Principal
J. Donald Henry
Don is the founding principal with Village Partners. He oversees acquisitions, overall project design and urban mixed-use projects under development. A thirty-year real estate industry veteran with a unique balance of skills in finance and investments combined with hands-on experience in the planning, design and management of urban residential and mixed-use real estate developments.
Prior to launching Village Partners, he was Vice President of Development/Acquisitions for the Related Companies. Previous to joining Related, Don was a Vice President of Development with Legacy Partners / Lincoln Property Company (Western Region). Preceding his tenure at Legacy / Lincoln, Don was a Senior Associate with the international design firm of Sasaki Associates.
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master Degree in Real Estate Development
The Claremont Graduate University: The Peter Drucker Graduate Management Center, Certificate in Executive Management
California State Polytechnic University, Bachelor of Science, Design
Activities & Affiliations
Urban Land Institute (ULI)
International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
American Planning Association (APA)
License & Certifications:
Landscape Architect License, State of California
Principal
Michael Morris - In Memoriam
Michael Morris, 65, passed away on February 2, 2023 after a seven year battle with cancer.
Michael’s career in Southern California real estate spanned decades. He began his journey as a flood control engineer for LA County fresh out of University of Notre Dame. Michael’s entrepreneurial spirit spurred him to pursue an MBA from USC and, armed with a business degree, he began his long career in real estate development. Michael spent the first part of his career developing industrial, office, retail, and mixed-use projects in Southern California at both Legacy Partners and LNR.
Michael was responsible for the acquisition, entitlement, and development of industrial, office, retail, and mixed-use projects in the Inland Empire as Vice President for LNR Property Corporation prior to establishing his development consulting services business in late 2008. During his tenure at LNR, Michael led the redevelopment of the westerly portion of the former March Air Force Base in Riverside County, transforming 1,200 acres into Meridian, a premiere, mixed use, master-planned business park. During this same time, he managed the redevelopment infrastructure of 200-acre Sierra Business Park in Fontana.
While at Legacy Partners, Michael forged a lasting friendship with Don Henry that would culminate in their work together at Village Partners. Michael’s tenure as Principal of Village Partners was a joyful highlight of his career. He was passionate about the work in mixed-use transit-oriented development, and he was proud of all that the Village Partners team accomplished together. During the last year of his life, Michael achieved incredible milestones with his team: breaking ground on 350 units in Montclair and entitling 1,400 more in Claremont and Redlands.
A Montana native, Michael spent his childhood on horseback at the family ranch, and his adolescence in the gritty copper mining town of Butte. Even after decades in Southern California, Michael kept his Montana heritage close to heart with yearly family trips and in his short stories. Michael was an adventurer and an outdoorsman; his favorite activities included riding horses, body surfing, kayaking whitewater rapids, and mountain biking. He was also an urbanist at heart and lover of great walkable cities. Michael’s favorite city was Paris and he spent many happy days exploring the city’s beautiful parks and boulevards with his family.
Michael’s legacy will live on in his contribution to the built environment, his writing, and in our memories.
Education
University Southern California, Masters Degree in Business Administration, emphasis in Finance
University of Notre Dame, Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering
Activities & Affiliations
Urban Land Institute (ULI) Orange County/Inland Empire Chapter Mentoring Program
Past President and Board Member of NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association- Inland Empire Chapter
Licenses
Real Estate Broker License, State of California
Civil Engineering License, State of California
Director of Construction Management
Roger Stevenson
Roger D. Stevenson is the Director of Construction Management for Village Partners. Prior to his work with Village Partners, Roger founded Bedrock Consulting, LLC, a Construction Management and Program Management Consulting company. With over 35 years of solid construction industry experience, Mr. Stevenson provides perspective and expertise that is grounded in years of experience and success. As a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor, Mr. Stevenson is a passionate advocate of sustainability and green construction.
Mr. Stevenson invested decades of service with Charles Pankow Builders a leading design-build construction company where he was responsible for pre-construction services. A few of his successful project endeavors included a mixed use development at Sunset & Vine in Hollywood, CA and another development, Paseo Colorado in Pasadena, CA.
A native of Indiana, Mr. Stevenson received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with emphasis in Structures, Geo-Technical Systems and Construction Management from Purdue University. He is a member of the Construction Management Association of America, US Green Build Council, Urban Land Institute, and International Council of Shopping Centers. Mr. Stevenson’s hands-on and solution-oriented approach brings tremendous value to costly and technically challenged projects.
Education
Purdue University, Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering
Activities & Affiliations
ULI, Urban Land Institute
CMAA, Construction Managers Association of America
USGBC, United States Green Building Council
Licenses
National Certified Sustainable Building Advisor (CSBA)
California General Contractors License #923597
Director of Development
Kaitlin Morris
Kaitlin joined Village Partners in 2015. As Director of Development, she is involved in market research, acquisition, project underwriting, design development, and due diligence. Kaitlin brings an interdisciplinary and empirically-informed perspective coupled with a comprehensive knowledge of the Southern California region to her work with Village Partners. Prior to her work with Village Partners, Kaitlin’s academic and professional work was grounded in economics, including time spent working at the San Francisco Center for Economic Development.
Kaitlin has a particular passion for community engagement, and works to bring a diverse range of local voices into the conversation to ensure an inclusive process. She directs the Village Partners community engagement processes, facilitates the formation of local partnerships, and leads educational outreach.
Education
University Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy, Masters Degree in Planning, emphasis in Economic Development
Scripps College, Bachelor of Arts, Economics
Activities & Affiliations
ULI, Urban Land Institute
Placemaking Strategist/Leasing
Ed de Avila
Edward A. de Avila is President of Place Strategists that focuses on creating value through planning, programming, and procurement. Since 2000 Place Strategists has provided comprehensive strategic plans through research, analysis, and development experience on the most complex properties. Place Strategists’ distinction is comprehending the interdependent consequences of key factors to create customized game plans to achieve place competitiveness and support leaders’ decisions. Responsible for all aspects of the real estate development process including design, underwriting, entitlements, construction, lease-up, and stabilization.
He has over 25 years of mixed-use retail experience creating and enhancing destination driven projects in historic districts and the suburbs while creating and managing multi-disciplinary project teams. Ed addresses the future consumer creating meaningful destinations through a disciplined process-driven place strategy.
Ed recently provided various real estate services for three street front mixed-use developments in southern California with estimated development costs per project averaging approximately $400 million. At the iconic 15-block Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, he most recently represented the new buyers with their due diligence delivering a block-by-block comprehensive strategic plan for a major incentive program and future value creation. He previously led the team that received a $56 million TIF, and entitlements that delivered a $240 million development expansion on the Country Club Plaza. Previously, he led the planning, design, and successful entitlement of a 9-block, $2 billion development plan at White Flint Mall in Bethesda, Maryland.
In addition, as Co-founder and Managing Director of AMC’s wholly owned subsidiary, Centertainment, Ed directed the efforts on various suburban and urban mixed-use entertainment centers, including capturing a $250 million TIF and entitlements for the Power & Light District in Kansas City. Earlier in his career, Ed managed Phase One delivery of Reston Town Center, the country’s earliest “modern day” street front mixed-use district built in the suburbs where national tenants opened their first stores. Ed continues providing his expertise for various industry councils, retail boards, and technical assistance panels at ULI.
Activities & Affiliations
ULI, Urban Land Institute
Director of Leasing
Michele Babcock
Michele Babcock has built a career optimizing the income-producing capabilities of commercial real estate and procuring the highest and best use for every asset with which she has been involved. As Principal of MB Realty Solutions, LLC, Ms. Babcock provides value to clients through lease-up, repositioning, and redevelopment. Prior to starting MB Realty Solutions, Michele was Executive Vice President at Donahue Schriber, where she directed the leasing and remerchandising of some of the company’s premium Northern and Central California assets.
A graduate of California State University, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Ms. Babcock is actively involved in ICSC and has served on the faculty of the ICSC University of Shopping Centers. She is past president of Commercial Real Estate Women, Orange County and has served on the Advisory Board for California Business Properties Association (CBPA). In 2006, Ms. Babcock was one of five honorees for Orange County Business Journal’s Women in Business Awards.
Fractional COO
Alan D. Dibartolomeo
Alan Dibartolomeo brings over 35 years of acquisition, development and management practice to Village Partners, Inc. He serves as fractional COO to the Company, utilizing his multi-family development background and expertise in operations, asset management and marketing to assist Don Henry and his team.
In 2003 Mr. Dibartolomeo founded his own firm, A&D Investment Group, Inc., to acquire and develop infill projects in high-density urban areas in Southern California as well as to advise investors/developers in undertaking private real estate ventures. In 2011 he partnered with American Development and BlackRock to entitle and build a highly dense mixed-use project in Glendale, which sold to Equity Residential in 2014 at a record-setting price in the market. He co-founded Urban Developers, Inc., in Walnut Creek in 2014 to pursue ground-up mixed-use development in the Bay Area.
Prior to his own ventures he spent twenty years in large corporate and privately held real estate companies, including as construction liaison at apartment developer Legacy Partners Residential/Irvine in the early 2000s. He began his real estate career with one of the most highly regarded commercial developers in the country in the 1980s, Trammell Crow Company.
Mr. Dibartolomeo has been a guest lecturer at the USC Masters in Real Estate Development graduate program, the USC Ross Minority Program in Real Estate, and at Urban Land Institute presentations. Mr. Dibartolomeo received a B.A. in Ecological Systems from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University. He is married with three adult children, and lives in Orange County.