NAIOP Austin - Board Details

Brenda Studt

President 2024
Development Director
United Properties

Brenda Studt is responsible for supporting the overall commercial real estate development process, and leading and managing many tasks associated with: pre-development, due diligence, entitlement work, internal approvals and coordination, design, and construction. She works collaboratively with several teams to ensure project tasks are completed timely and risks are mitigated. Prior to joining United Properties in September 2020, Studt spent over eight years in senior marketing roles with The Excelsior Group, most recently as Senior Vice President/Creative Director at Excelsior Creative, an affiliate of The Excelsior Group, overseeing all agency operations and providing leadership and inspiration for various teams. She has also held positions with Architectural Alliance and Stahl Construction. She is a previous board member of NAIOP-Minnesota and SPEDCO.

Clayton J. Strolle

President Elect
Director, Land
Westwood

Clayton Strolle, oversees the Austin branch of the firm. Clayton has been in Austin for 2 years, having previously officed in the firm’s Dallas headquarters for 12 years. His project experience encompasses many of the firm’s project sectors, with a specialization in civil engineering for industrial development. Clayton holds a B.S. in both Civil Engineering and Architecture from Texas Tech University. He is a past NAIOP board member, and served as the Developing Leaders President of the North Texas Chapter. If he’s not spending time with his wife and daughter, Clayton is usually hunting, fishing or playing a round of golf.

Brooke Harlander

Treasurer
Regional Partner
St. John Properties

Brooke Harlander is Regional Partner for St. John Properties, Inc., and oversees all development activities for the company’s Texas office. St. John Properties is one of the largest privately-held commercial real estate developers in the nation. They manage site selection, acquisitions, development, design, construction, leasing, marketing, financing, and property management, all in-house. St. John Properties has developed, constructed and owns more than 22 million square feet of office, flex/research & development, retail, and warehouse space. In 2020, Harlander was recognized as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by the Maryland Daily Record for her leadership and commitment to community service. She earned a degree in Law & American Civilization from Towson University, and a Masters in Real Estate and Infrastructure from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to her work with NAIOP, Harlander is involved in the Urban Land Institute and currently serves on the Real Estate Alumni Network board for the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Gerald McCarty

Secretary
Project Director
Harvey | Harvey-Cleary Builders

Gerald joined Harvey | Harvey-Cleary, a full service General Contractor, in 2007. With 19-years of experience in Austin, Gerald has a long record of successfully guiding projects from conception to completion. His experience and market knowledge includes office, industrial, multi-family, senior living, and tenant improvements. Notable projects he’s been involved in include The Republic, T3 ATX, The Bowie, SXSW Center, Eastbound, Eastlake at Tillery, The Village at The Triangle, and Centro West Block.

Edvin Beasley

Past President
Managing Director
Pennybacker Capital, LLC

Edvin Beasley is a managing director at Pennybacker Capital, a real estate private equity firm. He has 16 years of commercial real estate transactional and consulting experience and in his current role, he leads the firm’s efforts to identify and underwrite potential investments in the office product class. Edvin serves on Pennybacker’s diversity and equality committee. Previously, Edvin spent nine years at Stream Realty Partners where he was responsible for the profitability of the office brokerage services business unit, including strategic direction and operation of the office leasing division. In this role, he grew the company’s office portfolio by over 3 million square feet of Class A office space and added an additional 10 professionals to his team. In addition to leading the office team, he was also part of the development and acquisition team responsible for underwriting the firm’s principal transactions. During his brokerage career at Stream Realty Partners, Edvin was recognized as a “Heavy Hitter” by the Austin Business Journal numerous times. Prior to his role at Stream, Edvin spent 2004 -2010 at Trammell Crow, and CBRE after their merger, in their Washington, DC offices. While there, Edvin worked in brokerage and lease administration, building annual property operating budgets, and working with third party tax consultants to prepare assessment appeals, or aid in preparations for tax litigation. He began his career with a series of internships in property tax consulting, first with Assessment Technologies, founded by Graham Weston, and then later with Deloitte.

Kurt Cleveland

Board Director
Director of Construction
Stratus Properties

Kurt Cleveland has lived in Austin, Texas for the past 20 years and currently leads the construction efforts for Stratus Properties. Prior to joining Stratus in 2018 he was the Director of Preconstruction for Austin Commercial in Austin. He holds a B.S. and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Kurt is also a member of ULI Austin and RECA. Kurt enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter.

J.D. Lewis

Board Director

Senior Vice President, Office Leasing
HPI

Since beginning his commercial real estate career in 2013, J.D. has quickly become a top broker in Austin, Texas. J.D. is regularly recognized as a CoStar Power Broker and an ABJ Commercial Real Estate Heavy Hitter. As Senior Vice President of Office Leasing, J.D.’s focus is representing clients and owners in positioning assets to succeed through disposition. He takes great pride in his vast knowledge of the business, competitive nature, and passion for serving his clients. During his time with HPI, J.D. has executed nearly $1 billion in transactions, most notably being a 330,000 sf lease to Indeed at Domain Tower and a 265,000 sf lease to Visa at Research Park Plaza 1 & 2. In addition to his current leasing role, J.D. will be responsible for furthering HPI’s relationship with existing clientele as well as business development.

Bo Beacham

Board Director
First Vice President
CBRE

Bo Beacham joined CBRE in 2019 as a First Vice President in CBRE’s Advisory & Transaction Services group. Mr. Beacham has over 13 years of multi-disciplined real estate experience wherein his primary focus is on the leasing and marketing of Class A office projects. He has leased assets across various stages of the investment cycle which includes successfully pre-leasing new developments, the lease-up and stabilization of speculative development in addition to leasing existing multi-tenant office projects. Prior to joining CBRE, Mr. Beacham led the leasing efforts for Brandywine Realty Trust in Austin, TX. His portfolio consisted of 3.8MM square feet of Class A projects located throughout the most prominent office submarkets of Austin. While at Brandywine, Mr. Beacham completed transactions totaling nearly 4MM square feet with an aggregate gross lease value exceeding $820MM. Before beginning his brokerage career, Mr. Beacham spent nearly 5 years in Asset Management for Wells Real Estate Funds of Atlanta, GA where he was involved with over 1.2MM square feet of lease transactions and several dispositions. His tenure at Wells provided invaluable experiences working on a 9MM SF portfolio of institutional assets across several primary markets in the Northeast and in the Sunbelt. With his background in asset management, Mr. Beacham has an investor-oriented mindset allowing him to evaluate and strategize with his clients to maximize the value of an asset while conforming to the client’s goals and investment objectives.

Blake Brown

Program Chair
Vice President of Commercial Marketing
Heritage Title Company of Austin, Inc.

A native Austinite, Blake Brown graduated from Texas Christian University in 2014 with a BBA in Marketing. He has been employed with Heritage since 2015 and now serves as Vice President of Commercial Business Development. Blake is an active member of several other real estate & business organizations such as Real Estate Council of Austin, Urban Land Institute, National Multi Housing Council, and International Council of Shopping Centers. When not working, Blake enjoys being outdoors, especially hunting and fly fishing.

Amanda Swor

Board Director
Director of Land Use & Entitlements
Drenner Group

Amanda combines an unmatched understanding of the City of Austin Code with a deep personal and professional commitment to making Austin and Central Texas a better place to live and work. As the Director of Entitlements & Policy, she represents owners and developers from the beginning to the end of the entitlement process, managing due diligence zoning, site development permit, subdivision, vested rights and variance request cases. When she’s not working, Amanda stays busy with her her husband, Trey, their children, Caleb and Avery, and her ongoing involvement with boards and non-profit organizations in the Austin area.

Spencer Hayes

National Board Rep
Executive Managing Director
Cushman & Wakefield of TX

Spencer Hayes is an Executive Managing Director for Cushman & Wakefield.  He served as the C&W Managing Principal for Austin/San Antonio from 2016-2021, during which time the he led the company in growing over 350% in that time period, expanding its reach into multiple service lines.   Previously, Spencer was Co-Founder and Managing Principal at Oxford Commercial.  In 2016, after growing Oxford Commercial into a market leader for 23 years, Spencer negotiated the sale of the firm to Cushman & Wakefield. After stepping down from his 28 years of leadership, Spencer now handles consulting and marketing assignments for clients who require the most creative solutions for investment, development, office and tech/flex space. As one of the most active and respected commercial real estate professionals in Austin, Spencer was Oxford Commercial’s top historical production leader and was recognized multiple times as the firm’s annual top producer. Spencer has been involved in hundreds of transactions in his career, exceeding 6,000,000 square feet of leases, and sales of over 1,000,000 square feet for his clients in Austin, as well as multiple markets internationally.

Caitlyn Ryan

Board Director
Director
Turnbridge Equities

Caitlyn Ryan is a Director at Turnbridge Equities where she oversees the acquisition and development of all investments in the state of Texas. Prior to joining Turnbridge, Caitlyn was a Senior Vice President of the Investment Management Team at Stream Realty Partners. Her responsibilities include sourcing and executing new development and acquisition projects nationally. Caitlyn earned her Master’s in Business Administration from the Johns Hopkins University and her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Texas Tech University.

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