Vertical Holdings

He is also the principal of a real estate brokerage operation, representing national retail tenants in the western United States, including AMC Theatres, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Staples, Ross Dress for Less, Sports Authority, Home Base, and Brinker International, among others. Nicholas has been in the shopping center business for more than 28 years and has been involved in over 20,000,000 square feet of development and leasing.

Prior to his co-founding of Vertical, Nicholas has served as vice president of development and leasing for Westcor Partners, now a part of Macerich, responsible for their portfolio of community and power centers; specifically, oversight of all leasing efforts, property management and cultivating personal and professional relationships with representatives of key retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, Ross Dress for Less, TJ Maxx, Barnes & Noble, and many others – a discipline he expertly maintains today. Nicholas also served as vice president and marketing director for Westcor’s 1200-acre Boulders golf course community. Nicholas is a graduate of Arizona State University and serves on the board of a number of local charities.

Considered a foremost expert in multiple disciplines of planning, development and leasing, Denver understands the needs and movements of national and local tenant communities, as well as the hard and fast disciplines of responsible development and underwriting practices. Denver spent ten years as an associate and partner of the interrelated, vertically integrated companies of Dunlap & Magee, Arizona Building and Development and Charles Dunlap and Company, developing and planning over $100M in retail and residential real estate. This included the construction, sale and delivery of over 2,500 improved single family lots to national homebuilders and the construction of over twenty retail projects.

In 1990, Denver relocated to North Carolina to join J. Richard Hill and Company and its successor entity, Hill Partners, Incorporated, as Managing Director and later as Managing Director of National Leasing in the restoration, stabilization and disposition of a portfolio of retail projects concentrated in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. Over a five-year period, Denver played a central role in growing the company to over 6M square feet in seven states. The company solely represented institutionally-owned retail real estate for clients including New York Life, Liberty Mutual Insurance, AEtna, GE Capital, Mutual of New York, Wells Fargo and Chase Manhattan Bank. Since founding The McGarey Group and its predecessor company in 1995, Denver has led the company to epic ground-up development projects such as Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, and Gallery Place in Downtown Washington, DC.

Mark is the Chairman of the Board of First Arizona Savings Bank, a federal savings bank with branches throughout Arizona; he is an active participant of the Board including serving on asset/liability, audit and loan committees.

Mark has been involved in the shopping center industry for over 25 years, working for national firms such as Vestar Development Company, a developer of neighborhood and community retail projects in Arizona and California, and Univest, a development company focused on long-term triple net build-to-suit for national retail tenants. Mark was employed for over five years by franchisors and franchisees of two national restaurant chains to manage the roll out of over 150 stores, with responsibilities including planning, entitlement, real estate, construction, legal, lease administration and property management. Mark was a partner in the large Phoenix-based law firm of Gallagher & Kennedy, practicing real estate and corporate law and served as a director of an industrial real estate development company and an apartment development company, both focused on the Phoenix market. Mark is a graduate of University of Arizona and Harvard Law School.