Mark Seiler is a co-founder and managing partner of Metrovation, a development and urban consulting firm specializing in acquiring, developing and rehabilitating office and retail properties. In recent years, Mr. Seiler has formed several partnerships, acting as the managing partner, to purchase and rehabilitate office buildings in San Francisco and the Jack London Square area of Oakland. These developments have included full rehabilitation, redesign, seismic retrofit, and base building and tenant improvement construction. Mr. Seiler also has extensive experience re-tenanting and financing retail, office, and other commercial properties.
 
Mr. Seiler received an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.


Merritt Sher has been a real estate innovator since founding Terranomics in 1970. In addition to serving as Chairman of Terranomics Corporation, he is a principal in Metrovation. Mr. Sher has played a key role in the creation of some of America's most successful commercial real estate projects, including the nation's first Power Center, 280 Metro Center in Colma, CA; the "lifestyle center" The Grove at Shrewsbury in Shrewsbury, NJ; and Jack London Square in Oakland, CA.
 
Mr. Sher has been a board member and early stage investor for several national companies, and has served as a real estate consultant for such retailers as The Gap, where he arranged the firm's acquisition of Banana Republic. In 1989, he formed Terranomics Retail Services as the brokerage division of Terranomics. It became one of the nation's largest retail real estate brokerages, specializing in tenant representation, project leasing and institutional property management, representing several million square feet of retail space and many of the nation's leading retailers. In 1997, Federal Realty Investment Trust acquired Terranomics Retail Services, which has since been purchased by BT Commercial.

Mr. Sher received his JD from Hastings College of the Law.

DRE # 00330645


Christine Firstenberg, Managing Director of Metrovation Brokerage, has 16 years experience in the retail real estate industry. She has focused her attention on shopping center development, tenant representation, and the leasing of neighborhood and community centers. Recently, her primary focus has been on representing national, anchor retail chains in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   
She spent 6 years at McMasters and Westland/TRI in Walnut Creek, and then 9 years at Terranomics Retail Services in San Francisco before starting Metrovation Brokerage with the principals of Terranomics Development in 2002.
 
She has been active in consulting to cities, serving for two years as the Retail Consultant for the Office of Economic Development in the City of San Jose, and working with other cities such as Hercules, Hayward, Concord, Richmond and El Cerrito.
 
Currently Ms. Firstenberg has primary leasing responsibility for 9 properties in the Bay Area, consisting of approximately 1,200,000 square feet of retail space. In her career, she has represented tenants such as Wal-Mart, Kohl’s Department store, Andronico’s Markets, Longs Drugs, Safeway, SteinMart, Office Depot, Century Theatres, AMC Theatres, Costco, and The Mills Corporation.

Ms. Firstenberg has been politically active in the Bay Area, serving as Vice President and Board Member of the Contra Costa Council (formally the Contra Costa Development Association); the Government Affairs Chairman for four years for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) in Northern California, and as board member, and Program Chairman for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Program Committee in Northern California.

DRE # 00973135


Linda Braz is Director and Senior Project Consultant for Metrovation Brokerage, and handles various aspects of concept development and implementation, tenant coordination, and strategic retail retention strategies including retail sales analysis, merchandising and small shop leasing. Ms. Braz was lead consultant for the projects in Chandler, Arizona, and Anaheim, California. She was also the lead consultant on the Mid-Market Concept Team spanning the area from Yerba Buena to Valencia Street in San Francisco, California.
 
Ms. Braz is currently continuing a 7+ year affiliation with the Shorenstein Company on marketing, strategizing and leasing the retail component of their Oakland City Center project. As a result of creating a successful project at City Center, Ms. Braz has also worked on numerous leasing projects throughout Oakland, including the revitalization of Old Oakland.
 
Ms. Braz has been a retail consultant to the City of Morgan Hill, City of Richmond and the City of San Jose, and is working on shopping center shop space, leasing projects from Sunnyvale to Healdsburg, California.  Ms. Braz is the primary office broker for Metrovation, leasing company owned projects.

Ms. Braz received her MFA from San Jose State University.

DRE # 01198147


Kurt Grundman is part of both Metrovation Brokerage and Metrovation Development. Mr. Grundman has spent the last four years working on residential and commercial development projects throughout the Bay Area. He is now actively involved in representing national retailers in their Bay Area expansions, including Longs Drugs and Ace Hardware.
 
Prior to joining Metrovation, Mr. Grundman served as Vice President to Paragon Financial, a commercial and residential financing company.
 
Mr. Grundman studied business at St. Norbert’s College in Green Bay, WI.

DRE # 01388960


Elise Morris is a retail Leasing Agent with Metrovation Brokerage. For the past six years, Ms. Morris has also played a significant role in the development of marketing materials for Metrovation, creating effective leasing materials, logo design, and print advertising.
 
Ms. Morris has worked on the leasing of multiple neighborhood, community and regional retail projects throughout the Bay Area, including the Old Oakland project, Serra Center in Colma, Heritage Square in Concord, and Harbor Gate Shopping Center in Richmond, California.
 
Ms. Morris has a BA in Environmental Studies with a focus in Urban Planning.

DRE # 01401902


Chris Curtis is involved in the asset management, development and leasing of office, hotel and retail properties in the San Francisco Bay area. He is also involved with Metrovation Capital in commercial real estate lending operations.

Chris was a senior Vice President and Regional Leasing Manager with Shorenstein for the previous ten years, responsible for the leasing and marketing of high rise office buildings such as the John Hancock Center and Prudential Plaza in Chicago, Phoenix Plaza in Phoenix, and Oakland City Center.

Prior to that, he was a Vice President with Equitable Real Estate in charge of Asset Management for the San Francisco Region. His group was responsible for asset management and leasing of 36 million square feet of office, retail and industrial property located in seven western states and Hawaii. Prior to Equitable, he was a successful office leasing broker with Cushman & Wakefield in San Francisco.

Mr. Curtis holds a BA from University of Redlands and a JD from Golden Gate University School of Law.

DRE # 00542990