|  |  | Crosland’s Residential Division Names David Ravin as PresidentCharlotte, N.C., Sept. 6, 2007 – David Ravin is the new president of Crosland LLC’s residential division. A 10-year company veteran who oversaw Crosland’s Raleigh office, Ravin will lead the residential division’s 140 associates and their continued emphasis on luxury rental and for-sale infill housing. The move is a planned succession, in anticipation of the year-end retirement of Justin Little after two decades with the company.
Additionally, Crosland has promoted eight associates to new senior roles:
• Bill Anderson to senior vice president – contracting. Anderson will spearhead the contracting division’s activities in Florida, beginning with Lois & Spruce, a Crosland mixed-use development in Tampa’s Westshore submarket, and will oversee the Tampa and Charlotte contracting operations.
• Jim Anderson to director of Raleigh operations. In addition to his current role as vice president – Raleigh land development, he takes Ravin’s place as director of Crosland’s most active market.
• Jamie Dunn to vice president of investments. Dunn is responsible for the operations of Crosland’s new Southeastern real estate investment fund.
• Julianne Smith-Hamilton to vice president – marketing and technology. A member of Crosland’s corporate management team, Smith-Hamilton directs the company’s market research, communications and information technology functions.
• Chris Squier to vice president – mixed-use project executive. Squier oversees the development of Biltmore Park Town Square in Asheville, N.C., a $200 million mixed-use joint venture with Biltmore Farms.
• Austin Williams to vice president – Raleigh retail development. Williams is responsible for pursuing new retail projects in the Triangle region, to build on the success of new Crosland signature retail developments such as Midtown Commons in Knightdale.
• Chris Grenier to director of design and construction – retail. Based in Orlando, Grenier manages the entitlement, design and construction of Crosland’s shopping centers and mixed-use projects in Florida.
• Lonnie Willaby to director – Charlotte contracting. Willaby fills Bill Anderson’s role in Charlotte, where the contracting division continues to significantly expand its work on behalf of Crosland and third-party clients.
These promotions are in response to significant growth the company is experiencing.
“Since 2000, the value of our portfolio and assets under development has grown dramatically,” said Crosland Chairman and CEO Todd Mansfield, who is also chairman of the Urban Land Institute. “These talented associates are integral to our continued success.”
According to Ronni Fridman, Crosland’s senior vice president of human capital and strategy, many of these moves have been years in the making. “We recruit talent with the capacity and desire to develop into roles broader than the initial opportunity,” she said. “These promotions speak to our success in this regard. Capacity for growth is a distinct competitive advantage for Crosland.”
Residential Division Poised for Continued Growth
Ravin returns to Charlotte to lead Crosland’s residential division, which recently began developing condominiums in addition to apartments. A former residential and commercial architect, he was the lead apartment developer for Crosland’s nationally acclaimed Birkdale Village mixed-use community, then moved to Raleigh in 2000 to spearhead Crosland’s Raleigh expansion. Today, the Triangle is Crosland’s most active market with 1,412 multifamily units, 220,000 square feet of retail space, and six single-family communities including nearly 1,000 acres and 3,000 residential lots under development.
“We often get asked by residents and prospects if they can purchase our multifamily homes, and Crosland’s apartments have always been of condominium-quality, so our progression into for-sale product has been a natural fit,” said Ravin.
“We’ve been integrating complementary luxury residential into not only Crosland’s multi-use communities, but other developers have asked us to do the same in their commercial centers as well. They believe as we do the addition of our design-intensive residential product enhances the larger development,” he added. “Crosland is focused on creating pedestrian-oriented destinations around entertainment and employment nodes. Whether you’re talking urban infill or in the suburbs, high-quality residential is a vital part of turning any project into a destination.”
In addition to his expertise in multifamily within mixed-use communities, Ravin’s strength is in tailoring projects to the site and the surrounding market. For example, Crosland’s Weston Lakeside community was conceived as a typical garden apartment within another developer’s Class A office park, but Ravin recognized a greater opportunity. He reoriented the residences toward the lake, decreased the number of buildings to preserve additional open space, and increased each building by two stories to fit the scale of the surrounding offices. The result was Cary’s first class A+ apartment community, raising the bar for the local market.
Little personally hired Ravin back in 1998, so the opportunity to choose and mentor his eventual successor has been rewarding for one of Crosland’s most loyal associates.
“Crosland has been a wonderful place to work for the last 20 years,” said Little. “I’ve been fortunate to work on many interesting and challenging projects and work with outstanding people along the way. The residential division is in great shape with a solid team and a strong new leader.”
The residential division currently has 2,366 units under development. The division manages close to 4,000 market-rate apartments and 1,431 affordable-housing units. As previously announced, Crosland also recently hired Dionne Nelson as a development associate focused on affordable housing, an area that will continue to grow in emphasis for the residential division.
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