Chesnut Properties – Executive Team
Since 1990, Chesnut Properties has had a passion for building great places and positioning ourselves for long-term ownership. We strive to be authentic and excellent in all we do; with the goal of building lasting relationships with our current and future tenants and our growing list of “A-list” professionals that support our pursuits. Today, we are delivering powerful, large-scale solutions to the markets of Southern California and Arizona to meet the needs of leading companies who place high demands on their workplace.
Lee Chesnut – Founder/CEO
Lee has always been passionate about building things. From working construction in his early years, to a career in real estate, to building a loving family, he is always seeking to better the world around him by his work. As Principal and Founder of Chesnut Properties, Lee’s passionate and intuitive vision for the projects he pursues has helped him achieve the success he has today. In his free time, Lee bounces between his home in Rancho Santa Fe and Lake Tahoe paddle boarding, boating, and spending time with his four children and ten grandchildren.
Susan Guerra - Chief Operations Officer
Susan Guerra is the Chief Operations Officer for Chesnut Properties. Ms. Guerra has been a commercial real estate professional for over 30 years. Ms. Guerra oversees all areas of operations within the Chesnut Properties diverse portfolio. This is inclusive of property management, tenant liaison, construction and vendor oversight, budgeting, property acquisition and disposition.
Mary Kay Jordan - Chief Financial Officer
Mary Kay Jordan has over 30 years of accounting experience in various industries. For the past 19 years, she has overseen all financial aspects of the Chesnut Properties portfolio. As Chief Financial Officer she has been responsible for putting in place key financing for new acquisitions, construction, land purchases and refinancing.
Please visit our website to learn more about Chesnut Properties:
https://www.chesnutproperties.com/
Lee M. Chesnut | Founder/CEO/Principal
Lee M. Chesnut, a resident of Rancho Santa Fe, CA, began his commercial real estate career with John Burnham and Company in 1986. Within a few years, he was presented with the opportunity to head the regional management and marketing efforts with Reynolds and Shidler (A Shidler Group entity). These early years of experience helped shape Lee’s perspective on creative approach to real estate challenges and opportunities.
With the RTC Meltdown wreaking havoc in commercial real estate in 1990, Lee realized that the financial disaster was likely to create unique opportunities for those who are willing to take risk. It was in this climate that Lee formed Chesnut Properties. Two years later Lee executed on his first distressed asset purchase and which began a feverish pace of acquiring underperforming/vacant properties and quickly repositioning into stabilized profitable investments.
Over the past thirty years, Mr. Chesnut has successfully acquired, repositioned and/or built numerous properties totaling over 1,250,000 square feet representing complex high-performance life-science buildings, large-scale corporate buildings, landmark above Class “A” buildings and industry leading sustainable projects.
Today, Chesnut Properties is strategically positioned to bring to various communities its passionate approach to delivering complex and impactful real estate projects; with projects under way that represent over 60 acres of land and entitlements that total over 3,000,000 square feet.
The Company utilizes multiple relationship and financial structures in order to execute this scale of development including: Private pursuits, Long-Term Ground Leases, Customized Structured Debt strategies, and P3 relationships (Public/Private/Partnerships).
Susan Guerra | Chief Operations Officer
Susan Guerra is the Chief Operations Officer for Chesnut Properties, LLC a diversified Real Estate Development firm specializing in acquisition, development, construction and management of real estate. Ms. Guerra has been a commercial real estate professional for over 25 years.
Susan oversees all areas of operations within the Chesnut Properties diverse portfolio.
She is the executive oversight since inception of the new campus project “Millenia Office”, located in Eastern Chula Vista. Millenia Office is bringing a whole new market to Chula Vista. It is comprised of Class -A, LEED v4 Platinum, WELL Building Gold campuses entitled THINK (Higher Education use), DISCOVER (Health, Bio, Life Sciences use), INVENT (Technology). Once completed Millenia Office will be delivered at over 1.2 Million square feet of high caliber, state of the art, world class facilities.
Construction commences 1
st quarter of 20 23 with delivery of first campus July 2025 .
Susan also manages the Class “A” 265,000 square foot state of the art, LEED certified office and research facility located in Tempe, Arizona. This project is designed to be environmentally sensitive and incorporates sustainable resources along with the ability to be virtually managed by both building management and global tenants. C ommencing construction in 1st quarter 2023, Susan will oversee the construction and management of the new 386,000 square foot iPark Manufacturing & Distribution facility. This state of the art net-zero project will the first of its kind in San Diego East County and is situat ed in County Owned Airport property. From ground lease negotiations to approvals from the County Board of Supervisors, the FAA and City municipalities this project is setting goals for sustainability in the County of San Diego.
During her career she has worked on notable projects such as the historical rehabilitation of the Old Mission Brewery in San Diego. This major undertaking required community support through Proposition N, a historic façade easement, participation from the Metropolitan Transit Department for trolley accessibility and station placement, along with the coordination of acceptance on the State and Federal Historic registers. Mission Brewery Plaza is a mixed-use project that prided itself on restoring its historical past with the added dimension of expansion with complimentary new construction.
Ms. Guerra has successfully capitalized on her construction and property management background in her career managi ng over two million square feet of office, industrial, biotech, and R&D facilities both for pri vate entities and the University of California San Diego where she handled portfolio management, off -campus leasing along with providing the University with c onstruction management of their tenant improvement projects.
Her knowledge of the private and academic industries compliments the Chesnut Properties focus on life science oriented, education and high-tech projects.
Ms. Guerra is devoted and passionate about the fight to e nd Alzheimer’s and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Alzheimer’s San Diego. Additionally, since she is committed to learn, support and promote the communities she works in she is on the South County YMCA Board, the Sout hwestern College Foundation Board , and a member of the East County Economic Development Council.