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Page 12AA — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — February 18-March 3, 2015
n CMLA – Colorado Mort-
gage Lenders Association will
host its March luncheon March
5 at the Marriott Denver Tech
Center, 4900 S. Syracuse St.,
Denver.
The event, which runs from
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., will feature
a discussion by RickAccomazzo
of Bloom Murr Accomazzo &
Siler PC on “Marketing Services
Agreements: To Proceed or Not
to Proceed? – The Information
You Need to Decide.”
For more information, visit
n CREJ – Colorado Real
Estate Journal will present its
12th Annual Property Manage-
ment Conference & Expo Feb. 19
at the Inverness Hotel and Con-
ference Center at 200 Inverness
Drive West in Englewood.
The conference will be held
from 7:15 a.m. to noon and
feature a variety of panels,
including an office, industrial
and retail brokers panel, codes
panel, owners/asset managers
panel and property managers
panel.
For more information, visit
.
CREJ also will present the
2015 Multifamily Owners &
Managers Conference & Expo
March 3 at the Inverness Hotel.
The event from 7:15 a.m. to
noon is expected to draw more
than 650 of the leading play-
ers in Colorado multifamily real
estate market.
For more information, visit
.
n CREW – Commercial Real
Estate Women Denver will
host a professional develop-
ment event featuring Christine
R. Spray, a nationally recognized
expert in business development,
sales and marketing, and entre-
preneurship.
Spray is the founder and pres-
ident of Strategic Catalyst Inc.,
which helps companies align
business goals with marketing,
human resource and business
development strategies. She also
is a best-selling author. Spray
will share her expertise on topics
such as closing more leads and
time management for business.
The event will be held March
5 at The Curtis, 1405 Curtis St. in
Denver, from 1 to 6 p.m.
For more information, visit
.
n PLSC – Professional Land
Surveyors of Colorado will host
its fifth annual Rocky Mountain
Surveyors Summit Feb. 26-28 at
the Arvada Center in Arvada.
Four of the chapters, the Cen-
tral Colorado Professional Sur-
veyors, Colorado Spatial Refer-
ence Network, Northern Chap-
ter-PLSC and Southern Chapter
Professional Land Surveyors,
joined together to present all of
the Front Range conferences as
one event.
For more information, visit
s
who wanted to meet with me,”
he recalled.
He met with two Hispanic
women whose families had
lived in West Highland for
years.
The women scolded Vostrejs,
saying he was gentrifying the
neighborhood and they neither
wanted nor needed “fancy res-
taurants and stores that would
cater to rich, white people.”
He was told people who
lived there liked the neighbor-
hood as it is and developments
would drive out people of color
from the area.
Vostrejs was at a loss for
words.
“I told them, look, I just buy
old buildings and fix them up,”
he said.
Fast-forward about 15 years,
after a plan surfaced to build
three, five-story luxury apart-
ment buildings up the street
from 32nd and Lowell.
Two more women came to
Vostrejs to join their protest
against the apartment commu-
nity.
He couldn’t help but notice
they were both blonde, white
women, reflecting the change
predicted by the Hispanic
women.
“Everything had come full
circle,” Vostrejs said.
The neighbors protesting the
apartments had similar fears to
the other women.
“They told me the neighbor-
hood is just fine the way it is
and nothing has to change,”
Vostrejs said.
They were unhappy that he
did not join their opposition.
“People have to understand
that neighborhoods are living,
breathing and evolving things,”
Vostrejs said.
And from a business perspec-
tive, it is hard to make an argu-
ment that the new apartments
would be bad for Chipotle and
the other tenants in his build-
ing.
“It doesn’t exactly break my
heart that I would have another
150 or so customers who can
walk to my building,” Vostrejs
said.
Yet he understands that many
people neither like change nor
think all change is for the better.
“I’m sure if those five-story
apartments are built, 20 years
from now people will be pro-
testing some new proposal,
saying they like things the way
they are and there is no reason
to change it,” Vostrejs said.
One thing Vostrejs is not is a
seller.
“Selling our properties would
be like selling our children,”
Vostrejs said.
“We put so much effort and
sweat and blood into each of
our properties that we couldn’t
imagine parting with them,” he
said.
“It would be different if we
were merchant builders, who
build something, lease it up and
sell it,” he said.
“But that is not who we are.”
Indeed, as a third-generation
Denverite, Vostrejs cares deeply
about the city and its neighbor-
hoods.
“When we buy a building,
our goal is always to make the
neighborhood better,” he said.
Vostrejs grew up in Park Hill,
about two miles from where he
lives in Lowry, with his wife,
Mary, a pediatrician.
“My wife and I met in high
school,” at the Central Catholic
High School at 18th and Logan
streets.
Now, it is RedPeak Proper-
ties’ One City Block apartment
community.
“Mary and I were over there
at the D Bar restaurant having
dinner the other night, and we
were joking this is where we
used to play hooky and smoke
cigarettes when we were in
high school,” he said.
They have two grown
children. Alexandra, 26, is a
graduate student in landscape
architecture at the University
of Colorado Denver. Drew, 23,
is studying computer science at
CU Boulder, he said.
In his free time, Vostrejs is an
avid road cyclist and mountain
biker. He and Mary also like to
fly-fish whenever they get the
opportunity.
After graduating from Regis,
culminating 16 years of Catho-
lic schooling, Vostrejs entered
the restaurant business.
“As I got a little older, Mary
really wanted to start a family
and the restaurant business is
not really conducive to family
life,” Vostrejs said.
He was in his mid-20s in the
mid-1980s, when the savings
and loan crisis and the collapse
in energy prices crushed real
estate in Colorado and other
states whose economies had
been built on rising energy
prices.
Vostrejs joined a Denver attor-
ney who was doing workouts
for distressed properties.
“The value of the original
loans on the properties were
probably in excess of $900 mil-
lion,” he said.
Vostrejs handled the property
management for a wide variety
of asset classes, including retail,
apartment, industrial and office.
“I really received a crash
course on working out all kind
of real estate,” he said.
Then, Trammell Crow Co.
recruited him to for its property
management division.
“That’s where I met Pat
McHenry, who is now one of
my partners at Larimer Associ-
ates,” he said.
While at Trammell Crow,
he was in charge of Tamarac
Square along Hampden Ave-
nue, east of Interstate 25.
At Tamarac, Vostrejs got to
know Jeff Hermanson, who
owned a restaurant there.
“Jeff owned a number of
restaurants like Cadillac Ranch
and Champion Brewery in Lar-
imer Square. So when the Hahn
Co., which then owned Larimer
Square, wanted to sell it, Jeff
was a logical buyer,” Vostrejs
said.
After Hermanson bought Lar-
imer Square, he asked Vostrejs
to come on board to run it on a
day-to-day basis as the general
manager.
“It was a tough decision
because Trammell Crow was
just a great company and a
great place to work,” Vostrejs
said.
“But as a Denver native, I
realized what an opportunity it
was to work on a special asset
like Larimer Square. And it
would allow me to work down-
town, which is near and dear
to my heart. That was 19 years
ago, and the rest is history, as
they say.”s
For contact information, association profiles, and links,
please vis nd click on Industry Directory.
American Council of Engineering
Companies/Colorado
American Institute of Architects Colorado
American Society of Interior Designers
American Society of Landscape Architects,
Colorado Chapter
American Subcontractors Association
Apartment Association of Metro Denver
Appraisal Institute
Associated Builders & Contractors
Associated General Contractors
Building Operators Association of Colorado
Building Owners & Managers Association, Denver
Building Owners & Managers Association, Pikes Peak
CCIM – Certified Commercial Investment Members,
Colorado/Wyoming Chapter
Colorado Bar Association
Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association
Commercial Brokers of Boulder
Commercial Real Estate Women - CREW
Community Associations Institute
CoreNet Colorado
Counselors of Real Estate
Denver Metro Commercial Association
of Realtors - DMCAR
Institute of Real Estate Management, Denver Chapter
Institute of Real Estate Management, Southern
Colorado Chapter
International Council of Shopping Centers, Rocky
Mountain Chapter
International Facilities Management Association,
Denver Chapter
International Facilities Management Association,
Pikes Peak Chapter
Investment Community of the Rockies
LeadingAge Colorado
Mile High Exchangors
NAIOP Colorado – National Association of Industrial
& Office Properties
Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado
Realtor Commercial Industrial Society
Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute
Rocky Mountain Shopping Center Association
Society for Marketing Professional Services
Society of Industrial & Office Realtors
Urban Land Institute
U.S. Green Building Council, Colorado Chapter
WiD – Women in Design
If your association would like to be included in this directory,
please contact Lori Golightly at 303-623-1148
Associations
Directory