Meet Our Leadership

As co-founder of MGL Partners, Mike Gerber’s primary responsibilities include property acquisition, management of the entitlement and design phases of new developments and providing strategic direction to the company.

Mike was previously a principal of Black Creek Communities, the multifamily and mixed-use division of the Denver-based real estate private equity firm Black Creek Group. His responsibilities included land and apartment acquisitions, entitlement and project design. Prior to Black Creek, he worked as an Associate in the Real Estate Capital Markets group of Citicorp Securities (now Citigroup).

Mr. Gerber earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Greg Glade is a co‐founder and principal of MGL Partners. His primary responsibilities include overseeing finance, new development and acquisitions.

As a developer of market rate, workforce, senior (assisted and independent living) rental housing, as well as low-income housing tax credit multifamily units, he has helped MGL Partners to capitalize its portfolio with a wide spectrum of debt and equity capital providers.

Greg was previously a principal and CFO of Black Creek Communities, the multifamily and mixed‐use division of Denver-based real estate private equity firm Black Creek Group.

Prior to joining Black Creek Communities, Greg was Director/Assistant Treasurer for Mail‐Well, Inc., a Fortune 1000 company. While at Mail‐Well, Greg was responsible for managing the capital structure and earnings impact of corporate finance transactions. He assisted in financing transactions valued at more than $1.2 billion, reviewed corporate finance modeling and assisted in the completion of acquisitions of more than $700 million. Prior to joining Mail‐Well, he was a manager with Deloitte & Touche in Denver.

Mr. Glade is a Certified Public Account (inactive) and graduated from the University of Wyoming.

Lisa Mullins is a co-founder and principal of MGL Partners. Her primary responsibilities include overseeing and coordinating loan and equity closings from construction loans through the final tax credit processes. She additionally oversees financial and asset management including tax credit acquisition and compliance.

Previously, Lisa worked for Corporate Properties of the Americas, overseeing U.S. and foreign accounting and tax functions for industrial real estate developments in Mexico, which had a cost basis of more than $125 million. She also served as a consultant to Black Creek Communities, the multifamily and mixed-use division of the Black Creek Group, a Denver-based real estate private equity firm.
Her primary responsibilities included asset and financial management. Lisa has also worked in firms both as an attorney and as a Certified Public Accountant.

Ms. Mullins received her bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and Juris Doctorate from The University of Denver. She is a licensed attorney in Colorado and Kentucky.

John Burstein is a principal of MGL’s market rate multifamily and mixed-used group. His primary responsibilities include capital raising, platform operations and strategic planning.

Prior to joining MGL, John was a co-founder and principal of Mexico Retail Properties, Infrastructure Institutional and DataMex; three Mexico City-based companies focused on mixed-use real estate, infrastructure investment and data center development in Mexico. On behalf of these companies, he helped raise and deploy capital for seven institutional funds with equity commitments of more than $3 billion from U.S. and Mexican pension funds, a sovereign wealth fund and multiple family offices.

Mr. Burstein earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dani Vachon Bell joined MGL Partners in 2019 as a development manager. Her primary responsibilities include managing new affordable housing construction and development consulting projects.

Dani began her career in affordable real estate development as a development project manager at Boulder Housing Partners, the housing authority for the City of Boulder. Her role over her six-year tenure involved managing acquisitions and new Low-Income Housing Tax Credit construction projects. She is the co-chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Young Leader Board and is an active volunteer at the Denver Rescue Mission.

Ms. Vachon Bell received a bachelor’s degree from Marquette University and a Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development from Tulane University.

Kent Heckaman joined MGL in 2020 as a development partner, overseeing the procurement and execution of market rate multifamily and mixed-use developments.

Kent has over 25 years of experience as a real estate executive and has delivered 8,000+ multifamily units including luxury, affordable and senior housing. He has also developed over 1 million square-feet of commercial space. Prior to joining MGL, Mr. Heckaman served in multiple executive level development positions with organizations based in the Midwest and metro Washington D.C. His product expertise includes multifamily garden, mid-rise, high-rise, retail, light industrial and office.

Mr. Heckman earned a bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning from Arizona State University and is a Certified Commercial Investment Manager.

Kurt Frantz first started working with MGL in 2010 as a development manager.

Kurt has over 35 years of experience in real estate development and has completed over 900 units of affordable housing. He has worked on various types of affordable and senior housing projects, including 9% LIHTC deals, 4% bond deals, new construction, acquisition/rehab with tenants in place, disaster recovery projects, 4% bonds combined with state tax credits, and both federal and state historic tax credits.

Prior to working with MGL, Kurt was a custom home builder and later worked for the St. Charles Town Company where he supervised commercial and residential developments.

Mr. Frantz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pacific in Stockton, California and maintains a class “C” contractor’s license in the City of Denver.

Leah Jones joined MGL Partners in 2022 as an owner’s representative. Her responsibilities include managing the predevelopment and preconstruction activities through construction and closeout for both MGL and for the suite of consultative services offered at MGL, which includes development consulting, owner’s representation and accounting scopes of services.

Leah brings 16 years within the construction industry with expertise in multiple market sectors from site
infrastructure, adaptive re-use, ground up-new construction, affordable housing and market rate developments, municipal essential facilities, school districts bond project, hospitality and commercial projects. Recently, Leah experienced heavy concentration in the affordable housing market for Taylor Kohrs and helped develop more than a thousand new and renovated affordable housing units over the last several years.

Ms. Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Arizona State University and a certificate in Construction Estimating from the American Society of Professional Estimators.

Patty Brown is a project manager at MGL Partners with over a decade of experience in the industry.

She brings a practical approach of doing what is in the best interest of the project. Patty has helped
manage and coordinate over 30 projects of varying scope and complexity, including affordable and market-rate apartments, condominiums, senior and assisted living, hotels, country clubs, office buildings, renovations and site improvement developments.

She has worked closely with utility companies, developers, municipalities, general contractors, ownership groups, consultants, and design and engineering teams to successfully complete projects within budget and with the highest level of quality and achievable schedule.

Ms. Brown came to MGL after being with the DAE Group, LLC management team for 10 years.

Rebecca Macey joined MGL Partners in 2022 as a development director. Her responsibilities include sourcing, underwriting, budgeting and other pre-development activities for the MGL pipeline.

Rebecca has over 10 years of experience in real estate, urban planning and project management across private and public sectors. She began her real estate career as an associate at Ascendance Partners, a private equity real estate firm in Chicago, supporting acquisitions, asset management and operations. She recently served as a development specialist at the Colorado Division of Housing, leading underwriting and due diligence for state and federal financing of affordable housing projects in Denver, Loveland and Fort Collins.

Ms. Macey earned a bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Studies from Cornell University and a Master of Science in Real Estate and the Built Environment from the University of Denver. She served as a 2019-2020 Social Enterprise Fellow for CiviCO and Barton Institute for Community Action and is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and Housing Colorado.