Gary J. Rito

Experience

Coral Springs, Florida

****-*******

President / Real Estate Acquisition & Development

The parent company Vantage Hospitality Group wanted to create 2 new Prototype Brands. We designed and created both hotels to expand their existing 1200 hotel franchise throughout the United States. With my full service commercial real estate experience, we are able to expand the company’s comprehensive collection of services, in addition to hospitality. Our associates now can offer our resources to most product type, including acquisition, development, construction and project management for our ownership as well as 3rd parties.

Recently completed projects include a renovation of a 322-room hotel/with 40,000 sf of meeting space in downtown Jacksonville, a new Clubhouse Facility with related sitework for the Country Club of Coral Springs, and a renovation of an existing 165 room hotel in Columbia, South Carolina to a Red Lion Inn and Suites. In addition, we entitled a site just north of the Fort Lauderdale Airport and Cruiseport which we are currently working to raise capital and establish a brand for this site. The site currently is being used as a parking lot for Airport Parking.

Also, we redeveloped and repositioned The Country Club of Coral Springs, a 150 acre plus property to facilitate a new 250-unit Multi Family midrise apartment project by demolishing the old functionally obsolete Clubhouse into a rezoned residential property of 9.5 acres. In addition, we moved the course back and redeveloped a new Clubhouse/Cart Barn/ Pickleball facility for the country club.

In addition, we opened the Florida real estate office of Brown Nester Fl LLC, expanding the presence of the California based Hotel Brokerage Company to the east coast. I only held the managing and licensed brokerage title for the Listing and Selling of Hospitality Projects and was the initial platform for business in 2012. I oversaw 2 employees who pursued the above while working with the California office. Having a license allowed us to earn fees in the acquisition of our developments.

Boca Raton, Florida

2004-2012

President/Development

A full-service Real Estate Development Company providing development management, consulting services and brokerage to select clients along with development of select properties for the company’s portfolio. Construction will be self-performed on a case-by-case basis as the market and competitiveness allows and based on the client’s needs. We purchased and entitled 2 projects, one 120- unit Multi Family Residential project in Vero Beach, Florida and one small mixed-use project in Delray Beach, Florida. These projects were never constructed due to the financial collapse in 2008. 3rd party consulting work continued thru 2012, which included a large mixed-use development in Coconut Creek, Florida for a wealthy family in the automobile industry.

Codina Development Corporation

Coral Gables, Florida

Weston, Florida

2000-2004

1998-2000

Senior Project Manager to Director of Development

Senior Project Manager until November 2000.

Responsible for opening of the Broward County Development Office for the company which included an administrative assistant and one Project Manager.

Oversee all the new projects located in the County.

Growth was tremendous and staff grew to nine people

Responsible for all aspects of the office and reported directly to the Executive Vice President and President of Development.

In late 1999 our growth took us to also Palm Beach County in developing a 310,000 Sq. Ft. Build to Suit for a national insurance company and the purchase of 35 acres to develop an additional 500,000 sq. Ft

Due to this growth, another person was appointed Senior Project Manager for Palm Beach County in order to split the workload.

That split did not work for the executives in the Corporate office and in November 2000, was appointed and promoted to Director of Development for both Palm Beach and Broward Counties and in charge of nine staff members, reporting directly to the Executive Vice President. Total development projects during this short tenure with the company totaled $160,000,000 and over 1,000,000 sq. ft. of office, warehouse and educational facilities.

Draper and Kramer Incorporated

Chicago, Illinois

1979-1998

Assistant Vice President 1979 to 1982

Vice President 1988 to 1998

In 1986, exclusively worked for the partnership made up of Draper & Kramer Inc and Slough Estates PLC, the largest industrial developer in the United Kingdom.

When joining the firm in 1979, my responsibilities included managing the Construction Lending process of more than ten projects valued in excess of $25 million.

Subsequently the Company created a Development Services Group and specific development management roles included joint venture administration and communication, contract negotiations, land planning design, contract documents, project budgeting, financing pro forma analysis and tracking, marketing, architectural and technical design, project construction and tenant improvements.

Projects were in excess of 2.77 million square feet of commercial office and retail development, residential, a golf course community and two clubhouses.

These projects exceed $360 million dollars in total development budget.

Interplan Practice

Downers Grove, Illinois

1979

General drafting, detailing and project architecture for small residential and commercial projects.

O Donnell, Wicklund & Pigozzi Architects

Downers Grove, Illinois

1978

Responsible for design and production of construction documents for institutional and private sector clients.

Produced architectural models and specialized in Illinois Code 504 – Handicap Accessibility analysis and presentations to five local school districts.

Education

University of Illinois

BA Architecture 1974-1978

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