Genton Property Group Real Estate Investment & Development
Jonathan Genton
Founding Partner And CEO
Jonathan Genton is the Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of GPG. He is responsible for all aspects of operations for GPG, including acquisitions, development, financing, and asset management. Prior to forming GPG, Mr. Genton was the President and Managing Partner for Watt Genton Associates (“Watt Genton”) a real estate development company which developed over $800 million of commercial and residential properties throughout the United States.
Before forming Watt Genton, Mr. Genton acted as COO of Helios Property Company (“Helios”), a private real estate company affiliated with the Pritzker family. Helios was a development platform which invested in distressed development and entitlement opportunities throughout the United States.
Previously, Mr. Genton was a Vice President of SunAmerica and President/COO of Solus Property Company, LLC (“Solus”), an affiliate and managing partner of SunAmerica Realty Partners. Solus acquired and managed properties and mortgage interests in over $900 million of assets acquired from the Resolution Trust Company or RTC.
Mr. Genton began his 25-year career with Murdock Development Company (“Murdock”) a real estate development and investment company based in Los Angeles. While at Murdock, Mr. Genton worked on the entitlement and development of large scale master communities throughout California and Hawaii.
Mr. Genton is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in economics. Mr. Genton is an active member of the Policy Advisory Board, Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley and a full member of the Urban Land Institute.
Melanie Joseph CPA
COO/CFO
Ms. Joseph is the Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of GPG. She is responsible for asset management, debt financing, human resources, risk management, accounting, and financial reporting.
Previously, Ms. Joseph was the Director of Capital Markets for Watt Companies, Inc. (“Watt”), where she was responsible for real estate equity and debt financings. Over the past 60 years, Watt has acquired more than $11 billion of retail space and repositioned residential, retail and mixed-use properties.
Previously, she was the Controller for Watt Genton, where she was responsible for development project-level financial reporting and accounting activities in addition to negotiating and closing project-level debt and equity financing working on 12 transactions totaling over $400 million. Prior to Watt Genton, Ms. Joseph worked in public accounting and auditing for KPMG.
Ms. Joseph is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in Business Economics and a minor in Accounting. Ms. Joseph is a Certified Public Accountant and member of the Urban Land Institute and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
William Cockrum, IV
CIO
Mr. Cockrum is the Chief Investment Officer (“CIO”) of GPG. He is responsible for originating, underwriting, closing, and managing new investments.
Mr. Cockrum first worked with Mr. Genton in 2004 as partners while Mr. Cockrum worked at Barrow Street Capital LLC (“Barrow Street”). Previously, he was the CFO and CIO for LandCap Partners, a national residential investment business sponsored by Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Funds (NYSE: GS) and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. (NYSE: NRF). LandCap Partners targeted distressed residential investments including non-performing loans and assets, and he was responsible for establishing a joint venture with Wachovia Bank to acquire and manage distressed residential loans and related REO property in six states. Previously, he was the President, Head of West Coast Office/Fundraising, and Member of the Investment Committee for Barrow Street, a real estate opportunity
fund manager historically associated with Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL). Barrow Street targeted equity and mezzanine debt investments located in North America. Mr. Cockrum was involved with 19 investments having a total capitalization of $1.5 billion and equity capitalization of $411 million. Prior to joining Barrow Street, Mr. Cockrum worked in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group of Merrill Lynch for over 10 years in New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, where he was most recently a Director and Head of West Coast Real Estate Investment Banking. While at Merrill Lynch, he worked on over $10 billion of completed transactions in the United States and Asia Pacific region for public and private real estate companies and investors. Previously, he was employed with Grubb & Ellis Company, a real estate service company.
Mr. Cockrum is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a degree in Business Economics and a concentration in Accounting. He is a licensed California Real Estate Broker (#01109914) and a member of the Urban Land Institute.
Sam Martel
Vice President Of Construction
Mr. Martel is the Vice President of Construction for GPG. His responsibilities include oversight and management of the design and construction of GPG real estate investments.
Previously, Mr. Martel was a Senior Project Manager with Meruelo Maddux Properties, the largest land owner in downtown Los Angeles. Previously, he was a Senior Project Manager with Taisei Construction Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Taisei Corporation, one of the oldest and largest engineering construction firms in the world.
Mr. Martel has 20 years of real estate design and construction experience principally in the Los Angeles area has personally managed numerous projects including the following adaptive reuse projects: Standard Hotel, Pegasus, and Pacific Electric buildings.
Mr. Martel is a graduate of the School of Mine and Technology in Rapid City South Dakota with a degree in Civil Engineering.
