Head Of Real Estate Investments & Asset Management

About Urban Villages

We are village builders. We imagine, build, and activate the most extraordinary neighborhoods and transform today’s urban centers into tomorrow’s livable and vibrant villages.

As a team of entrepreneurs, environmentalists, artists, developers, builders, and investors, we work at the district level to bring nature back into our cities and give those places an artistic soul.

Urban Villages has acquired, developed, and managed over $3 billion in transformative mixed-use real estate assets in multiple markets. Our portfolio of projects includes the largest net-zero energy housing project in the US (West Village), the revitalization of Denver’s original main street (Larimer Square), the first carbon-positive hotel in the US (Populus), and one of the largest adaptive reuse LEED Platinum development in the country (RailSpur). 

Our projects are among the most environmentally transformative, socially responsible, and financially sustainable developments seen in the industry today.

Strategic market opportunities, combined with a robust existing development pipeline, has provided the opportunity to expand our capital partnerships. We are seeking new investor partners to join our existing investment group and expand our real estate investment capabilities.

Today, Urban Villages has:

• Approximately $1B of mixed-use real estate assets under management 
• Approximately $1.5B of development pipeline with land control
• 35+ full time employees in three separate offices (Denver, Pittsburgh, Seattle)

Role description

To manage the current portfolio and build an asset management foundation for growth, Urban Villages is seeking a Head of Real Estate Investments & Asset Management to:

1. Provide executive leadership of asset management responsibilities for existing real estate investments 
2. Create efficiencies and the necessary tools to grow the asset management function without compromising quality.  
3. Oversee investor relations and communications with existing investors 
4. Lead investment analysis and financial projections for new acquisitions and development opportunities.  
5. Support executive team in identifying, vetting, and onboarding new capital partnerships 
6. Support executive team in growth analysis and preparation to ensure the company is ready to effectively manage a broader portfolio of real estate assets and developments 

Above and beyond employing the proven playbook of excellence in real estate investments and asset management, the Head of Real Estate Investments & Asset Management will ensure Urban Villages’s portfolio of assets are cultural and economic pillars of their communities. From best-in-class building operations to maximizing valuations to creating sustainable cash flows, Urban Villages’s Head of Real Estate Investments & Asset Management recognizes that long-term asset management sits at the heart of building urban villages. This role is responsible for analyzing and underwriting real estate investments, supporting capitalization of new investment opportunities, managing investor relations, elevating asset management processes, and leading Urban Villages’s investment management team.

Key Objectives

• Implement a proactive (instead reactive) approach to asset management and value accretion across Urban Village’s portfolio
• Elevate Urban Villages’s asset management function to a new level of operational excellence and best-in-class professionalism: from reporting standards to new processes
• Expand Urban Villages’s asset management function to include a hospitality function
• Manage investor relations through the process of underwriting, capitalizing, and execution. 

Ownership & Accountabilities

The Head of Real Estate Investments & Asset Management will lead and own the asset management function at Urban Villages. This means this person is accountable for the following:

Capital Formation

• Evaluate investments, underwrite strategies, and define investment goals and targets
• Establish a capital strategy and support the process to bring in new capital partners

Investor Relations

• Manage all reporting and storytelling around asset performance
• Lead all investor-facing communications
• Proactively anticipate investor needs and questions

Asset Management

• Lead and manage the asset management team
• Develop strategic plans for all assets in the portfolio
• Create and manage budgets for each asset in the portfolio
• Evaluate performance of the portfolio
• Manage carbon, ecological, and community impacts across portfolio
• Lead annual asset valuations and support disposition strategies and evaluations

Hospitality Management

• Manage multiple hotel properties and coordinate with hotel management
• Evaluate and deliver strategic capital improvement

Acquisitions & Investment Underwriting

• Lead property acquisition underwriting and investment analytics
• Track and assess market analytics to support investment decisions within targeted markets and asset classes

Marketing, Leasing, & Placemaking

• Select and manage brokerage teams for all real estate assets
• Conduct market analysis to identify opportunities to maximize values
• Position and promote all real estate assets through marketing efforts
• Oversee commercial leasing process
• Create management systems to track and update contract requirements

Your approach

• You are driven by a sense of purpose in your work. You align with Urban Village’s mission to build thriving urban neighborhoods that are dense, livable, climate-resilient, and infused with character and soul. To you, asset management is so much more than maximizing valuations, creating sustainable cash-flows, and creating operationally excellent property management. It is about creating extraordinary places.
• You have a proven approach to relationship building: You understand how to juggle and manage dozens of VIP relationships in a way where each person feels like they’re the most important person to you and the company you represent. 
• You believe that assets are physical places: This might sound obvious, but in our experience the best asset managers understand they’re not just managing numbers on a spreadsheet but managing physical spaces infused with life and commerce. While a portfolio of real estate assets can be represented in forward-looking financials, through historical budgets, leases, and reports, there’s no substitute for walking and being in the properties. As the leader of asset management at Urban Villages, you deeply understand this and nurture a culture of outstanding asset management that is rooted in physical connection to the properties. This goes beyond proximity; you apply a holistic lens to asset management by simultaneously balancing financial optimization with values-driven decision making around environmentalism, branding, tenants, and a sense of place.
• You take the long-view: Managing assets for the long-term requires a different strategy and approach to managing assets in the short-term. You’re a long-term thinker, builder, and manager of Urban Villages’s assets.
• You’re a builder: You’re not just satisfied with inheriting and improving existing systems. Instead, you believe in building structures, systems, and processes that create clarity, drive efficiencies, and create the foundations of operational excellence.
• You believe in a culture of excellence and success: You’re committed to building an organizational culture of excellence and success. You care for the people on their team, believe in their professional development, hold them accountable to clearly defined definitions of success, and are practiced in building a culture of excellence across everything you do.
• You’re an exceptional storyteller: Storyteller might not be the first word that comes to mind when you think of asset management, but our buildings, their operations, their management, and their future all tell a story. As you work with others on the executive team internally with Urban Villages and with our investors, your job will be to tell compelling stories through financials and reports about how the portfolio is doing, where it’s going, and what opportunities exist to make it great.
• You balance proven approaches to asset management with new, innovative approaches: You’re a seasoned asset management executive, so you know the playbook that works to produce exceptional results. But you’re also not afraid to upgrade and improve that playbook by considering new approaches and practices.
• You want to grow with a growing company: Urban Villages is at an inflection point of growth, and you’re excited to join an organization whose future looks far different from its past. You’re willing to roll up your sleeves and be a key leader in transforming the company. You’re hungry and ambitious to leave your mark.

Requirements

Who you are: qualifications

• You have experience managing all aspects of investor relations (underwriting, reporting, communications, etc.)
• You have 15 years of asset management experience leading teams, creating and implementing asset strategies, and managing overall building operations to maximize valuations and create sustainable cash flows.  Multifamily, Office, Retail, and Hospitality experience required.  
• You have played a key supporting role in successful fundraising processes for a variety of real estate asset classes by raising $50M+ from external investors.
• You have a proven track-record of elevating and transforming asset management functions and teams to new levels of excellence and professionalism.
• You have a proven track-record of placemaking (though we don’t like that term; we prefer “village building”) by activating spaces for human and environmental thriving: from creative food & beverage to landscaping to events and programming.
• You have in-depth experience with acquisitions and investment underwriting for multifamily, office, retail, and hospitality - from acquisition/repositioning to ground-up development.  
• You have successfully managed both acquisitions and dispositions of a variety of real estate asset classes.  
• You have a deep understanding of real estate analytics and investment due diligence across a multitude of markets through multiple economic cycles.  
• You have successfully managed $100M+ in commercial real estate transactions, with a primary focus on mixed-use urban core assets.  
• You have experience negotiating and executing commercial leases for both office and retail assets.  

FAQs

• Who will this position report to? 
• President of Urban Villages 
• In what markets do Urban Villages have assets? 
• Colorado, Washington, Pennsylvania
• Was someone in this role previously? 
• The current CFO and the current President both managed the asset management function in a split role over the past 10 years.  
• Do I need to be based in Denver? 
• Yes, but Urban Villages encourages a flexible work schedule with remote-work capabilities.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 
• Short-term and long-term disability, 
• 401k retirement plan, 
• Paid holidays, 
• Flexible time off
• Public transit pass

Equal Opportunity

Denver-based Urban Villages is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience & performance