Colorado Real Estate Journal - February 18, 2015
Law firm Ryley Carlock & Applewhite announced the recent election of four associates and two of counsel attorneys to shareholders, including Mark H. Boscoe and Sheela S. Stack of the Denver office. Boscoe is a member of the firm’s corporate practice group. In his real estate practice, Boscoe helps clients with real estate acquisition, development and finance, tax increment finance, entity formation, and general transactional and corporate representation. In his tax and estate planning practice, he assists individual clients and families with estate and charitable planning matters, including preparation of wills, trusts, gift planning and family business matters. Stack is a member of the firm’s water, energy, resources and environmental law practice group. She focuses her practice on water rights adjudications and water planning, water quality permitting and environmental compliance. She represents municipalities, special districts, mining companies, developers, trade associations and a variety of other businesses regulated by the government. Morgan Cullen was named executive director of Accelerate Colorado, a partnership between business and local governments that works with the U.S. Congress and key federal leadership on issues critical to Colorado’s economic development, top industries and business community. Cullen, who previously was senior policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures and senior policy adviser for former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, will be in charge of developing and implementing Accelerate Colorado’s federal policy platform, retaining and expanding the organization’s membership base, and managing the annual business mission to Washington, D.C., among other activities. Prior to joining Accelerate Colorado, Cullen oversaw elections, campaign finance, legislative redistricting and management issues in the areas of security, legislator compensation and legislator demographics for the NCSL. Additionally, he was the key member of Owens’ policy team, developing, implementing and administering policy issues. Cullen has a master’s degree in politics and public policy from the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in political science with a minor in history from Western State Colorado University. Attorney Michelle R. Magruder has been named a director of law firm Fairfield and Woods PC. Magruder has extensive trial and hearing experience, and focuses her practice in the areas of employment law, general liability, contracts and risk management. She is a graduate of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Beth Mankamyer joined Alderman Bernstein, a Denver law firm specializing in eminent domain law, real estaterelated litigation and real estate transactional work. She comes to the firm with more than five years of real estate transactional experience, providing representation in sales and acquisitions, lending transactions, leasing and property management, as well as experience in public trustee foreclosures, entity formations and landlordtenant disputes. Mankamyer is a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School and Western Washington University. J. David Arkell joined law firm Moye White LLP as a partner. He will be a member of the firm’s construction group as well as its recently formed alternative dispute resolution group. Formerly a partner with Faegre Baker Daniels, Arkell has been practicing construction law for more than 35 years. Arkell advises owners, general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and sureties on planning and dispute avoidance, as well as dispute resolution through negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation. He drafts and negotiates construction contracts and other documents for both private and public construction projects. Arkell also arbitrates and mediates construction disputes. Rick Firmine and Christopher Auxier joined Fifteen Group, which opened a Denver office. The Denver office will serve as the diversified real estate investment firm’s platform for opportunistic real estate investment in the Mountain West region and represents its firstever investment office outside of Miami and Los Angeles. Firmine is a principal and will be overseeing Fifteen Group’s acquisition and development efforts in the Mountain West region. Prior to joining the company, Firmine spent over a decade as the owner of a Las Vegas-based development and advisory firm. He was the principal developer of over $150 million in ground-up developments and adviser and manager on more than $1 billion in acquisitions and repositions. Auxier is a senior vice president, also focusing on acquisitions and development for the Mountain West region. Most recently, Auxier was director of development for the Adams County Housing Authority, where he managed all activities relating to multifamily development, finance and transactions, including rehabilitation of new acquisitions and new construction projects using Low Income Housing Tax Credits and tax-exempt bonds in partnership with local governments. Timothy R. Odil of Otis Bedingfield & Peters LLC was named one of Colorado’s Lawyers of the Year by Law Week Colorado. Odil is a member of the firm’s litigation team and his practice focuses on disputes among private parties as well as disputes with local, state or federal government agencies. He handles complex commercial litigation and appeals, government and commercial contract negotiation and disputes, regulatory compliance, licensing and rulemaking issues, as well as employment law matters. McWhinney recently added four new associates to its development and finance business units. Brad O’Neil joined the firm, which develops masterplanned communities and vertical commercial and mixed-use projects, as senior vice president-capital markets, Ashley Stiles as vice president of development-Northern Colorado, Kyle Ramstetter as director of development and Shawn Dressel as developer. O’Neil will guide the firm’s sustained financial growth. In this role, he focuses on capital market, banking and financing relationships to support all business interests. Prior to joining McWhinney, O’Neil served as director of finance at Amstar for nearly 14 years, overseeing the company’s banking relationships and closing a variety of debt transactions totaling $2 billion. He also served as vice president for Wells Fargo Bank, sourcing and closing more than $1 billion in loan volume during his 11-year tenure. Stiles will oversee new development projects in the Northern Colorado market. This will include sourcing and vetting these projects from procurement through completion. She joined McWhinney from The Broe Group, where she served as director of development. Stiles also worked with organizations including Roche Constructors and Terracare Associates. Ramstetter will work with Chief Development Officer Trae Rigby sourcing opportunities for McWhinney within Colorado and on a national scale. These projects range in size and product type. Prior to McWhinney, Ramstetter worked as a broker for office tenant leasing as well as office redevelopment sourcing. Dressel fields development opportunities in all commercial niches, primarily focusing on the Denver metro area and with McWhinney leadership to determine opportunity feasibility. She has worked at other Denver area real estate firms, including St. Charles Town Co. and Continuum Partners, in development roles, managing more than 3 million square feet of Denver metro real estate.Joe Sigdestad joined Avison Young as principal. Based in the firm’s Denver office, he will focus on local and national tenant representation. With 23 years of commercial real estate experience in the Denver metropolitan market, Sigdestad was most recently with DTZ, formerly Cassidy Turley, where he served as a senior vice president. Over his career, Sigdestad has handled more than 7.4 million square feet of office transactions totaling more than $687 million in consideration, and represented and advised both local and national tenants on lease relocations, expansions and renewals. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Colorado. Avison Young is a Toronto, Canada-based commercial real estate services firm. Henry “Hank” Cox recently joined CBRE’s Denver office as an executive vice president, specializing in tenant representation for corporations with footprints in Colorado, throughout the U.S. and abroad. Most recently, Cox worked for the real estate services and investment firm in the Chicago office on the global corporate services team. He relocated to Colorado to join the firm’s Denver occupier and tenant advisory team and to partner with his son, Hadley Cox. Together, they will provide specialized tenant rep services throughout central Denver with an emphasis on financial services and technology companies.