THE COMPANY

Santa Fe Group is a real estate development firm based in Southern California specializing in the acquisition, planning, design and construction of residential subdivisions.  Santa Fe Group was founded by Carlos Mesa and Walter Marucci, lifelong childhood friends that as adults had a long time dream to be homebuilders.  That dream was realized when they founded Santa Fe Group in 1996.

Home buyers best describe Santa Fe Group as a "homebuilder" in the traditional sense of the word rather than the impersonal production builders of today.  Santa Fe Group has earned a loyal customer base by providing quality construction and unmatched customer service and home warranty program.

Santa Fe Group is vertically integrated and the owners have direct participation at all levels of development, including design, construction and sales of the new homes.  The Company's target market is first time home buyers in existing urban centers who desire to live within reasonable proximity to their employment.  Coupled with attracting first time buyers in these urban centers is the need for affordability, especially as the U.S. economy and specifically the Southern California real estate market begins its recovery from the worst real estate market recession in U.S. history.  In an effort to improve affordability, Santa Fe Group is incorporating into its operations innovative uses of land and lot design for single family homes with the introduction of patio homes and zero-lot lines, and single story homes with thoughtful design and energy efficient standards.  In addition, the Company has embarked on new low-income and affordable rental unit projects in Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas, which is a market the original founders of the Company had specialized in for over 15 years from the early 1980's to the mid 1990's.

The fact that Santa Fe Group has been able to weather the perfect storm of falling real estate prices, rising construction costs and restrictive lending practices by both mortgage lenders and construction lenders,  whereas most other small to medium sized builders in the Southern California market have failed and are no longer in business, is a testament to the Company's management skills.  Management had anticipated a downturn in the real estate markets albeit not to the extent the U.S. economy has experienced.  As a result, management was able to make enough adjustments to its business plan to limit exposure to these market pressures.

Over the past year, the Company has been reorganizing to position itself for the changing business landscape overall the specifically for real estate development.  To these ends, the addition of Steven Seyfi and David Robbins to Santa Fe Group solidifies the management team and positions the Company to move forward in a challenging environment.  These professionals bring their business skills and knowledge as well as their extensive development and construction experience to the Company.  Matched with the talents of the Company's extremely experienced superintendents and projects managers that include Felipe Baeza, Jose Galindo and Richard Jones, the Company has the leadership required to take advantage of new business opportunities in the real estate development field.  Three new projects are currently underway the underscore the diverse capabilities of the Company.  In San Diego's Otay Mesa district, the Company is in the planning  and development stage of a 300 unit senior citizen assisted living center.  In the South Bay, the Company is in the planning and development state of a 108-unit affordable and mixed use apartment complex.  In the San Fernando Valley, Santa Fe Group is in the pre-construction phase on a 12 unit affordable single family homes in a gated community.

WALTER MARUCCI, PRESIDENT

Walter Marucci is co-founder of Santa Fe Group, a is a Certified Public Accountant and a Real Estate Broker.  With over 12 years experience as a business consultant for both the private and public sectors, he brings a wide ranging business  perspective to the Company having advised a diverse blend of clients from large corporations to small business, local government, and non-profit organizations on business process definition, re-engineering, and design and implementation of financial systems.   Over the last several years, Walter has organized Santa Fe Group into a vertically integrated Company specializing in land acquisition and development all the through to home construction and marketing and sales of the units.  Although Santa Fe Group prefers to outsource construction trades with its long-time alliances with top rate subcontractors, the Company also has the capability of conducting in-house framing and concrete activities. 

Walter also oversees the Company's financing and accounting operations that include acting as the Company's Controller, raising investor capital, securing construction loans and brokering sales of units through Santa Fe Group's sister company Home Quest Realty Group.  As a CPA, Walter generates all financial statements and tax returns for the Company and its investment partnerships.

Walter combines his business knowledge, management experience, real estate background and computer programming skills to design, implement and maintain Santa Fe Group’s critical operational systems (project management, contract management, sales management and contact management).  These systems are designed with the concept of mobility and open or shared information that empower company personnel to perform their job effectively and to facilitate decision-making; from executive management and project managers to superintendents, assistants and foremen.  Santa Fe Group's management systems are set-up for remote operation, and through digital communication and data synchronization, personnel at all levels are able to conduct all phases of development from the job site.

DAVID ROBBINS, LAND USE AND PROJECT MANAGER

David K. Robbins is a problem solver with superior real estate feasibility, due diligence, development and project management background and expertise.  He specializes in the analysis of land uses; due diligence services; promoting, processing and obtaining land use entitlements and approvals including variances and conditional use permits; and project management through each phase of the development and construction process.

Prior to entering real estate, Robbins was a partner in a downtown Los Angeles law firm, specializing in advising on a variety of real estate matters and transactions.  Beginning in 1992 Robbins became an executive with Archstone Communities, a start-up enterprise in 1992 which would eventually become a national acquirer, owner, operator and developer of apartment communities until its acquisition in 2007 for $22 billion by a private partnership.  Robbins initially served as VP of Due Diligence for Archstone where he was responsible for setting up and organizing the Due Diligence Department and overseeing all due diligence and feasibility analyses and reviews for in excess of 16,000 apartments acquired by Archstone during 1992-1995.  From that position Robbins became VP of Development, investigating and acquiring numerous residential and mixed-use sites for eventual development.  Robbins’ responsibilities included project financial modeling, entitlements, development, marketing and lease-up.

In the course of his career Robbins has overseen the pre-acquisition activities on approximately $1.2 billion of real estate, as well as development of new projects with a total value in excess of $1.5 billion, including apartments and condos, senior housing, mixed-use residential and retail, and office projects. He has been responsible for due diligence, feasibility analyses, and land use approvals in numerous municipalities, and selection and leadership of project design and consulting teams, as well as development and construction of projects in markets as diverse as Henrico County, VA, Tucson AZ, Reno, NV, as well as in Orange County, Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA.

Unlike most project managers, Robbins has had profit and loss responsibility for projects, bringing a real world sensibility and expertise to real estate feasibility and development. In short, Robbins has spent his career solving problems, assessing development feasibility, and creating projects on time and on budget. He brings to Santa Fe Group superior organizational and communication skills, in addition to his deep knowledge of the real estate feasibility and development process across a broad spectrum of markets and building types.

Robbins has brought his expertise to the classroom and other forums, as well.  Robbins currently serves as a Lecturer at the University of San Diego’s School of Business Administration where he teaches a course on real estate development. Further, from 2004 through 2007 Robbins served as Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development where he taught a post-graduate level course on multifamily real estate development as part of USC’s Masters in Real Estate Development degree program.  Finally, Robbins has served as a speaker and panelist for several Urban Land Institute forums, including forums on development, including High Density Residential Development in Southern California.

In addition, Robbins served as volunteer building committee chairman in charge of the $18 million dollar church and school development for his Episcopal Church parish in Rancho Santa Margarita CA.

Robbins holds a B.A. from Carleton College, Northfield MN and a J.D. from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles CA.  In addition, Robbins has taken several courses in the University of California at Irvine Light Construction and Development Management certification program.

STEVEN SEYFI, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

As Director of Operations, Steven Seyfi oversees and coordinates all management aspects of residential construction including budget creation, contract negotiations, resource allocation and project scheduling.  Steven has been a successful Los Angeles area business man and business owner for over 15 years and brings strong project planning skills and experience to the Company.

In addition, Steven combines his talents as an electrical engineer together with his construction and property management experience to maintain the Company's management and data systems.  These systems allow management to receive and evaluate job costs and budget analysis reports, financial statements and financial projections.

Steven Seyfi is a licensed General Contractor and Real Estate Broker.

RICHARD JONES, PROJECT MANAGER

FELIPE BAEZA, PROJECT SUPERINTENDENT

JOSE GALINDO, PROJECT SUPERINTENDENT

JOAQUIN SATURNINO, CUSTOMER SERVICE