Center for Real Estate

The Ohio State Center for Real Estate is pleased to welcome Bob Lafkas, Christian Nye, John Scott, Jake Dietrich, Jennifer Stevens, Greg Tavrell, Grant Fitzpatrick, and Chris Gangl.

Bob Lafkas

Midd Cities Partners, Partner

Bob Lafkas was an Evans Scholar at The Ohio State University where he graduated in 1965. He was then commissioned by the US Navy where he served in the Atlantic Fleet. In 1969 he received his MBA from Xavier University. He was a sales manager for Procter and Gamble, before beginning his career in banking. Over 33 years, he worked for the First National Bank of Cincinnati, Huntington National Bank, and Provident Bank. He is currently involved in multiple businesses and an investor and partner, including Midd Cities Partners and Micro Metal Finishing. Bob has been heavily involved in his community all his life. He was a member of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, St. Ursula Academy Board, United Way Cincinnati development fund, the Chamber Board of Middletown, Camp Washington Business Association, and the Xavier University Corporate Campaign Chair.

Christian Nye

The Townsend Group, Associate, Research & Advisory Services

Christian Nye joined The Townsend Group in 2016 and is currently an Associate supporting research and advisory services. His main responsibilities include supporting the development of Townsend’s View of The World, client reporting, and portfolio analytics. Prior to joining Townsend, Christian attended Ohio State University and graduated with a BSBA specialized in Finance and Real Estate.

 

John C. Scott

KeyBank's Institutional Real Estate Group, Senior Vice President and Regional Executive

John C. Scott is Senior Vice President and Regional Executive in KeyBank’s Institutional Real Estate group. The Institutional Real Estate group was established to cover National Developers and Owners of Real Estate, including public real estate companies (REITS), large privately held real estate firms, real estate advisors, pension funds, and insurance companies. John manages a team of experienced real estate professionals located in Cleveland. The team’s responsibilities include marketing the full capabilities of the Bank to this client segment, including commercial banking, mortgage banking and investment banking products and services.

Prior to his current position, John spent 10 years as a Relationship Manager in the Institutional Real Estate group. In his role as a Relationship Manager, John advised clients and prospects on all areas of real estate finance including short-term and long-term project financings, corporate credit facilities, syndicated financings, mezzanine financings, and capital markets transactions.

John joined Key Bank in June 1997 and the Commercial Real Estate Division in August 1998.

Since 2013, John has served on the Board of Directors at Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. In addition to his role as a Director, John currently serves as the Chair of the Finance Committee, Treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee. Since 2017, John has served on the Gifts & Memorials committee at Brecksville United Methodist Church. From 2011 to 2013, John served as a Trustees at Brecksville United Methodist Church. From 2009 to 2011, John served on the Finance committee at Brecksville United Methodist Church (Chairman in 2010). From 2001 to 2002, John served on the Building Construction committee at Mayfield United Methodist Church.

John received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a Major in Finance, from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

 

Jake Dietrich

Milhaus, Vice President of Development

Jake Dietrich is Vice President of Development for Milhaus. Milhaus is an award-winning, mixed-use development, construction, and property management company that specializes in Class A, urban, multifamily residential buildings. At Milhaus, Jake leads all company activities throughout the Ohio and Pennsylvania region. Jake has led the development of more than 1800 units and $320M of mixed-use, multi-family, and for-sale residential real estate in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati urban neighborhoods.

Jake graduated cum laude from Ball State University with a Bachelor’s degree in urban planning and development and a minor in real estate development. He also graduated with a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University's McKinney School of Law.

Professionally, Jake is an active member of the Urban Land Institute both locally and nationally, and has held leadership positions in many community-based initiatives. Personally, Jake is an avid bike commuter and urbanist, lover of all things outdoors, and active in his church. He and his wife live in a historic building in downtown Columbus.

 

Jennifer Stevens

_{The Townsend Group, Partner}

Jennifer Stevens joined The Townsend Group in 2004 and is currently the lead Partner and primary relationship manager for a number of the firm’s Advisory clients.  Ms. Stevens joined Townsend’s Investment (Sub) Committee for Advisory clients in 2019.  In her tenure with Townsend, Ms. Stevens has served as the Portfolio Manager for global public pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, superannuation plans, foundations, endowments and family offices. Ms. Stevens provides clients with information related to Strategic Planning, Investment Planning, Manager/Fund/Investment Due Diligence, Benchmarking, ESG monitoring and Portfolio Analytics. Programs include investments in a wide range of structures including separate accounts, commingled funds and special situations.  Before relocating to Southern California in 2018, Ms. Stevens was responsible for the management and oversight of the San Francisco office.  Ms. Stevens also leads Responsible Investment initiatives for Townsend.   

On behalf of The Townsend Group, Ms. Stevens is an Advisory Board member for the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) and served as Townsend’s signatory representative for the United Nations Principals of Responsible Investment (UN PRI) from 2011 to 2019.  Ms. Stevens represents Townsend’s investor interests on multiple Advisory Committees and is a frequent speaker/panelist at industry events. Ms. Stevens is a member of the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) Membership Committee, the California State Association of County Employees’ Retirement Systems (SACRS) and Urban Land Institute (ULI). In 2019, Ms. Stevens was recognized as a Knowledge Broker by Chief Investment Officer’s Magazine.  She was also awarded the Institutional Investor/Money Management Intelligence designation for Rising Stars of Public Funds in 2013 and the inaugural GRESB Investor Leadership Award in 2016.  

Ms. Stevens received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Ohio University. Ms. Stevens was appointed to the Board of Directors of Ohio University’s College of Business Society of Alumni & Friends in 2014 and served as its elected President in her final year before being appointed to the Executive Alumni Board. 

 

Greg Tavrell

_{Huntington National Bank, Vice President of Commercial Real Estate}

Greg brings more than 10 years of commercial real estate and banking experience to his role at Huntington National Bank. As Vice President of Commercial Real Estate, Greg specializes in financial solutions for best-in-class commercial real estate clients throughout central Ohio, including construction, acquisition, mezzanine and term financing. He is responsible for the strategic management of credit and market risks within a real estate debt portfolio consisting of multifamily, retail, industrial, office, hospitality, and affordable housing assets located across the United States.  Greg is actively involved in the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Lupus Foundation of America, Greater Ohio Chapter. Greg received his Bachelor of Science in Finance, Real Estate and Urban Analysis from The Ohio State University. Greg and his wife Angela reside in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Grant Fitzpatrick

_{Marcus & Millichap, Associate Regional Manager}

Grant J. Fitzgerald is the Associate Regional Manager of Marcus & Millichap’s Cleveland and Columbus offices. After attending Furman University, he moved to Washington D.C. to work in sales for Costar Group. He started at Marcus & Millichap in the sales intern program in 2012 and became an associate in January 2014 in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, specializing in multifamily sales with a particular expertise in TOPA, the District’s local affordable housing statute. Grant joined management in February 2018 in the D.C. office before joining Tampa in July 2018. After taking over the reins of the Tampa office in March 2019, he relocated to Ohio in August 2019. In his current capacity, Grant excels at supporting growth through strategic planning, team architecture and client relations.

 

Chris Gangl

_{Wexford Lodging Advisors LLC, Director of Analysis and Administration}

Chris Gangl is currently the Director of Analysis and Administration at Wexford Lodging Advisors LLC, a Columbus based hotel asset management and investment company. Chris is responsible for Wexford’s asset management analysis and support functions, including benchmarking, hotel analytics, client reporting and general support. Chris also supports Wexford’s underwriting activities. Prior to joining Wexford, Chris graduated with magna cum laude distinction from the Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business with a dual major in Finance and Real Estate and a minor in Entrepreneurship.

 

Fall 2019 Newsletter

View from the C-Suite 

with Roy March 
CEO, Eastdil Secured 

February 25th, 2020
7:30 am - 9:00 am 
Mason Hall Rotunda 

Register Now!

 

^{_{A special thank you to Phyllis Cummins and Donald Dyche for their generosity in supporting this event.}}

 

Roy March is the chief executive officer of Eastdil Secured, L.L.C., the leading real estate investment banking company in the United States. 
 
He has more than 41 years of real estate experience at Eastdil Secured across financing, sales, acquisition, and capital markets activities in the United States, Europe, and East Asia.
 
Founded in 1967, Eastdil was the first real estate investment banking firm in the United States.  For 20 years Eastdil Secured was a wholly owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, one of the largest financial service companies in the world and the largest commercial real estate lender in the U.S.  In 2009, as a result of the Wells Wachovia merger, the real estate investment banking division of Wachovia was moved to Eastdil Secured forming the first comprehensive end to end real estate banking investment platform in the industry.  On October 1, 2019 the firm privatized in a management led buyout with strategic long term institutional investors.  The New York based firm has been involved in over $2.2 trillion in transactions from 2007.    
 
Roy serves on various industry, corporate and community boards, is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute; past Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania; Board of Directors of Real Estate Roundtable; former Urban Land Institute Board of Trustee;  Urban Land Institute Global Board of Directors and was on the Board of Directors for Pension Real Estate Association (PREA).  He is also a member of NAREIT – the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Urban Land Institute, and International Council of Shopping Centers.  He was past president of the Friends of Malibu Urgent Care, serves on the board of The Painted Turtle, a summer camp for children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses.  He is on the Executive Campaign Committee for Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, an organization to end homelessness and serves the homeless population in Los Angeles, and is co-founder of March to the Top-Africa   www.marchtothetop.com.

Rethinking Real Estate will be a podcast series where we will be sitting down with industry icons and leaders to discuss the latest trends within this space.

In the inaugural episode, we were joined by Brent Crawford, Pricipal and Founder of Crawford Hoying.

Brent Crawford has guided the vision of Crawford Hoying since 1994, in which he has grown a single investment property into one of the largest real estate firms in Columbus, Ohio. He personally oversees many aspects of the business, including raising private equity for specific investment into income producing properties, securing debt financing, managing relationships with equity investors, monitoring new acquisitions, ground-up development and debt placement for all projects, and guiding all new developments for the company.

Brent has spoken at many events as a guest speaker covering topics such as current real estate trends, multi-family markets and development growth in central Ohio. In addition, he taught property management and real estate trends at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and regularly returns as a guest speaker. He serves on the boards of Sophisticated Systems and The Ohio State Sports Medicine Center, and is the current President of the Center for Real Estate at The Ohio State University. He also is a current member of the Columbus Partnership. He is a 1995 graduate of The Ohio State University holding a bachelor's degree in communications, and resides in Dublin, Ohio with his wife, Liz, and their two children.