Urban Environments develops commercial and residential projects in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. With over 20 years experience, the principals at the firm have extensive experience throughout the country, in both up and down markets. Though the Los Angeles market has been hard hit by the recent downturn, we view the coming years as a unique opportunity to develop projects with an advantageous risk/reward ratio.
Los Angeles will continue to grow and urbanize. In turn, the market will look to development firms with experience and creativity to deliver projects with residential and commercial uses that can successfully coexist. Urban Environments intends to be that firm.
The principals at Urban Environments and affiliated companies have experience in every aspect for successful development, from financial analysis to contract negotiation to construction management.
Chris DeBolt manages the development group. Chris has over 20 years of diverse development experience: storefront retail in New York, big box retail in St. Louis, mall expansion in California, and multi-family in Los Angeles. He has built for his private partnerships, as well as firms such as Pepsico, Macy's and Westfield.
For the investor, Urban Environments maximizes ROI by focusing on our high barrier to entry market — higher demand, lower supply. Value is created through the more difficult path of property assemblage, rezoning, and density bonuses.
From the consumer, Urban Environments focuses on design details and building efficiencies to maximize market demand. Value is created by raising our product's desirability above the competition, at a lesser cost.
The firm's focus is residential and mixed use (retail), in dense, high traffic urban locations. The residential component will be, depending on location, a mix of rental and for sale product, the latter being subdivided and held (leased) until the market recovers.