The Michaels Organization is pleased to announce three new additions to our Development Team – Vice Presidents Joseph Rende and Nicole Wesley-Smith and Director Abbie Hawkins.
Joseph joins Michaels in the rapidly-expanding Southwest region where he will be responsible for leading the company’s strategic growth in Texas and surrounding states while Nicole, based in Atlanta, will focus on Michaels’ Southeast region which encompasses states from North Carolina to Florida. Abbie joins the Michaels Student Living team in San Diego and will provide oversight for due diligence, programming, planning, feasibility, entitlements, budgeting, schedule, and design for MSL’s San Diego projects.
Prior to joining Michaels as Vice President of Development, Joseph gained experience in the development, design, finance, and construction industries for 22+ years delivering student housing, multi-family, commercial real estate, and heavy civil infrastructure projects. He worked with private equity firms on global investment and acquisition analysis, as well as with a Dallas-based Broker Dealer on investment due diligence. He has also served for 4 years as Managing Director for the U.S. Social Infrastructure Development for the global Israeli developer/builder, Shikun & Binui.
Nicole is a seasoned real estate professional and licensed broker with extensive experience in multifamily sales and the facilitation of public private partnerships for the development of multifamily housing. She most recently served as a Development Executive with the Atlanta Housing Authority where she delivered high-quality affordable housing units in high-value locations. Before joining Atlanta Housing, Nicole was with Marcus & Millichap where she focused on multifamily sales transactions working primarily with family offices and high net worth clients. In 2007, Nicole relocated to Atlanta, Georgia from Sacramento, California where she was a Chipset Business Analyst with Intel Corporation.
Abbie comes to The Michaels Organization from Chelsea Investment Corporation in San Diego where she was in the role of Land Development Associate. Prior to that, Abbie was with Pacifica Companies as its Development and Entitlement Manager.
Joseph holds a postgraduate degree in commercial real estate and finance from The University of Texas at Arlington, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Southern Methodist University. He is the recipient of the Commander’s Award for Public Service by the U.S. Department of the Army, the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship by the German Marshall Fund, and holds the honorary rank of Admiral in the Texas Navy, as bestowed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Abbie graduated with her Bachelor of Business Administration in Real Estate from San Diego State University. She was the winner of the 2015 NAIOP University Challenge and served on the San Diego State University Real Estate Society (RES) Board as Membership Director and was on the Alumni RES Board.
