OUR TEAM

Steven R. Schwarz
Founding Partner

Steven leads all aspects of ViaWest Group with primary emphasis on investment and development strategy, deal-sourcing, and capital markets activity. He has over thirty years of experience in the development, operations and financing of all types of real estate, with deep experience in industrial and office properties. Through involvement in over $3 billion worth of projects, Steven has provided build-to-suit, speculative development, acquisitions, dispositions and property management services in multiple product types in the Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Southeast U.S.

Prior to forming ViaWest Properties in 2003, Steven led the development as SVP of The Plaza Companies, a full service, medical-office, senior-living development, and property management company. Prior to joining Plaza, Steven rose through the ranks to become COO and EVP of The Hewson Company, a privately-held, real estate development company in the Western U.S. in which capacity he developed properties ranging from mid-rise office buildings to a 2.2MM s.f. industrial complex. Other work experience includes Real Estate Finance work with SunTrust Banks in Atlanta, GA.

Steven graduated from The University of Texas Honors Program with a B.A. with Honors in Marketing. He has served as Chairman of the NAIOP Arizona Chapter, on the National Board of Directors of NAIOP, and in national and local capacities with Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has also served on numerous local and national boards and councils of non-profit philanthropic, civic and industry organizations including Greater Phoenix Leadership, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, as Board Chairman of the Jewish Community Association of Greater Phoenix and on the National Board of JFNA.

He resides in Paradise Valley, Arizona with his wife Jennifer and has three grown children.

Danny L. Swancey
Partner

Danny is involved in all aspects of ViaWest Group with primary emphasis on company strategy, culture, deal-sourcing, and operational performance, as well as, cultivating strategic relationships. Danny co-chairs the company’s investment committee and serves on the senior management committee. He has over 18 years’ experience working in senior management positions for both public and private real estate investment companies.

Prior to joining ViaWest in 2011, Danny served as Vice President for two publicly-traded REITs: Parkway Properties and Pacific Office Properties. Danny has been involved with the acquisition/disposition, repositioning, and management of over $2 billion of commercial real estate transactions. As a former military officer, Danny also brings a wealth of operational and leadership experience. While in the Army, he served throughout Europe and the Americas for five years, achieving the rank of Captain.

Danny is a graduate of The United States Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. He subsequently received an MBA from Yale University. Danny serves on the board for NAIOP (AZ Chapter) and REIAC (Southwest), is a former Board Chairman for NAIOP AZ, and actively participates in numerous civic and charity endeavors.  He is also a past recipient of the Phoenix Business Journal’s Forty-Under-40 (Class of 2015).

Danny resides in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Danielle and three children.

Todd J. Weiss
Chief Operating Officer

In his role as Chief Operating Officer, Todd leads and is responsible for all operational aspects of the Company, including leasing, asset management, and dispositions.  Additionally, he is involved with acquisitions, financing, and joint venture management.  Todd is a member of the company’s investment and senior management committees.

Todd brings 25+ years of industry experience to ViaWest, during which time he has been involved in the acquisition, financing, leasing, management, and disposition of more than $15 billion of commercial real estate for both private and public real estate investment companies.  Prior to joining ViaWest, Todd spent the previous 15 years in various roles at VEREIT, an NYSE-listed, full service real-estate operating company, including as its General Counsel – Real Estate for his last 6 years.  Other experience includes real estate and real-estate finance work at a former Scottsdale-based GE Capital subsidiary and the law firm of Snell & Wilmer.

Todd received his Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Texas and earned his Juris Doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he graduated with high honors and was a member of its law review.

Todd resides in Phoenix with his wife Mindy and two children.

Carrie L. Temple
Senior Vice President- Asset Management

In her role as Senior Vice President of Asset Management, Carrie Temple oversees the strategy and day-to-day operations of the property and asset management teams.

Carrie brings over 40 years of experience and has held senior positions with other prominent real estate development and management companies, as well as launching and running her own successful property management company for almost 14 years, before merging her company into Evergreen.

Carrie holds a dual Bachelor of Science in Real Estate and Finance with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from ASU.  She currently serves as the 2024 President of IREM Phoenix Chapter, as well as the liaison for the IREM Legislative Committee, was previously State Government Relations Chair for ICSC, a board member for AZCREW, and holds both CPM (IREM) and RPA (BOMA) along with designations and is a licensed AZ RE Broker.

Cody Childs
Chief Financial Officer

Cody is responsible for overseeing the accounting, tax, and treasury functions of ViaWest.  He held similar responsibilities with other private real estate companies since August 2013.  Cody was also an Audit Manager with Deloitte & Touche for 7 years.  In this role, he served numerous public and private companies, primarily in the real estate sector.  Cody is a certified public accountant and earned a BS in Accountancy and a Masters in Accountancy/Information Systems from Arizona State University.

Ron Lloyd
Vice President- Facilities Management

Ron serves as the Vice President – Facilities Management for ViaWest for the Phoenix portfolio.  He oversees all capital projects, the day to day engineering/building maintenance staff, and ensures operational efficiencies for the properties.  Ron has more than 33 years of experience in the engineering, facilities management and construction management fields.  He comes from an Electrical background, with a Journeyman License and holds an SMA, SMT and a Universal HVAC certification.

Prior to working for ViaWest, Ron held a similar role for the AZ portfolio for McCarthy Cook & Co.  Other significant experience includes key roles with GIC (Singaporean global investor), Parkway Properties (publicly traded REIT) and Cushman & Wakefield.

He is originally from New Hampshire and now lives in Scottsdale with his wife and two children.  He also loves the Oregon Coast when he can escape the AZ desert.

Tom Glissmeyer
Market Leader (Mountain West)

Tom leads ViaWest’s ground-up development and investment efforts in the Mountain West Region, identifying key market and economic trends with special focus on Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. He has been involved with the acquisition, disposition, repositioning, and development of over $1.4 billion of commercial real estate totaling more than 10 million square feet.

Additionally, his responsibilities include expanding investor and brokerage community relationships, feasibility studies, financial analysis, due diligence, entitlements, design, construction coordination, leasing, and asset preparation for disposition or on-boarding into ViaWest’s existing portfolio.

Tom earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California, holds Series 7 and 66 securities licenses, AZ and CO real estate licenses, and is involved with ULI, NAIOP, and SIOR. Prior to joining ViaWest, he played professional golf. Based in Denver, he enjoys hiking, backcountry skiing, and fly fishing with his wife and kids.

Danny Plapp
Director of Leasing

Danny (aka Plapp) joined The ViaWest Group as the Director of Leasing with almost a decade of brokerage/development experience in Phoenix’s commercial real estate market.  He primarily focuses on the leasing objectives and value add opportunities throughout ViaWest’s owned and managed properties. Danny has been involved in over $1 billion of leasing volume and has contributed to well over 25 million square feet of commercial space transacted in his career. A native of Phoenix and a graduate of The University of Arizona, Danny and his wife, Julie, have engrained themselves in the local community through ongoing philanthropic pursuits while deepening their roots in the valley with their two young children.

David Walter
Vice President of Acquisitions 

As Vice President of Acquisitions David is responsible for the sourcing and acquisition of investment opportunities throughout Arizona and Southern California. David has 15+ years of experience in the industry and has been involved in 38 projects consisting of 11M SF and 108 buildings through the acquisition, repositioning, asset management, or disposition. David has been involved in over $3.25 billion of commercial real estate transactions.

Prior to joining ViaWest, David served in positions of increasing responsibility at WNC & Associates in southern California and DivcoWest Properties in San Francisco with focus on Massachusetts, Southern California and the Bay Area.

David graduated with honors from the University of Oregon with a bachelor’s degree in economics and earned his M.B.A. from Cornell University.

David is originally from Portland, Oregon and now resides in Phoenix with his wife Karlin and two children.

Alex Hondros
Senior VP, Acquisition & Asset Management

As Senior VP of Acquisitions and Asset Management, Alex is responsible for the oversight of new acquisitions and execution of portfolio assets throughout their lifecycle. Alex has 12+ years of experience in the industry and on the principal side has been involved in over 40 projects across all major product types in diversified responsibilities including acquisition, development, leasing and financing.   

Prior to joining ViaWest, Alex started his career at Cushman & Wakefield. Most recently he oversaw the acquisition and asset management of value-add and adaptive reuse office projects at Crescent Communities. 

Alex graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in Finance and Economics.  

Alex is originally from Washington, DC and now resides in Phoenix with his wife Elizabeth and their son Theodore. In his free time, Alex trains and competes in triathlons.  

Alex Boles
Managing Director

As Managing Director Alex leads the Development Team in all efforts in the Phoenix market. His responsibilities include sourcing investments, due diligence, acquisition, and creation and execution of development business plans. Alex oversees all points in the development process from initial concept and site selection through construction and, ultimately disposition. During his time at ViaWest he has developed over 4 MM square feet of industrial product, one retail build-to-suit, and played a key role in +/- 1.5M SF of value-add office and industrial projects. In addition, he has a background in multifamily and single-family residential projects with 12+ years of real estate investment, development, and construction management experience.

He earned a B.A. in Business Administration with an emphasis in economics from Middle Tennessee State University as well as a Masters of Real Estate Development from Arizona State University (graduated Beta Gamma Sigma). He is involved with NAIOP and ULI. Originally from Nashville, TN, he now resides in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Ellen and two sons (Brooks and Lucas).

Rodney Boden
VP, Investment & Development

As VP, Investment & Development, Rodney is responsible for development and acquisition efforts in Southern California, industrial development projects in Phoenix, and multifamily acquisitions in Phoenix.   Rodney has 6+ years of real estate investment, asset management, development, construction management, and financial analysis experience and before ViaWest worked as a development director in the retail and multifamily spaces. Rodney’s previous role as a debt analyst at HFF/JLL Capital Markets, a global capital markets brokerage firm, has positioned him to oversee all financial modeling and underwriting for development in the Phoenix and Southern California markets. His responsibilities also include sourcing investments, market research, due diligence, coordination of entitlements and design, construction management, and disposition.

Rodney holds a B.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD as well as two graduate degrees from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University: Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Real Estate Development (MRED). Rodney is an active member of ULI and NAIOP and is currently a Director for the W. P. Carey Foundation in New York, NY. Though a native of the East Coast, Rodney claims the Arcadia area of Phoenix as his home along with his wife and children.

Alesha M. Karlsson
Director – Transactions & Operations

Alesha provides assistance to the executive team and oversees the administration process for ViaWest Group’s real estate acquisition and disposition transactions.  She has 17+ years of experience in administration, management and  coordination of commercial development.  She specializes in site selection, land acquisitions, fee-for-service preferred development, build-to-suit, single and multi-tenant retail and office developments, as well as mixed use projects and property asset management.  Alesha’s experience includes projects in size between .30 acres to 50 acres and in all stages of development from acquisition through entitlements, construction, asset management and disposition.  Alesha also coordinates vendors, team members and clients for all new acquisition due diligence. With years of experience and knowledge, Alesha also plays an instrumental role in ViaWest’s growing development activity, managing vendors and projects and helping coordinate internal team members.

Mikele Keiffer
Marketing Manager

In the role of Marketing Manager, Mikele oversees all media, coordinates external and internal events, and cultivates a positive company culture. Mikele has over 15 years of experience in marketing and sales. Previous to ViaWest she was marketing on the vendor side for the multi-family industry.

Mikele holds a bachelor degree from ASU in Global Studies and Sustainability. She is passionate about sustainability and previously served three years on the board of The Arizona Green Chamber.