARB, LEED Green Association and WELL AP, but still constantly challenges herself to discover new ideas, concepts and practices. With a focus on healthcare, sustainability and well-being, one of her recent noteworthy projects is the $418 million Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix emergency department and patient tower.
Sean Lieb
Associate at SRS Real Estate Partners
Age: 28
Specializing in the leasing and selling of retail, multi-tenant, mixed-use properties and land throughout Greater Phoenix, Lieb has worked with many notable national retailers such as Advanced Auto Parts, Burger King, Edward Jones, Jackson Hewitt, H&R Block, Orange Theory Fitness, Subway, Cheba Hut and more. Prior to joining SRS, he worked at Cushman & Wakefield where he generated over $17 million in lease and sales transaction volume in less than a two-year span. He’s also a member of ICSC and ULI.
Cole Malham
Business Development
at SiteWorks
Age: 26
From self-performing takeoffs to pricing out entire plan sets, Malham’s role is vital to ensuring both accuracy and profitability for several of the company’s high-profile landscaping contracts, including the Phoenix Rising FC Soccer Complex, ASU Sun Devil Stadium, UA Beardown Field in Tucson, various MLB Spring Training Facilities, West Valley Resort and Casino and several master-planned communities.
Chelsea McCaw
Planning/Landscape Designer
at EPS Group Inc.
Age: 27
From entitlements to construction documentation, McCaw’s involvement on a project takes many forms, but her strength is creating compelling narratives and graphics to convey project information on an emotional and practical level to municipalities and the public. In addition to her landscape architecture degree, McCaw is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ (ASLA) Arizona Chapter, 2017 Valley Partnership Advocates program and is working to earn her license as a Registered Landscape Architect and eventually a AICP licensed planner.
Cameron Miller
Senior Development Manager
at Evergreen Devco, Inc.
Age: 28
With a focus on retail, Miller’s daily role involves interfacing with municipalities to entitle and permit new ground-up developments in Arizona and Southern California, including hard and soft cost budgeting, site due diligence and construction management for numerous projects like Raising Cane’s, Starbucks and Smashburger. He’s also heavily involved in the industry overall through groups such as the ICSC Next Gen Planning Committee, ULI’s Partnership Forum and Valley Partnership.
Matthew Pickering
Associate at LevRose Commercial Real Estate
Age: 24
The office broker traded in a promising career in the food and beverage industry for a passion in real estate, which led him to obtain his license from the Arizona School of Real Estate and Business. Since then, Pickering has learned from and worked with some of the brightest mentors in the industry, including Barry Gabel of CBRE and Jon Rosenberg, managing partner at LevRose. He has closed 24-transactions year-to-date, totaling over 60,000 SF along with 300,000 SF of landlord representation.
Matthew Reeg
Traffic Engineer at
Southwest Traffic Engineering
Age: 29
After earning a civil engineering degree from ASU and working at the Arizona Department of Transportation, Reeg took what he learned about traffic engineering analysis and design services to the private sector. As a registered Professional Engineer in Arizona, member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), he’s constantly expanding his understanding of how a high-quality transportation system impacts a thriving economy.
Hannah Sanders
Age: 25
Business Development
at AME Landscape Companies
You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in the industry as fun and well-connected as Sanders, who is known for her bright and charismatic personality as well as her involvement with Valley Partnership, ULI, NAIOP and Arizona Builders Alliance. In addition to securing contracts for high-profile projects like Camelback Collective, Chauncey Lane Marketplace and Mesa Artspace Lofts, Sanders also coordinates and plans various events to connect others in the industry like the first-ever Golden Paddle Ping-Pong Tournament.
Massimo “Max” Sommacampagna
Founder of CIMA Holdings; CIMA Construction;DBA Sommacampagna Homes;
Somma Realty
Age: 25
By the age of 20, Sommacampagna discovered opportunities in small vacant parcels of land throughout the Valley and formed the companies: CIMA Holdings, Sommacampagna Homes, and Somma Realty, to execute on the full real estate cycle from acquisitions to construction to lease up. Since then, he already completed four successful ground-up developments in addition to graduating from the Arizona Small Business Association 2017 Emerging Leaders Program, co-chairing the ULI Young Leaders Group Programs Committee, and joining the City of Phoenix Rio Vista Village Planning Committee.
Robert Takahashi
Project Engineer
at Silver Fern Companies
Age: 25
High-profile project opportunities, a great mentor and exposure to all phases of both commercial and residential projects, from bidding and entitlements to budgeting, scheduling and daily construction management, helped Takahashi quickly grow his understanding of the industry and personal recognition, which earned him a spot in the 2017 Valley Partnership Advocates class. In addition to recent work at the Mesa master-plan community known as Cadence at Gateway, he’s also managing construction budgets and schedules for the Garden Condominiums, Recker Point and Peralta Canyon.
Andrew Veatch
Development Coordinator
at SimonCRE
Age: 25
As development coordinator, Veatch works with SimonCRE’s development team and its trade partners on multiple projects all across the U.S., from the entitlements through development, to ensure each project is delivered on time and on budget. In less than a year since joining the firm, he’s helped facilitate the completion of 40-plus projects, totaling roughly 500,000 SF and $90 million in construction costs. Outside of the office, he’s active within Developing Commercial Real Estate Professionals or “DCREP.”
Sean Westfall
Senior Associate, Investment Properties at Colliers International of Greater Phoenix
Age: 26
A year ago, he joined the investment property sales team led by Mindy Korth after originally starting his career as a medical office leasing broker. In his short tenure, Westfall has landed various large, national assignments including a $170 million portfolio of seven post-acute care hospitals in three western states. He’s also the lead broker for a national dental services organization with more than 300 existing units and a strong pipeline planned for future growth.
Brian C. Zurek
Associate at Transwestern
Age: 23
Beginning in 2016, Zurek successfully completed multiple office building dispositions and acquisitions, as well as personally transacting multiple leases for clients. Since joining the top-producing team of Jim Achen Jr. and Bill Zurek, he has also been involved in closing approximately $95 million worth of office transactions. Additionally, Zurek has made an impact on other young brokers by recently reinstating DCREP (Developing Commercial Real Estate Professionals) as its co-president, where he organizes sponsors for broker networking events.
