Larry J. Kosmont, CRE®
President and CEO
Mr. Larry J. Kosmont, CRE®, is the President and CEO of Kosmont Companies, which he founded in 1986. Kosmont Companies is an industry leader in public/private real estate transactions and public finance. In 2009, Mr. Kosmont created the Kosmont Muni Horizons FundTM which sources private financing for public projects, P3 initiatives, infrastructure funding and economic development. He is Managing Partner of Renaissance Community Fund, which invests and develops mixed use, residential and commercial projects throughout California.
Mr. Kosmont’s 36-year career encompasses public/private financial structuring and negotiations, development, and management of real estate and public finance transactions exceeding $10 billion. He has an extensive track record as a public/private real estate consultant and public finance advisor. His expertise is in managing real estate transactions, creating structured financings using public and private capital sources of equity and debt, entitlement approvals, negotiations, and project implementation.
Mr. Kosmont has assisted hundreds of local government agencies in public finance and real estate matters ranging from large-scale economic development programs to site-specific real estate strategies and projects. He has guided over 1,000 private sector projects in obtaining public approvals, structuring deal terms, and securing public/private financing.
From 1975 to 1986, Mr. Kosmont served in the roles of City Manager, Director of Community Development, and Redevelopment Director in the cities of Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Bell Gardens, and Burbank. He served as President of the City Managers Association in Southeast Los Angeles County for two consecutive years.
In 1995, Mr. Kosmont conceived of and created the Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey©, which is now recognized as the industry standard for comparing city taxes and economic incentives. The Survey covers 400 cities in all 50 states, and is published annually by Claremont-McKenna College.
In 1996, Mr. Kosmont was named Service Professional of the Year in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Who’s Who of Commercial Real Estate.”
Mr. Kosmont has served as a State Commissioner on the California Economic Development Commission, and until December 2007, as a Los Angeles City Commissioner on the Industrial Development Authority. He is a registered Municipal Advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and a licensed real estate broker in California. Mr. Kosmont is a designated Counselor of Real Estate (CRE®) and serves on the following Boards:
- California Redevelopment Association (CRA)
- USC Lusk Center for Real Estate
- California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED)
Susan Perry, Esq.
Partner and Senior Vice President
Ms. Susan Perry, Esq., with nearly 20 years of experience in land use and planning, manages complex assignments involving entitlements and public approvals on behalf of a broad range of private sector clients.
Ms. Perry is Kosmont Companies’ principal project liaison to private sector corporations, public agencies, developers, lenders, non-profits and REITs. She provides clients with land use planning, CEQA compliance, transaction structuring and strategic entitlements approvals services. She also provides clients with due diligence analysis of regulatory hurdles to overcome in proceeding with a development; assesses a proposed project’s opportunities, constraints and political acceptability with the community and decision-making bodies; creates an entitlement roadmap for the client; and she implements the strategy leading to project and environmental approvals.
Ms. Perry is an attorney and a member of both the State Bar of California and the American Bar Association and is a registered Municipal Advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She has served as President of the Southern California Development Forum and remains on its Board of Directors.
C. Wil Soholt
Senior Vice President
Mr. C. Wil Soholt, Senior Vice President at Kosmont Companies, functions as the firm’s financial and investment strategist for public/private deals. He serves clients primarily through the evaluation and preparation of financial analyses/pro-forma, the formulation and implementation of negotiation strategies, and the design of development programs and site plans that benefit both clients and their communities. Mr. Soholt also has broad experience in managing real estate development projects, from concept and feasibility evaluation through occupancy. Prior to joining Kosmont Companies, Mr. Soholt managed more than 25 redevelopment projects with an aggregate project cost of $140 million.
Mr. Soholt’s analytical capabilities extend to economic and geographic modeling, supporting a wide variety of projects that blend issues of real estate, land use, and economics. These include feasibility modeling, acquisition strategies, demographic projections, and data mining. Mr. Soholt has a talent for consensus building, creative problem solving, and identifying opportunities to capture hidden value.
Mr. Soholt holds a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California. He is also an instructor in Real Estate Development Finance for the California Association of Local Economic Development (CALED) and a Real Estate Broker, licensed by the State of California Department of Real Estate and is a registered Municipal Advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Kenneth K. Hira
Senior Vice President
Mr. Kenneth K. Hira serves as Senior Vice President for Kosmont Companies. An expert in retail development and strategies for retail attraction, has over 20 years of varied experience in virtually every aspect of real estate financing, downtown revitalization, acquisition, entitlement, development, asset management and disposition. Mr. Hira’s expertise is in identifying retail tenants and negotiating retail and mixed-use projects that can revitalize communities and assist in economic development/tax generation programs.
A former Executive Vice President of the Irvine-based mixed-use developer, Pacific Century Commercial, Mr. Hira managed a portfolio of over $100 million of retail sites, while operating the commercial division of the company. Prior to this, as a Managing Director of Acquisitions for Westrust and a Vice President of Development at Lewis Retail Centers, he evaluated and underwrote hundreds of acres of land, successfully captured and negotiated anchor tenant commitments creating $60 million of value in ground-up development and redevelopment, and was responsible for 800,000 square feet of retail entitlement, design and development. As Vice President of GMS Realty, Mr. Hira entitled one million square feet of retail development projects, as well as led the acquisition of 24 neighborhood and community shopping centers, totaling 3.3 million square feet and valued at $375 million, and organized a $287 million recapitalization of the company.
Mr. Hira holds a Bachelor degree in Economics and Business from UCLA, and is an active volunteer leader of the International Council of Shopping Centers. He serves as the ICSC Southern California State Director, while previously serving as the ICSC Southern California Program Committee Chair and ICSC Alliance Co-Chair, advocating public-private partnerships. Mr. Hira is a registered Municipal Advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ryan Aubry, LEED
Senior Vice President
Mr. Ryan Aubry, LEED, Senior Vice President with Kosmont Companies, has over ten years experience in the detailed analysis of infill development. He has worked with various governmental organizations on planning and development issues relating to infill development, as well as with private developers. He has worked closely with the City of Los Angeles Planning Department, the County of Los Angeles Planning Department, and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. Recently he served as a project manager for a development firm focusing on workforce housing in the City of Los Angeles, where he was involved in the development of nine infill condominium and town home projects as well as assisting with acquisition strategies. As a real estate Consultant, Mr. Aubry has been involved in the underwriting of many property types including multifamily apartments, retail malls, urban hotels, and infill residential development. He is adept in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the analysis of transit oriented development and other project types. He holds a Master’s in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California, as well as a Masters degree in Geography from the University of California Santa Barbara. Mr. Aubry is a member of the Urban Land Institute. He is also a registered Municipal Advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Dan Massiello
Senior Vice President – Public Finance
Mr. Dan Massiello, Senior Vice President – Public Finance, brings over 20 years of professional experience in the Public Finance industry to Kosmont Companies. Mr. Massiello started his career with an east coast financial advisory firm, and has been an investment banker in CA for 13 years. Mr. Massiello has structured and brought to market over $4 billion of new money and refunding transactions to market for Cities, Redevelopment Agencies, School and Community College Districts and Special Districts. Successfully completed transactions include General Fund Financings (Certificates of Participation), Tax Increment, General Obligation, Installment Purchase, Lease Revenue, Revenue, Special Tax, and Sales Tax supported financings. A significant portion of these transactions involved unrated and challenging credits, which have garnered Mr. Massiello the ability to engineer well-structured and marketable financing vehicles that consistently meet his clients’ financing goals and objectives.
Mr. Massiello earned his BS in Management/Finance from the State University of New York-Binghamton and held Series 24, 7, and 63 FINRA Licenses while employed by a Broker/Deal (currently inactive).
Joseph Dieguez
Vice President
Mr. Joseph Dieguez is a Vice President with Kosmont Companies, serving clients primarily through market and financial analyses, fiscal impact and economic benefit studies, transaction due diligence, government management services and marketing efforts. Prior to joining Kosmont Companies, Mr. Dieguez served as a senior analyst at a real estate investment, development and finance firm and as an analyst at a financial services management consulting firm, responsible for industry, market, portfolio and property-level research and analysis, negotiations and transaction execution support. Mr. Dieguez was previously an assistant project manager at a construction management firm, where he assisted with RFQ/P development and project implementation.
Mr. Dieguez graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a Real Estate Salesperson licensed by the State of California Department of Real Estate.
Matt Goulet
Vice President
Mr. Matt Goulet serves as the firm’s business development manager and principal writer for economic and real estate studies. In addition, he manages the clients’ land use planning and entitlement processing for real estate projects in various communities throughout California. Mr. Goulet has more than 15 years of experience working with industries that form the backbone of the Southern California economy including aerospace, manufacturing, theme parks and motion pictures. Mr. Goulet has worked with Kosmont Companies in a variety of consulting roles since 2006, providing his expertise in aggregating disparate information into finished reports and in developing strategies for some of Kosmont’s most complex client assignments.
Prior to joining Kosmont Companies as Vice President, Mr. Goulet worked on a variety of land use matters that included entitlement strategies, political outreach, and securing land use approvals for several major projects. Since 2008, he has served as the board-level CFO and Vice President of 1010 Development Corporation, a non-profit affordable housing developer. Mr. Goulet holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, an MBA from California State University Northridge, and a Professional Certificate in Real Estate Investments from UCLA. He also holds an FE/EIT certification in Mechanical Engineering from the Maryland Board of Professional Engineers, is a licensed Real Estate Broker in the State of California and has served as a docent providing architectural tours for the Los Angeles Conservancy.
Chris Jicha
Senior Consultant
Mr. Chris Jicha is a Senior Consultant with Kosmont Companies. He brings a wealth of understanding both municipalities and real estate markets with an exceptional understanding of inland California cities. Mr. Jicha’s expertise ranges from building and guiding economic development departments and programs to business development. His 12 years of experience as a businessman and entrepreneur along with 6 years experience with a County municipality creates a unique blend of experience to serve his clients. Mr. Jicha has been involved in 7 business acquisitions and relocations as an entrepreneur and provided site selection, incentives, workforce development and project entitlement & permitting services to large corporations and businesses.
Currently, Mr. Jicha focuses on providing real estate and development advisory services including highest & best use studies, market analysis, retail demand studies, and financial analysis/valuation and implementation strategies for municipalities in Southern California.
Daniel B. Cromwell, CCIM
Senior Consultant
Mr. Daniel B. Cromwell, CCIM, is a Senior Consultant with Kosmont Companies, and has thirty years experience in nearly every component of Real Estate Development. He has broad-based expertise in economic incentive negotiation, site selection & evaluation, tax increment financing, public/private partnerships, entitlements, acquisitions, dispositions, strategic planning, development services, investment/financial analysis, centroid and roll-out studies.
A former Director of Real Estate for Bass Pro Shops and an Independent Consultant to Cabela’s, Mr. Cromwell has delivered mega stores (120,000 sq. ft. to 185,000 sq. ft.) for these “destination retailers” in states from Georgia to Washington which included economic incentives worth over $300 million. These incentives included STAR Bonds, job & tax credits and tax increment financing. He successfully lobbied for new legislation in Washington to pass the first tax increment financing bill in the history of the state.
Mr. Cromwell earned the prestigious CCIM Designation in 1990 and has served on the Institute’s Board of Directors from 1998 through 2007 and on many national committees including: Member Services (Chairman – 2004), Advanced Education and Cultural Diversity Advisory Board. Cromwell has also been active in the National Association of REALTORS®, serving as the President of the Kona Board of REALTORS® in 1994 and as the vice president for two terms with the Hawaii Association of REALTORS®. He also served as an RPAC (Realtor’s Political Action Committee) trustee for four years and is a member of ICSC. Outside the realm of real estate, Cromwell was the founding president of the West Hawaii Jaycees. He graduated from the Pacific Maritime Academy in Honolulu and was subsequently conferred the designation of Captain by the United States Coast Guard.
Nicole Miyoshi
Senior Consultant
Ms. Nicole Miyoshi, Senior Consultant with Kosmont Companies, brings a wealth of experience in municipal finance, affordable housing, economic development projects, and redevelopment dissolution services. With over a decade in public-private consulting, Ms. Miyoshi has performed numerous analyses and models for housing programs, affordable housing projects, and public-private partnerships such as feasibility studies, fiscal impact analyses, tax revenue analyses, tax forecasting, cash flow modeling, and tax credit analyses. Her well-established skills in database development and GIS modeling augment Kosmont’s capabilities to manage and present financial data in a variety of useful formats. Ms. Miyoshi also has experience working closely with local governments and agencies, assisting with the RFP process, developer selection and affordable housing compliance.
Ms. Miyoshi holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of California at San Diego and she is active as a volunteer in a variety of community organizations.
Stephen G. Harding
Senior Consultant
Mr. Stephen G. Harding, a Senior Consultant with the Kosmont Companies, has more than thirty years professional public and private sector experience in municipal management, planning, economic development, redevelopment, finance and real estate development. As a Consultant, developer or as an administrator, he has served more than 40 public and private sector organizations. He has negotiated, prepared feasibility studies and implemented $3 billion in industrial, commercial and residential development projects. Additionally, he has prepared market based strategic economic development implementation plans and organizational studies for multiple governmental agencies throughout central and southern California.
In the public sector he has held the position of City Manager of the City of Murrieta, Deputy City Manager of the City of Santa Ana and President of the City of San Diego’s Southeast Economic Development Corporation. His consulting/interim management assignments have included such positions as City Manager of the City of San Jacinto, Director of Housing and Development of the City of Pasadena and Director of Development Services of the City of Brea.
In the private sector he has been a Managing Principal of Urban Futures Inc. and Director of Governmental Services of the Rosenow Spevacek Group; Both multi-service municipal management, finance and redevelopment advisory firms. He has also served as Vice President of the Larwin Company, a full service development company constructing more than 60,000 homes.
Mr. Harding serves on the faculty of the Master of Public Administration Program at the University of La Verne and is an Associate of the Roger C. Hobbs Institute of Real Estate, Law and Environmental Studies at Chapman University. He is a past Chairman of the Board of the California Association for Local Economic Development and a past Member of the Board of the California Municipal Finance Authority. He is a member of both the Public/Private Partnership Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the Edge Development Council of ULI’s Orange County/Inland Empire District Council. Mr. Harding attended UCLA and holds both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration degree from California State University, Long Beach.
Peter Evenson
Project Analyst
Mr. Peter Evenson, a Project Analyst with Kosmont Companies, focuses on real estate, financial analysis, economic research, land use, market analysis and various marketing strategies. Prior to joining Kosmont Companies, Mr. Evenson worked in business development for the University of Southern California focusing on fiscal reporting and analysis, securing external funding, overseeing budget contracts and grants, and project management. He provided in-depth viability studies and prepared operating budgets, capital budgets, income re-projections and business plans for projects in excess of $15 million.
Mr. Evenson holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Chapman University and a Professional Certificate in Contracts and Grants for the University of Southern California. He is the President of a Culver City Toastmasters group and is currently in the process of becoming a licensed Real Estate Salesperson in California.
