COMPANY

Innovators in

Real Estate Development

For more than 40 years, the Empire Group has been at the forefront of residential and commercial real estate development, and this didn’t happen by mistake. Rather, it’s the result of a company culture that encourages and rewards not only hard work and dedication to its craft, but also differing perspectives, innovative thinking and collaborative decision-making. Most cutting-edge achievements are accomplished not by people acting alone, but by motivated, talented and complementary groups of individuals, which is what we have assembled at Empire.

MESSAGE FROM LEADERSHIP

A COMPANY
without limits

When I founded the Empire Group in Milwaukee in the 1970’s, I wanted it to be a visionary enterprise. So much of what was being built at the time lacked uniqueness and inspiration – functional, but unexciting. I was seeking to create innovative structures and communities in a dynamic, fast-growing market that embraced the American spirit of risk-taking and entrepreneurialism. Phoenix, Arizona proved to be a perfect fit for my vision and within a few years, I moved the firm to the desert. 40 years later, and within a market that added 2.5 million new residents during this time period, I’m proud of what Empire has become: one of the leading real estate development firms in the Valley of the Sun, having developed and/or managed over $3 billion in assets while carefully stewarding the hard-earned capital of over 4,000 unique investors.

RICHARD J. FELKER

Founding Partner
BUILDING AN EMPIRE

There is no
“I” in TEAM

Like all great teams, Empire’s professionals are a group of experienced, uniquely-qualified and highly-motivated individuals who understand the importance of hard work, collaboration and cooperation in pursuit of a common goal. Please take a few minutes to learn more about each of them.

TESTIMONIALS

The partners you
want on your side

Richard J. Felker

FOUNDING PARTNER

Geoffrey Jacobs

PARTNER

Randy Grudzinski

PARTNER

Michael Woolf

GENERAL COUNSEL

Cindy Thimmesch

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Bryan Freel

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Byron Crowe

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CAPITAL MARKETS

Erik Andrews

DIRECTOR OF INVESTOR SERVICES

Ron Ensley

VICE PRESIDENT OF CONSTRUCTION

Sherri Koshiol

DIRECTOR OF LAND DEVELOPMENT

Randy Wilmeth

ARIZONA PROJECT MANAGER

Nathan Wood

TEXAS PROJECT MANAGER

Andy Smith

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Lauren Broeman

CONTROLLER

Andrea Slezak

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE

Paul Nunez

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

William Walker

LAND ACQUISITIONS/DEVELOPMENT

Gabrielle Andress

ESCROW CLOSING COORDINATOR

Frank Mariani

FINANCIAL ANALYST

Shona Peterson

STAFF ACCOUNTANT

Renae Penuel

PROJECT ACCOUNTANT

Patty Schimmoller

AZ PROJECT COORDINATOR

Stephanie Mousseau

ENFR PROJECT COORDINATOR

Kira Jensen

JUNIOR STAFF ACCOUNTANT

Susana Ortega

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE

Andy Smith

PROJECT COORDINATOR

PROGRESS and

innovation is who we are

Empire has forged a reputation for success in pioneering new opportunities and creating developments that revitalize and revolutionize their communities. We combine forecasting, instinct and stewardship excellence to develop cutting edge, Class A+ properties.

 
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BUILD-FOR-RENT COMMUNITIES

At a time when the need for housing units in major metro areas is at an all-time high, Single-Family Build-For-Rent is a  booming housing sector.

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URBAN HIGH-RISE

With significant investments being made downtown, Empire is meeting the demand and bringing upscale residences to the Phoenix skyline.

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OPPORTUNISTIC VENTURES

Empire is always on the lookout for exciting developments that present unique opportunities and returns for our investors.

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Empire Group is recognized as one of the leading residential and commercial real estate developers in the Phoenix metropolitan market.

©2020 The Empire Group of Companies, LLC.
All Rights Reserved.

FOUNDING PARTNER

Richard Felker

Richard Felker began his business career in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he owned and operated furniture/appliance stores. After 10 years or so, in the early 1970s, he moved into the real estate development business in Wisconsin, and for the last 27 years he has focused on real estate developments in the Phoenix metropolitan area. During his 40 years of real estate experience, Mr. Felker has developed over 100 projects valued at over $1 Billion. Those projects have included more than 1,845 apartment units; 128 apartment units converted to condominiums; 835 condominium units, 5,110 single family lots (consisting of lots sold to builders; custom lots sold to upscale buyers and single family/townhouse homes) and more than a dozen retail/commercial/office projects. His vision, ability to recognize current and future trends, extensive contacts with lenders, brokers and municipal and community leaders and his wealth of experience in all phases of residential and commercial development, financing, construction, and property management, combined with his ability to assemble and lead great teams, have all helped create the success of his investment/development entities, collectively known as The Empire Group. These accomplishments have led him to be the recipient of nine National Awards for Excellence for his projects, including recognition for Design and Excellence by the Pacific Coast Builders Conference, Professional Builder Magazine and the National Association of Realtors; Builders Magazine “Best in the West” Award, and the MAME Award.

PARTNER

Geoffrey Jacobs

Mr. Jacobs is the managing partner of Aspirant Development and a principal of The Empire Group of affiliated companies.  He oversees all of Aspirant’s luxury high-rise residential and core mixed-use projects.  In addition, he directs all of Empire’s single-family build-for-rent (SFBFR) projects in Texas, Colorado and Indiana.  In his role with Aspirant, Mr. Jacobs was responsible for building the first high-rise multifamily project in the history of Phoenix when Aspirant completed The Stewart, a 19-story, 312-unit, luxury apartment project, in 2019.  The success of Stewart is often credited with jump-staring the explosion of new development in downtown Phoenix.  Aspirant continued to add to the downtown Phoenix skyline with its recently completed Aspire high-rise; and its upcoming projects include luxury residential communities in downtown Scottsdale, downtown Phoenix, and downtown Tempe.  In his role with Empire, Mr. Jacobs oversees all aspects of Empire’s SFBFR projects in Austin, DFW, Denver, Colorado Springs and Indianapolis. Previously, Mr. Jacobs was a principal with Progress Residential, one of the largest single-family rental real estate funds in the country.  He was one of the original partners in both the general partnership and the management company and helped Progress grow from a startup, including active involvement in a $1.2 billion equity raise, to an organization with over $3.5 billion in assets and nearly 20,000 single-family rental homes in over 20 markets.  Prior to partnering with Progress, Mr. Jacobs was one of the early pioneers in the single-family rental real estate fund strategy.  Between 2009 and 2012, he raised close to $150 million from high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors in a series of funds dedicated to this strategy at a time when the SFR business was a nascent, “mom and pop” industry.  Mr. Jacobs oversaw all aspects of Empire’s single-family rental fund business, from capital raising to capital deployment and asset management.  In 1991, Mr. Jacobs graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in international finance. In 1992, Mr. Jacobs graduated from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, where he earned his master’s degree in international management.  Mr. Jacobs has called Phoenix home for over 30 years and is a graduate of Brophy College Preparatory High School.

PARTNER & HEAD OF CAPITAL MARKETS

Randy Grudzinski

Mr. Grudzinski is the Managing Partner of Empire Capital Advisors and a Partner and Head of Capital Markets for the Empire Group of Companies. In this role, Randy spearheads the equity capital formation for all of Empire’s private placement offerings and has been working with his partners Richard Felker and Geoff Jacobs since 2009 (and as a Partner at Empire since 2013). Since working with Empire, Randy and his team have raised over $900 MM of equity across 40+ separate 506(b) Reg D investment programs constituting over $3 B of total asset value. Supporting his efforts is a network of over 25 Broker Dealer and 15 RIA firms whose underlying independent financial advisors utilize Empire’s unique real estate investment offerings as financial planning instruments for their accredited clients. To-date, Empire’s network of active advisors (e.g. those utilizing Empire-sponsored investment programs) exceeds 200 with Empire’s current accredited investor count totaling over 5,000 active investors.

Prior to joining Empire, Mr. Grudzinski was a Managing Director at a Chicago-based, late-stage private equity investment bank and a Senior Vice President of Capital Markets for another Chicago-based real estate sponsor focused on purchasing and redeveloping retail real estate properties throughout the U.S. Earlier in this career, Randy served as a Principal in the Chicago offices of two strategic consulting firms, Diamond Technology Partners and Kuczmarski & Associates, and as a Senior Vice President and member of the founding management team of DigitalWork.com, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson-backed provider of online small business services. Mr. Grudzinski is a High Honors graduate of the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Mr. Grudzinski also is a graduate of DePauw University and the London School of Economics – earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics. Mr. Grudzinski is a FINRA registered representative with Series 22, 24, 28, 62, 63, 79 and 99 designations.

Randy has been married to his wife Molly for 25+ years and they both are the proud parents of two college- aged children. Randy and Molly make their home in Scottsdale, Arizona and have a summer home in the Harbor Country area on the southeast shore of Lake Michigan.

GENERAL COUNSEL

Michael Woolf

Michael Woolf has been a lawyer in Arizona since 1974. He was an undergraduate of Arizona State University where he graduated with honors in 1971 with a business degree. In 1974 he graduated from Arizona State University Law School, cum laude. Before being employed by The Empire Group as in-house counsel in 2006, Michael was a shareholder in the Phoenix law firm of O’Connor, Cavanagh, Anderson, Killingsworth, Westover and Beshears, PA and an owning shareholder in the Phoenix law firm of Mariscal, Weeks, McIntyre and Friedlander, PA. During his professional career, Michael has been a transactional lawyer with an emphasis on documenting business transactions, real estate financing, and all aspects of commercial, retail, and residential real estate, including extensive experience in construction, development, sales, brokerage, leasing and community development documentation. Michael has been honored by Phoenix Magazine as one of the top lawyers in Arizona. During his long history of representing Empire entities while with the above law firms, Michael has also represented national and local developers, homebuilders, lenders and real estate brokerage companies as well as many local non-real estate oriented businesses. Michael is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona; has been a member of numerous committees formed by the Arizona Department of Real Estate to recommend changes to Arizona real estate statutes and regulations; is a member of the American Bar Association, Arizona State Bar Association, Maricopa County Bar Association; and is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers.

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Cindy Thimmesch

Ms. Thimmesch began her Finance career working in the hotel business for various legendary properties such as the Willard Inter-Continental and the Arizona Biltmore.  Honing her skills in budgeting, forecasting, and process improvement, her specialty was working with department managers in developing skills to achieve financial performance while maintaining operational standards.   Beginning in 1998, Ms. Thimmesch served as the Vice President, Controller and later the Vice President of Investor Relations of Visitalk.com, an internet startup dedicated to providing VOIP and Video/Data Conferencing through a permanent directory.  During the course of Business, She assisted in the raise of $45 million from Angel Investors. She coordinated SEC filings, Private Placement Memorandums, and Annual meetings for shareholders.  Additionally, she worked with Ernst & Young in implementing back office and front office integration in call accounting and financial systems.   Ms. Thimmesch worked as the Controller for Geoffrey H. Edmunds and Associates from 2004 – 2008. Projects she was involved in ranged from The Scottsdale Waterfront, a luxury 198 condominium development, to the  Ranch Cottages at Talking Rock, 48 cottages designed for luxury high country living. During her tenure at Geoffrey Edmunds, the financial operations for some projects were entirely in house:  from cash flow management, risk management, work in process, Sales tax, financials, property management, loan administration to home closings.  Others she coordinated in conjunction with various joint venture partners such as Opus West, Harvard Investments and the Pivotal Group.   Most recently, she was the Controller for Green Street Communities, an infill real estate developer and home builder.  There, she developed specialized Asset reporting for investors along with various dynamic cash flow forecasting tools that allowed for multiple scenario analysis.  Ms. Thimmesch also created budgeting and forecasting models designed to ROE needs.  Ms. Thimmesch earned a business degree with Honor from Michigan State University and holds her Master’s in Business Administration from the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.  She is also a Certified Managerial Accountant (CMA).

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Bryan Freel

Mr. Freel joined the Empire team in 2021 and currently serves as Managing Director of Development. His responsibilities include overseeing and developing Empire’s national land development, and in particular the residential build for rent communities, including all aspects of acquisition, due diligence, planning, entitlements, financing, construction and leasing. In the 14 years immediately prior to joining Empire, Mr. Freel served as the Manager, Owner and Founder of Vine Properties, LLC, a custom home building and real estate development company focusing its operations in the Western Suburbs of Chicago where he purchased, developed and constructed over $100 MM in real estate, primarily focusing on residential construction. Prior to that Mr. Freel spent 11 years working with Deloitte and KPMG focusing on mergers and acquisition due diligence on large multi-national transactions, including Supervalu’s $17.4 Billion acquisition of Alberston’s and Alberto-Culver’s $3 Billion spin off of Sally Beauty Co., among other transactions. Mr. Freel also focused on complex tax planning strategies, structured leasing, structured financing, and other tax advantaged transactions, serving as engagement manager on engagements for many large clients, including, Bank of Montreal, AEGON USA, ABN Amro, Harley Davidson and others. Mr. Freel worked for a Chicago law firm as a corporate and taxation attorney prior to joining Deloitte and KPMG. In 1991, Mr. Freel graduated from the Marquette University with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. Mr. Freel received is CPA certification from Arizona State Board of Accountancy in 1993. Mr. Freel attended DePaul University College of Law and received his J.D. in 1996. Mr. Freel was an Editor, Writer and the Business Manager of the DePaul Law Review. Recipient of KPMG’s Encore Award for his participation in the structured financing of the St. Louis Cardinals new baseball stadium, which opened 2006.

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CAPITAL MARKETS

Byron Crowe

Mr. Crowe currently serves as Managing Director of Capital Markets for the Empire Group. Since entering the alternative investments industry in 1996, Byron has structured and raised over $2B for private investment programs. Prior to joining the Empire team, Byron served as CEO of Paulson Investment Company, LLC and President with Advanced Equities, Inc., where he acted as external Placement Agent for Empire’s family of Phoenix-based real estate funds. Mr. Crowe was also Founder and Executive Vice President of LaSalle St Capital Markets, Inc. which provided the Capital Markets services for LaSalle St Securities, LLC, a regional Broker Dealer with over 500 registered representatives. Mr. Crowe is a graduate of the University of Iowa earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting. Mr. Crowe is a FINRA registered representative with Series 7, 24, 55, 63, and 79 designations.

DIRECTOR OF INVESTOR SERVICES

Erik Andrews

Mr. Andrews serves as Director of Investor Services for the Empire Group. In this role, Mr. Andrews is responsible for investor services, operations processing, oversight of various service providers, and building and maintaining relationships with advisors and investors while assisting them with their real estate investment needs. Prior to coming to Empire Group, Mr. Andrews served as an Investment Advisor at Prudential in the Scottsdale area, giving him extensive experience in the financial and investor service industry. Mr. Andrews received his bachelor’s degree from Arizona State in Business Statistics and has been previously FINRA registered with Series 6 and 63 licensing.

CONTROLLER

Lauren Broeman

Ms. Broeman has worked in Commercial Construction and Manufacturing accounting and finance for over 25 years. She has acted as Consultant and Controller for multiple remote clients engaged in building, manufacturing, publishing, and construction industries. For 16 years she acted as Treasurer, Controller, and CFO for Homes & Son Contractors. Her financial management allowed her to capture a yearly gain of $100K in interest revenue for the company. As controller for building and construction companies, Lauren has expert knowledge in capital expenditures, cash flow projections, budget and revenue forecasting, as well as extensive experience and knowledge of construction procedures and cost mitigation. Her audit expertise reclaimed $65K in payable sales tax for one of her remote clients, experience she used in her very first project with Empire, the annual year-end Fund audits. Ms. Broeman joined The Empire Group of Companies at the end of 2014. As Controller, she gathers, reviews, and balances all financials for 40+ companies and prepares them for review by CFO and outside tax accountants and auditors. She performs budget vs. cost analyses for special construction projects and budget reviews for all land development.