Company Profile
Urbanest Group Inc. is a privately held real estate advisory, investment, and development California Corporation that focuses on midsize residential and mixed-use projects in Southern California’s infill and urban markets.
The corporation was established in 2005 to capitalize on market gaps and development inefficiencies that public corporations leave untapped. Urbanest Group principals have an extensive knowledge and expertise in residential infill and mixed-use development and possess various guidance credentials in hospitality and community master planning. The team excels in acquisitions, due diligence, entitlements, design, planning, construction, capital funding, and public/private joint ventures working with redevelopment agencies and economic development corporations.
Our Team
Tarek Shaer is a co-founding principal of Urbanest Group Inc., a privately held real estate advisory, investment, and development California Corporation that focuses on midsize mixed-use projects in Southern California’s infill and urban markets.
Prior to forming the corporation, Tarek served as Vice President of Land Acquisition with the Urban division of Lennar Homes of California, a subsidiary of Lennar Corporation. He was responsible for sourcing out and processing urban infill and mixed-use land acquisition opportunities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and conducted more than $1.0 billion in transactions at that position; equating to more than 3,400 residential units.
Prior to Lennar Urban, Tarek was a member of the Executive Committee and a Director of Land Acquisitions for Lennar’s South Coast Division of Greystone Homes, another subsidiary of Lennar Corporation, where he was responsible for leading and directing the entire acquisition and feasibility effort for numerous high-density infill projects in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
Prior to joining the South Coast Division, Tarek managed the master planning and product selection of Lennar’s 42-acre Central Park West site in Irvine, California, a 1,380 multifamily unit mixed-use urban master plan community including 225,000 square feet of office buildings, and a 55,000 square foot retail center.
Before joining Lennar, Tarek worked for the New York Based investment firm Lazard-Ferre within its Los Angeles-based shopping center REIT “The Haagen Company”. Previous to that he worked for the international award-winning architecture firm Perkins & Will at various design and planning capacities.
Tarek sits on the board of the Urban Land Institute (ULI - Los Angeles District Council), and the board of the Westside Urban Forum (WUF). He chairs the Design Review Board & the Architecture Review Committee of a major high-rise LEED certified Green community in downtown Los Angeles, and is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer at the University of Southern California real estate LUSK program. He received both his Masters in Real Estate Development and Bachelors in Architecture degrees from the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. He holds a California Broker's license and a California General Contractor’s License.
Mark Rosene, a seasoned real estate industry professional, joined Urbanest Group Inc. as a principal in 2009 to oversee the entire corporation forward planning, project management, and real estate investment efforts. Mark brings vast industry contacts, unmatched acquisitions experience, and due diligence expertise that keeps the operations efficient and cost conscious.
Prior to joining Urbanest, Mark served as a Senior Development Manager at the Design and Development Studio of the internationally known development company Emaar International. His expertise in design and planning of various urban and suburban projects working for public and private real estate development companies allowed him to become the manager of the design and planning of many of the urban and suburban properties for the Emaar Economic City in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a multi-billion dollar new master plan city. Under his direction, the urban Bay La Sun mixed use Village 08 district was the recipient of the 2009 Cityscape Jeddah, Best Waterfront Project of the Year.
Prior to Emaar, Mark was the Vice President of Forward Planning for the Meeker Companies directing the planning, project management, and product development for all of the company’s Southern California operations.
Mark served as the Director of Forward Planning for the publically traded company Richmond American Homes, Orange County Division, a subsidiary of MDC Holdings. He was responsible for leading and directing the planning, entitlements, product development and project management effort for numerous infill and suburban projects in Orange County.
Prior to that, Mark served as the go-to urban and infill development project manager for Greystone Homes, South Coast Division, a former subsidiary of Lennar Corporation. He was responsible for leading and directing the planning, entitlements, product development and project management effort for numerous high-density infill and suburban projects throughout Orange and Los Angeles Counties.
Before joining Greystone Homes, Mark worked for the South Coast Divisions of the publicly traded KB Home and William Lyon Homes in project management, construction, and customer care capacities.
