The Gold Standard

Setting the Foundation of Master Planned Development

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  Sumner Billingsley

  Sumner Billingsley is a Partner at Billingsley Company in Dallas, Texas, where she specializes in master-planned communities and oversees the portfolio strategy, construction, design, management, marketing, and financing of a multifamily portfolio consisting of more than 8,000 units, with zoning in place for an additional 25,000. She began her real estate career at Trammell Crow Company in Los Angeles, where she worked in development and acquisitions and played an active role in the entitlement, design, and development of high-profile Class A assets across Greater Los Angeles. She later joined CBRE in New York before returning to Dallas to join Billingsley Company in 2014. Sumner holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. She is a Council on Foreign Relations term member and serves on numerous boards and councils, including the National Geographic Hubbard Council, the SMU Folsom Institute of Real Estate, the SMU Tate Lecture Series Board, the Urban Land Institute’s Mixed-Use Council, The Real Estate Council Associate Leadership Council, and the Center for BrainHealth Advisory Board. She is also a national member of Business Executives for National Security (BENS) and is deeply engaged with Planned Parenthood. Sumner has traveled extensively through Asia, the Middle East, Europe, South America, Africa, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

  Billingsley Company

  Partner

  Sumner Billingsley

  Partner

  Billingsley Company

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  Craig Martin

  Craig Martin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tellus Group LLC, has had an exceptional track record of success over the last 40 years in the real estate industry with his focus on investing in and developing land and recapitalizing opportunistic and value add real estate assets. Craig’s leadership at Tellus Group has built an extraordinary team with decades of community development experience that combines exceptional financial expertise for targeting and recapitalizing Tier 1 opportunistic real estate. The company’s unique combination of talents affords Tellus Group a much better opportunity to achieve extraordinary risk-adjusted returns for our investors compared to other sponsors managed primarily by financial professionals. Prior to forming Tellus Group, Craig was the founder of Terra Verde Group and also the managing partner of several successful large land development partnerships, as well as golf and ski resort developments. Craig also spent seven years as a senior member of Robert M. Bass Realty of Fort Worth, Texas. At RMB Realty, Craig was active in the underwriting analysis, acquisition, and management of primarily large land development transactions and directed a best-of-class team of outside consultants. Other past professional accomplishments include serving as managing director of the Landmark Golf Company of Indian Wells, California and managing general partner of the Angel Fire Ski and Golf Resort in New Mexico. Craig began his career as a real estate investment broker for the Staubach Company of Dallas while studying real estate and finance at the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. Craig is an active full member of the Urban Land Institute and currently serves on the Community Development Council – blue flight, and is an active member of the Dallas and National Home Builders Associations. Craig is the past Chapter Chairman of the YPO Gold Dallas Chapter (2016-2017). Craig has also served for seven years on the board of trustees of Liberty Christian School in Argyle, Texas, consistently ranked #1 in the 5A Division of TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools).

  Tellus Group

  Founder & CEO

  Craig Martin

  Founder & CEO

  Tellus Group

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  Andrew Pieper

  Andrew Pieper, Senior Vice President of Hillwood Communities, has over 16 years of experience in residential real estate development. He manages the Landmark project, a 3,200-acre master-planned community in Denton, TX. Previously, he oversaw Pecan Square in Northlake, TX, a 3,000-home community named DFW Masterplan Community of the Year and People’s Choice Community of the Year in 2021 and 2023 and National Masterplan Community of the year in 2025. A Southern Methodist University finance graduate, Andrew serves on SMU’s Folsom School of Real Estate associate board and the Dallas Builders Association's Board of Directors, where he was president in 2022.

  Hillwood Communities

  SVP

  Andrew Pieper

  SVP

  Hillwood Communities

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  Michel Borg

  As an award-winning architect with over 35 years of experience with a wide-range of building types, Michel’s training in both architecture and interior design has assisted clients on numerous corporate, institutional, educational, healthcare and hospitality projects. Michel’s leadership style is to actively orchestrate the design through strong, interactive and collaborative team development of all the various professional disciplines. This approach enables the team to discover the most creative and useful solutions to each of the client’s pragmatic needs. It is then necessary to possess the energy and drive to usher the design intent consistently through all aspects of the building process. Throughout his career, Michel has integrated teaching with his professional practice. He has taught design studios and classes at institutions like Princeton, NJIT, and The University of Virginia, and currently serves as an Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.

  Michel Borg Architecture

  Michel Borg

  Michel Borg Architecture

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  Kevin Hart

  CEO

  Aireal

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  Mark Meyer

  Mark Meyer is a Principal in TBG’s Dallas office and has more than 20 years’ professional experience encompassing all aspects of landscape architecture and planning. He serves as Chairman of TBG’s Board of Directors, providing strategic guidance to continuously elevate all aspects of TBG’s practice and corporate culture. Mark also greatly values the charrette process and the power of hands-on, multidisciplinary teamwork to deliver extraordinary project solutions. He is an experienced facilitator at guiding large stakeholder groups toward a shared vision and he frequently leads multi day creative planning workshops to jumpstart the design process. Mark is an advocate for walkable development and over his career has helped lead these types of developments that include a mixture of connected and walkable developments including Windsong Ranch, Painted Tree, Grand Canals and Pecan Square. Mark sits on the City of Dallas Urban Design Review Panel and the Texas A&M Professional Advisory Board for Landscape Architecture.

  TBG Partners

  Principal

  Moderator

  Mark Meyer

  Principal

  TBG Partners

Build To Rent Vs. Build To Sell

Where Are Market Leaders Seeing The Most Capital Opportunities?

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  Cyrus Zadeh

  Cyrus Zadeh is a second-generation real estate developer from Dallas, Texas. As a partner, he is actively involved in all day-to-day operations of Camden Homes and is one of the founding members of CooperZadeh, a single- family production builder that has organically grown to become an asset management company that invests in single family rentals, notes, commercial office space, and lot development. Cyrus received a B.A. in Political Science from St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, an MBA from the University of Denver in Colorado, and received an AMDP in Real Estate from Harvard University.

  Camden Homes

  CEO

  Cyrus Zadeh

  CEO

  Camden Homes

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  Todd Wood

  Todd Wood, CEO of Christopher Todd Communities, is a leader in the Build-to-Rent industry, building on his diverse and dynamic career that spans nearly four decades. Christopher Todd Communities was launched in 2016 as an early innovator in what has now grown into one of the hottest real estate segments in the country, disrupting the traditional multifamily industry. Christopher Todd Communities creates Single-Story Rental Communities (SRC) with a 5 Star lifestyle, which is the luxury category within the Build-to-Rent niche. These are single-family smart homes with private, pet-friendly backyards combined with resort-style amenities in smart gated, professionally managed communities. Armed with strategic partnership with America’s Most Trusted® Home Builder Taylor Morrison, the two companies are collaborating to bring this innovative concept to new markets. Taylor Morrison buys the land and builds/owns the communities, and Christopher Todd Communities brings its successful strategic playbook and marketing expertise that, to date, has resulted in higher rents, faster lease ups, and higher resident satisfaction rates than traditional apartments. Christopher Todd Communities is a “brand asset maximizing” company, creating enhanced value through the branded community and lifestyle experience. An entrepreneur, Todd’s success has been built on faith and hard work. Born into a family of 6 children, at the age of 10 Todd began working in the family candy business where his grandfather’s edict prevailed: “Our family only works 6 days per week, half days. 6am to 6pm, Monday through Saturday.” Following an early decade-long successful career in executive sales with Xerox Engineering Systems, and building custom homes as a passion, Todd and his family moved to Arizona from Utah and started a small family business baking all-natural and organic bread long before it was mainstream. He was innovating and disrupting the bread market when his Alpine Valley Breads catapulted onto the national food scene, ultimately supplying organic bread products nationally and internationally. Todd sold the company, including the production, warehouse, and distribution facilities in 2015 to a major national manufacturing company. He then tried retirement. It is about the only thing he has ever failed at as he was too young and ambitious to sit idle. Contemplating returning to his earlier love of real estate, he researched the market for the next big thing. Everything looked like white bread to him. That is, until he discovered a rental community that had something different, with small single-family homes. Inspiration struck. What he saw had good potential, but he wanted to put his own spin on it. With that, he set out to create A New Way To Live®, now the Christopher Todd Communities trademark and mission.

  Christopher Todd Communities

  CEO

  Todd Wood

  CEO

  Christopher Todd Communities

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  Bruce McNeilage

  Bruce W. McNeilage brings more than 31 years of financial and real estate investment experience to his role as CEO of Kinloch Partners. In the past 12 years, he has invested in hundreds of properties throughout Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. McNeilage has also been an owner and developer of several multi-family residential and condominium communities. Prior to launching Kinloch Partners, McNeilage was a partner in both Harpeth Development and DEL Real Estate. In 2005 he was an early pioneer of what is now commonly referred to as the "Build to Rent" industry and started building and acquiring brand new rental houses in Spring Hill, Tennessee growing the business throughout the Nashville MSA, as well as key markets throughout the Southeast United States. McNeilage holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics (BS) from Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida, and serves on the National Board of Directors of the Florida State University Alumni Association. He is also a Chartered Financial Consultant. McNeilage is a member of the Homebuilders Association of Middle Tennessee and is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Think Realty magazine. He is a resident of Brentwood,TN is married to Melanie McNeilage and is a father of three.

  Kinloch Partners

  CEO & Co-Founder

  Bruce McNeilage

  CEO & Co-Founder

  Kinloch Partners

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  Robert Kembel

  Robert Kembel graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Finance Degree and began his career in Banking in 1986. In 1997, Bob began his career in developing master-planned communities and homebuilding in Colorado, when he joined McStain Enterprises as Chief Operating Officer and then joined John Laing Homes as President of the Denver Metro area until the company was sold. In 2004, after returning to Texas, Bob was hired as President of Huffines Management Partners and VP of Huffines Advisory Services. Bob successfully converted an entrepreneurial land brokerage and development operation into an institutional platform for master-planned community development and multifamily development. Most notably one of the largest public/private partnerships in the DFW Metroplex was negotiated over a 5 year period called Viridian. In addition, the first Transit Oriented Development in North DFW with the introduction of light rail into Lewisville was negotiated by the company with first phase successfully completed in 2011. In August 2012, Bob joined JCKPL, LLC as partner and president. The company was merged into The Nehemiah Company in 2015. The company is the developer of the Viridian community in Arlington, along with Arlington Commons, an award-winning multi-family community. Bob has been a member of the Congress for New Urbanism and ULI along with various trade and builder organizations. Bob was a regular speaker at the Lee Evans conferences on builder risk throughout the 90s and he has been a member of the C12 Group for the past 11 years. Bob is a past board member of the Brent Eley Foundation in Denver, Colorado and the Cotton Bowl board, Arlington Chamber of Commerce Board; Chairman in 2015/2016 and continues to serve on the Executive Committee, River Legacy Park foundation board, and is a Board member of Mission Metroplex/Arlington. He is Associate Teaching Pastor and Elder at The Gathering Church. Bob is an accomplished glider pilot and private pilot. He loves backpacking in the Rockies and fly fishing. Bob’s passion is organizational development and creating environments where individuals can grow professionally and spiritually. Bob has three children and has been married to Keri Kembel for 31 years.

  The Nehemiah Company

  President

  Robert Kembel

  President

  The Nehemiah Company

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  Felipe Castillo

  Mr. Castillo has over 22-years of experience in commercial real estate and development with another 9-years in architecture. He is also an Architect and a U.S. Army Veteran, plus, holds both a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters in Architecture degrees from Texas Tech University. Throughout Mr. Castillo’s real estate development career, he has led real estate development efforts for multiple build-to-rent, multifamily, and high-rise mixed-use development projects, moreover, he has personally managed over 29+ zoning cases for multiple development projects across the United States. Before coming to PlaceMKR, Mr. Castillo was the Managing Director for Urban Moment, a Build-to-rent/Single-family-to-rent Texas based development firm with over a $1BN in equity allocated toward BTR/SFR developments. He led the company’s corporate development, partnership, and acquisition strategy. During and prior to his period with Urban Moment, he has been working on BTR/SFR and multifamily development efforts for several years, with numerous communities developed and/or breaking ground. He has an extensive understanding of the BTR/SFR development process and has a versatile background which understands real estate development from multiple points-of-view. Prior to Urban Moment, Mr. Castillo was the Chief Operating Officer for De La Vega Capital and led the company’s strategy and growth with an emphasis on De La Vega’s national real estate development efforts. Prior to De La Vega, Mr. Castillo was the Senior Vice President for HALL Group and lead the development efforts for HALL; he oversaw real estate endeavors, entitlements, design, and financial oversight for all new ground-up development projects for Dallas, Frisco, and Napa.

  PlaceMKR

  Partner

  Felipe Castillo

  Partner

  PlaceMKR

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  Amber Rao

  Amber Rao is Vice President and Senior Mortgage Banker with KeyBank Real Estate Capital in Dallas, Texas. Amber provides clients with financing options through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, CMBS, Life Companies and Debt Funds across a variety of multifamily asset types to include conventional, student housing, manufactured housing and affordable housing. Over the last 17 years, Amber has been directly involved in loan production totaling over $2.5 Billion. Amber is an active member of The Real Estate Council, Commercial Real Estate Women and holds the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation. Amber was a founding member of the Mortgage Bankers Association MPact Advisory Committee and is the current Chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association CREF DE&I Council. Amber has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from John Carroll University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas with concentrations in Finance and Real Estate.

  KeyBank

  VP & Senior Mortgage Banker

  Moderator

  Amber Rao

  VP & Senior Mortgage Banker

  KeyBank