Grosvenor, a privately held property owner and developer with a 70-year track record in North America, announced leadership appointments that include the internal promotion of Michael Ward to Managing Director, Development and Marc Josephson, Senior Vice-President, Development, to Vancouver Development program lead and the hiring of Neil Belcher as Vice-President, Construction, U.S., and Woody O’Neill as Vice-President, Construction, Canada.

James Patillo, Chief Development Officer for Grosvenor’s North American Property business, notes:

"These appointments support Grosvenor’s growth strategy, and reflect both our belief of promoting from within and our appeal to a talented external candidate pool. As we further integrate and advance our build-to-core development strategy, this new structure will support the delivery of our robust pipeline across our U.S. and Canadian markets.” 

The Managing Director role was created in response to the significant growth of Grosvenor’s Vancouver development program and the company’s desire to prioritize entry into the Seattle market. 

Michael Ward, who marked 20 years with the company this year, will focus on establishing a Seattle Development program, capital partner relationships, and strategic oversight of both the Vancouver and Seattle markets. 

Marc Josephson, who takes over day to day leadership of the Vancouver Development program, has a strong track record of team management and strategic delivery. In particular, he lead the recent, complex and successful entitlement efforts for Grosvenor’s proposed 3.1M sf Brentwood Block development in Burnaby.

Two newly created construction roles are part of Grosvenor’s reorganized approach to managing future construction plans. The new regional leadership model and reporting structure will see construction team members report directly to their regional Vice-President.

Neil Belcher will oversee construction activity for Grosvenor across all U.S. markets and will be based in the company’s Washington, D.C. office. Woody O’Neil will be based in Grosvenor’s Vancouver office and focus solely on Vancouver market developments. Both will be responsible for administering construction work, schedules, project delivery, and other related construction initiatives for developments in their respective markets. 

Belcher brings over 25 years of experience in the U.S. construction industry to this new role, with extensive experience in large scale multi-family, mixed-use, and commercial construction. He has led teams and delivered projects with established groups such as Brookfield, Forest City, and JBG. 

O’Neill is a well respected construction professional in Vancouver, with two decades of in-house experience working for some of the region’s most prominent developers including Bosa and most recently, Anthem, where he spent the last 16 years.  

Grosvenor has operated a diversified real estate business in North America since 1952. The company is actively managing and improving a $2.8bn portfolio of 74 high-quality properties and is executing on a $5.1bn proprietary development pipeline across its active markets. 

Consistent with the firm’s farsighted approach to ownership and development, Grosvenor values long-term partnerships; across their nine active investment partners, the average relationship is 20 years. The company is guided by ESG principles and a promise to achieve carbon-neutral net zero operations by 2030.