Detroit State Of The Market

Prior to joining the Conservancy in August 2014, Wallace was a director with Hines Interests LP from 2003 to 2014 and most recently served as project manager of the River Point development in Chicago, a 1,050,000-square-foot, 50-story, state-of-the-art tower located on the Chicago River. The project includes a 1.5-acre public park that opens the West Loop neighborhood to the main branch of the Chicago River. From 2007-2011, Wallace was in charge of leasing the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit, which contains 2.3 million square feet of office space and 240,000 square feet of retail space. He was responsible for the leasing of Dykema (68,000 square feet), HP (52,000 square feet), Urban Science (85,000 square feet) and Deloitte (102,000 square feet). In 2010, he completed the lease of 435,000 square feet of office space to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan – the largest lease in Detroit in a decade. Wallace also maintained responsibilities for property management for the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center and the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters in downtown Detroit. Additional past Hines projects on which Wallace has worked include the Super Bowl XL Media Center and the Detroit RiverWalk Phase II (Rivard Plaza to Gabriel Richard Park). He also provided underwriting analysis on behalf of Wayne County, which culminated in the $14.5 million acquisition of the Guardian Building and First Street Parking Deck in 2009. In 2010, Wallace was named one of the “40 Under 40” award winners by Crain’s Detroit Business and also received Crain’s “Deal of the Year” award. He currently sits on the Presbyterian Villages of Michigan Foundation Board, the Corktown Economic Development Corporation and the Downtown Detroit Partnership Board of Directors. He is a member of the Detroit Athletic Club, the Princeton Club of Michigan, the Highline Network and the University of Michigan Club of Greater Detroit. In 2014, Wallace launched Wallace Detroit Guitars, which manufactures guitars using reclaimed wood from abandoned homes in Detroit.

Simon Jonna is a national market leader in net-leased retail and shopping centers within the investment brokerage industry. Simon joined Marcus & Millichap following his tenure with a development company, where he partook in all aspects of commercial real estate including development, retail leasing, site selection, tenant/landlord rep, market feasibility studies, big box disposition, and macro retail trending analysis. With Marcus & Millichap, he has attained consistent national achievement accolades and is the #1 ranked retail agent in the Midwest as well as a Top Retail Investment Professional firm wide, out of approximately 1300+ agents. As Senior Managing Director of Investments, Simon also serves as Director of two firm specialty groups, the National Retail Group (NRG) and Net Leased Properties Group (NLPG). At Marcus, Simon oversees The Jonna Group as principal, founder, and manager, whose brokerage practice represents a client partnership and a multi-billion dollar track record in approximately 40+ states having captured optimal results with dominant coverage throughout the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. Recent trades have spanned from Key West to Silicon Valley and from Greater Boston to New York’s exclusive high-profile borough transactions, among other regions cross country. The group’s advisory with developers, builders, private investors, institutions, founders of retail chains, and former executives of national companies is recognized as industry-best. The group has transacted all facets of retail investments to include power centers, grocery-anchored centers, out lot retail, retail condominiums, special-use, leasehold interests, fee-simple ground leases, sale-leasebacks, bulk single-tenant portfolios, urban core, new construction forward-commitments, and mixed-use, among others. Prior to Simon's entry into the investment real estate arena, Simon’s experience includes his stockbroker profession at UBS in addition to commodity brokering within the futures markets. Simon is a member with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and is active within local community organizations and charities such as serving on committee boards for the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce and Imerman Angels. Simon has an education from the University of Michigan with a major in Communications and Finance. The Jonna Group has been widely featured in publications and interviews in Crain’s Magazine, Heartland Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal, to name a few. Simon is not only a consultant but an active author of the industry retail blog series “Simon Says”. Simon is also in the process of publishing a book this coming year.

Dennis Bernard is the founder and President of Bernard Financial Group (“BFG”) and Bernard Financial Servicing Group (“BFSG”). Founded in 1991, BFG has grown into the largest commercial mortgage banking firm in Michigan financing on average over $1 billion each year of Michigan Commercial Real Estate. BFG became a member of the Strategic Alliance Mortgage (SAM) network in 2003 (www.samalliance.com). SAM is a national network of the largest independently owned commercial mortgage banking firm and the third largest lending platform in the country. Mr. Bernard is its current national President. Mr. Bernard specializes in both debt and equity placement with commercial lenders and institutional joint venture participants. Bernard Financial Group has also been involved in commercial mortgage servicing on construction and permanent loan portfolios. Mr. Bernard has been involved with over 1,200 commercial real estate financial transactions totaling over $18,600,000,000. Mr. Bernard has been engaged as both a consultant and a correspondent by over twenty five national lenders. Bernard Financial Group’s client list reads like Michigan’s Who’s Who of owners and developers. These transactions have included multi and single tenant office, industrial, hi-tech, retail, multi-family, manufactured housing communities, self-storage, hotel and senior housing. Bernard Financial Group has closed over $16,100,000,000 in financing since its inception. These included forward commitments and immediate fundings on multi-family, retail, industrial and high-tech properties. The lenders were Life Companies, pension funds, structured lenders, securitized lenders and quasi-government agencies. Bernard Financial Servicing Group currently provides full cashiering servicing for over $3,800,000,000 for Life Companies and CMBS Lenders. Bernard Financial Servicing Group is now actively sub Special Servicing for many national firms. Mr. Bernard's educational background includes a Bachelor's Degree in Finance from Miami University along with a MBA specializing in Finance and Strategic Planning from Case Western Reserve University. Mr. Bernard has been a lecturer on real estate finance at the University of Michigan's Graduate School of Business. Mr. Bernard has also appeared as an expert witness on real estate interest rates and financings in Michigan, New York and Texas. Mr. Bernard has been an editorial contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Commercial, Inc., Crain’s Detroit Business, Michigan Real Estate Journal, Midwest Real Estate News, National Real Estate Investors, Heartland Properties, Real Estate Forum, among others. Mr. Bernard has received numerous awards for his community and business involvements. Most recently, he was elected to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) CRE Board of Governors. Additionally, he has been recognized by Crain’s Detroit Business as a “40 under 40”, by Midwest Real Estate News as a “40 over 40” Most Influential Real Estate Professional and Midwest CRE Hall of Fame, and by Commercial Inc. as an Elite Eight winner. He has been bestowed the honor of the 2006 Governors Service Award for Volunteering and Community Leadership. He has also received Crain’s Detroit Business, University of Michigan and ULI’s “Real Estate Excellence” award. Mr. Bernard was recently honored by being awarded the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services Greenberg Leadership Award. He has also received the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit’s Young Leadership Award, the Jewish Community Council Activist of the Year Award, the American Jewish Committee “Outstanding Humanitarian Award”, and was deemed “Home Town Hero” for Oakland County for his activities and involvements on behalf of local charities. Mr. Bernard currently sits on nine different charitable organizations Board of Trustees. Mr. Bernard has been the Vice Chair of Michigan’s Venture Michigan Fund and currently serves as gubernatorial appointments to two other State of Michigan Boards or Task Forces. Mr. Bernard enjoys his mentoring in the Detroit Public Schools. Most importantly, Mr. Bernard goes home for dinner every night and spends the weekends with his family.

Experienced real estate consultant, scholar and visionary, Emery Matthews founded and serves as the principal of Detroit-based Real Estate Interests, LLC. Matthews has been a major player in the commercial real estate landscape for more than a decade, regularly managing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects and investments. Real Estate Interests, LLC provides specialized consulting services designed to help guide companies through major changes and complex deals, managing assets and property, and advising decision makers. Emery and his team are currently managing projects in the Midwest and across the U.S. in the automotive, manufacturing and education spaces, while increasing their foothold in the rapidly growing Sub-Saharan African nations of South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria. A Detroit native, Emery earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and simultaneously earned a Juris Doctorate and Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University. As a lifelong learner with a global vision, Matthews is fluent in German and currently working to improve his Chinese.

Mac is Senior Vice President of Originations for Mag Mile Capital, a Real Estate Investment Bank headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York, Orlando, Metro Detroit, Houston and Dallas. With a dual-presence in the Detroit area and Chicago, Mac’s expertise lies in originating construction, bridge, and permanent financing for developers and owners of office, retail, hospitality, self-storage, industrial and multifamily properties nationwide. Over the course of an eleven-year career, Mac has sourced, underwritten, originated and/or closed real estate transactions with total capitalizations in excess of $800 million. Over that time period, he has developed a reputation as a trusted advisor and tireless advocate for his clients, and he is a frequent panelist and author within real estate and capital markets circles. Before joining Mag Mile in 2017, Mac led Bank of America’s Midwest SBA platform, overseeing SBA 504 and 7(a) lending. Prior to that position, he worked for Birmingham, Michigan-based ValStone Partners, a private equity fund focused on alternative sectors including distressed debt, direct real estate development, and related special situations. During his time with ValStone, Mac served on the fund’s investment team that acquired a $75 million portfolio from publicly-traded Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), serviced a portfolio of performing and non-performing loans, managed 2,000+ units of senior housing, and worked closely with senior management and other stakeholders in the active repositioning of several real estate developments. He started his commercial real estate career in the credit area of SomerCor 504, Inc., a Certified Development Company and one of the largest issuers of SBA 504 paper in the country. When he left SomerCor in 2015, he was the lead originator on a team that was routinely named the largest government guaranteed lender in Chicago. Mac holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado, and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with concentrations in Finance and Economics. Either directly or through the firm, he is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), Urban Land Institute (ULI), the National, Michigan, and Illinois Self-Storage Associations, the Real Estate Investment Association of Chicago, the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce, and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.

Mark is a real estate developer, financier and attorney with 30+ years of experience in envisioning, structuring and executing complex and transformative market rate and affordable multifamily and mixed-use developments. Since 2014, he has taken part in the development and financing of 9 ground-up, existing and major rehab developments including 2,000+ residential units with 7 developments in the City of Detroit. Combined capital stacks exceed $300 million including 4 Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds (QOF), and the first one in Detroit. Mark is an expert in creating non-profit Community Land Trusts (CLTs), an innovative means of developing permanent affordable housing, with six such developments underway in the City of Detroit. In law school, Mark founded Toxicheck, later merging with Environmental Data Resources Inc. (EDR), today the nation’s leading environmental information services company. Mark is a Member of the State Bar of Michigan and practiced law at Miller Canfield, creating the firm’s Climate Change Practice Group. He earned his BS in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa from Michigan State University, and his JD from the Wayne State University Law School.