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Shopoff Expands Real Estate Development Team, Court Approves SoCal Industrial Project

Shopoff Realty Investments, a private placement sponsor and manager of opportunistic and value-add real estate investments, has hired William R. Smith as senior vice president of design and construction.

Shopoff Realty Investments, a private placement sponsor and manager of opportunistic and value-add real estate investments, has hired William R. Smith as senior vice president of design and construction. Smith’s primary objective will be to lead the design and construction of the company’s new Dream Hotel project in Las Vegas, a joint development project with Contour Realty Inc.

“Bill Smith comes to Shopoff with more than 30 years of experience designing and constructing high profile, luxury projects across the world,” said Shopoff president and chief executive officer William Shopoff. “Bill has been involved with, or led, the construction of more than $18 billion in assets over his career, and his expertise in this arena will further strengthen our already stellar team of development professionals as we move forward with high profile projects of our own in the coming years.”

In this new role, Smith will primarily be responsible for the design, construction and delivery of Shopoff’s Dream Hotel project, a 450-room hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip.

Smith will manage the design, schedule and construction budget throughout the pre-construction and construction phase. Additionally, the company said that he will provide “the strategic leadership, direction, management, and vision necessary during development to ensure the success and delivery of this project.”

Prior to his new role with Shopoff, Smith served as senior vice president of global construction at Las Vegas Sands where he was responsible for managing construction projects globally valued at approximately $6 billion. He also served with AECOM Capital as their executive vice president of design and construction, managing projects nationally with a total development value of $4 billion.

Smith most notably served as president and chief operating officer of MGM MIRAGE Design Group where he was responsible for the design and construction of the $9 billion CityCenter project in Las Vegas.

Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Temple University. He is a registered architect and member of the American Institute of Architects.

In other Shopoff news, the company announced that its San Gorgonio Crossing industrial project will move forward after a court ruling finalized and affirmed all previous project approvals. The announcement comes after the Riverside County Superior Court ruled to dismiss all previous challenges to the project.

Located in the Cherry Valley area of Riverside County, the property consists of 244 acres, with Shopoff’s secured entitlements allowing for a 1.8-million-square-foot logistics center.

In October 2017, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved the project, which was subsequently challenged by two groups who raised 39 claims against the project. The case was heard in the California Superior Court on February 7, 2019, and the judge ruled favorably by upholding the approvals and associated environmental impact report.

Out of the 39 claims by the project’s opposition, the judge required Shopoff to further evaluate two issues, which pertained to the incorporation of solar panels and analysis of transportation energy use.

Brian Rupp, executive vice president of development at Shopoff said, “To properly address the two remaining project concerns, we prepared a supplemental environmental impact report, which included additional technical studies that maximized the use of solar panels and evaluated strategies for transportation energy use requirements. Based on the revised design, the buildings will offset 100 percent of their electric use with clean solar energy.”

Shopoff Realty Investments is an Irvine, California-based real estate firm with a 28-year history of value-add and opportunistic investing across the United States. The company primarily focuses on generating appreciation through the repositioning of commercial income-producing properties and the entitlement of land assets. The 28-year history includes operating as Asset Recovery Fund, Eastbridge Partners and Shopoff Realty Investments (formerly known as The Shopoff Group).

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