As the managing principal of Novawest, Brian brings more than 17 years of development and project delivery experience to the firm’s management team. Brian’s work has involved complex infrastructure planning, design and project execution amid challenging community and environmental mandates. Current successes include the development of over 70 custom home sites, “rooftops” and nearly 200,000-square-feet of custom residential product valued at more than $50 million. He directs all aspects of Novawest’s development efforts and collaborates with a developed network of financial, design and construction resources from around the globe. He also manages Novawest Properties LLC, a property management and sales subsidiary of Novawest.
Prior to his career as a real estate developer, Brian spent 13 years as an attorney and shareholder in the firm of Patrick & Stowell, in Aspen, Colorado. Brian’s law practice was devoted to natural resource transactions and litigation. He worked extensively with both the private and public sectors, including municipalities and special districts. During his tenure, Brian advised a group of investors seeking opportunities on Colorado’s western slope. This led to the purchase of land in Grand Junction and Brian’s first development project, Trails West Village, a 60-lot single-family residential subdivision.
With the success of Trails West Village, Brian formed BEA, Inc., a real estate investment management company, and began to build a portfolio of high-end residential properties in and around Aspen. BEA developed a range of properties over a nine-year span, including a 17-acre aggregated-parcel redevelopment site east of Aspen into the planned community – Morningstar at Aspen.
Sensing the strategic advantage of greater portfolio diversity, Brian migrated BEA and its investors outside of Colorado, taking on projects in Washington, California and Arizona. BEA project types evolved with the change in geographic venue as Brian anticipated the opportunities arising in the urban infill, walkable communities and mixed-use markets. This led to projects such as the Langley Garden Bungalows on Whidbey Island in Washington, a clustered development featuring 11 single-family cottages on a small parcel within walking distance of a town center. In Phoenix, Brian joined BEA with Greenroof LLC, a Phoenix based urban infill developer that brought a sustainability ethic to its mixed-use portfolio. As a part of Greenroof, Brian directed much of that organization’s environmentally sensitive development norms and attracted the attention of many civic leaders. Greenroof’s planned “sliver site” mid-rise, mixed-use building project in downtown Phoenix set new standards of context-sensitivity for a commercial structure in that community.
Novawest LLC, a full service boutique real estate firm, is the next stage in the evolution of the growing portfolio of real estate investments promoted, developed and managed by Brian. In 2009, Brian formed Novawest to attract additional investment opportunities and establish a product brand. The firm currently has plans for additional transit-oriented and environmentally sensitive communities in the Pacific Northwest and in the greater Phoenix area.
