Sean Burton, co-founder and CEO of Cityview, joins Taylor Avakian on the No Vacancy podcast for a deep conversation on scaling a vertically integrated multifamily firm, navigating cycles from the Great Financial Crisis through COVID, and the realities of investing and developing housing across the Western U.S. and beyond.
This episode offers a clear look at how one of the more active multifamily operators approaches strategy, risk, and opportunity in a complex market..
Gabi Franco leads Cityview’s asset management department, overseeing the firm’s development and value-add assets while working alongside the construction management, property management and development teams as Cityview continues to scale nationally.
Franco has more than 20 years of experience leading institutional multifamily platforms, with deep involvement in acquisition strategy, capital deployment and asset-level decision-making across portfolios exceeding $11B in assets under management (AUM). Previously, Franco served as Partner at Interstate Development, where he oversaw asset management for the firm’s multifamily portfolio and co-led investment pursuits, investor relations, due diligence and acquisitions. Prior to that, Franco was Partner and Head of Asset Management at Carmel Partners, where he provided strategic oversight of a multifamily portfolio spanning 20,000+ units, 20+ assets and eight institutional funds.
Franco holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Development degree from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University.
Devang Shah, Principal at Genesis Builders, was instrumental in building the firm from the ground up and continues to lead its operations, sales, marketing, and strategic direction. With more than 25 years of real estate experience, Devang brings a unique combination of strategic vision and hands-on expertise in acquisition, development, design, construction, capital raising, and asset management.
Before launching Genesis Builders, Devang served as Managing Director at Cityview, where he sourced and financed the acquisition of more than 2,000 value-add apartments and led the development of over 1,500 residential units in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Denver, and Portland.
Earlier in his career, he founded Marketcents Inc., an independent project management firm focused on advisory and owner representation. He also held a leadership role at KB Urban (a division of KB Home), where he oversaw the planning, design, and marketing of high-profile residential communities across Southern California, including mixed-use and luxury projects that helped shape the region’s urban landscape. Earlier, at RCLCo, as Vice-President he provided in-depth market research and feasibility analysis for large-scale residential and mixed-use developments throughout the United States, advising leading developers and investors on strategic opportunities.
Driven by a passion for thoughtful design and meaningful community impact, Devang has played a key role in delivering more than 75 residential communities throughout the Western U.S.
Rebecca Zandovskis, Senior Director of Business Development, is a proud Altadena resident, where she lives with her husband of 13 years. Deeply rooted in the neighborhood she calls home, Rebecca leads with a philosophy centered on connection, collaboration, and community impact.
Rebecca brings more than 25 years of combined experience in real estate and human resources, supported by her California Real Estate License, aPHR certification, and a strong foundation in Human Resources Law. Throughout her career, she has distinguished herself as a trusted leader and community advocate, serving as Community Manager for more than 14 new-build and value-add residential communities across the greater Los Angeles area.
Motivated by a commitment to helping neighborhoods flourish, Rebecca joined Genesis Builders to ensure her Altadena community can rebuild quickly and affordably—without sacrificing quality, craftsmanship, or the unique character that makes the area so special.
Christy is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in the apartment residential industry. As a dedicated Regional Property Manager, she has successfully piloted the complexities of the field across multiple states, demonstrating expertise in various facets of property management.
Throughout her career, Christy has been instrumental in overseeing new development projects, supervising property rehabs, optimizing portfolios, and spearheading successful lease-ups. Her strategic leadership and hands-on approach have consistently driven operational excellence and maximized property performance.
Her expertise lies in fostering strong tenant relationships, optimizing property performance, and implementing effective management strategies. Christy is committed to delivering exceptional service and value to property owners and residents alike, making her an asset in the industry.
With over a decade of progressive experience in property management, Anna brings a strategic, people-centered leadership style that drives operational excellence and organizational growth. She has successfully led portfolios spanning luxury high-rise assets and highly sought-after garden-style communities, delivering exceptional results across diverse markets.
Known for developing high-performing teams and fostering a culture of accountability and engagement, Anna combines strategic insight with operational precision to enhance asset value and elevate the resident experience. Her expertise extends across performance optimization, capital planning, and client relations, where she has built trusted partnerships that support long-term success.
Anna is deeply committed to creating communities that embody quality, innovation, and service excellence—ensuring that each property under her leadership achieves peak performance and enduring value.
Justice Bryan is a results-driven Regional Property Manager with extensive experience enhancing multifamily operations across varied markets and asset types.
He has successfully directed lease-ups, stabilized properties, and implemented large-scale capital improvement programs. Justice drives operational excellence, financial optimization, and sustained portfolio growth.
As a Multifamily Marketing Director and an executive leader, Marge has driven business growth, lease generation, and high occupancy rates for high-value lease-up projects by building cost-effective and progressive marketing strategies.
Being a property management veteran for 9 years, Marge possesses extensive experience in programming and marketing properties with a collective unit count of over 8000 units spanning 39 properties nationwide. Her bottom-up approach to strategy has optimized property occupancy by augmenting marketing functions and consumer engagement. Skilled at analyzing marketing trends, identifying improvement opportunities, and implementing operational upgrades, she has had success supporting overall occupancy growth.
Similarly, her focus on digital marketing operations to capitalize on enhanced market coverage, cost-effectiveness, and the return-on-investment rates has amplified market awareness by 55% by creating an active brand voice in local communities and on digital platforms.
Christina Bartlett, Director of Operations for Westhome, brings over 11 years of experience in multifamily management and operations. Prior to coming to Westhome, Christina was an Asset Manager with a 3rd party management company, providing executive level support and oversight for clients along with being instrumental in property acquisitions. With Westhome, Christina is responsible for planning and implementing best practices to support on-site teams through employee training and development along with promoting Weshome’s company culture and values.
As Westhome’s Director of Culture & Development, Emilia Leon leads initiatives that inspire a dynamic, people-first workplace. She designs engaging training programs, creates innovative onboarding resources, and fosters a culture of collaboration rooted in Westhome’s core values.
With a passion for empowering teams and enhancing employee experiences, Emilia has helped shape Westhome’s approach to professional development, ensuring every team member feels supported and set up for success. Her work reflects a deep commitment to building cohesive teams and cultivating an environment where both employees and residents thrive.
Based in New York City, Christoph pursues new global strategic opportunities, builds and maintains relationships with investors and partners and leads the firm’s fund development and capital strategy.
Previously, Christoph was CEO of America PIMCO Prime Real Estate LLC (formerly Allianz Real Estate of America LLC), where he provided strategic leadership over the commercial mortgage loan business and equity investments of Allianz’s global subsidiaries in North America. During his time as CEO, the firm’s real estate investments grew from $7 billion to $22 billion.
Prior to that, he was a Senior Managing Director and Chief Credit Officer at Aareal Capital Corporation, where he managed a portfolio of $5 billion. He has also served as Managing Director at Hypo Real Estate in New York, London and Munich, Head of Project Finance at Vivico Real Estate in Frankfurt, Germany and as a Vice President at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.
Christoph is a member of the Real Estate Roundtable and the Urban Land Institute’s Global Exchange Council. Previously, he was a board member for the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE). He holds a graduate degree in business from the Technische Universität in Berlin.
After 8 years in the construction industry managed complex multi-use development projects, Anh Le joined Cityview in 2018. Anh manages ground-up developments in Northern and Southern California and leads consultant teams through entitlement, design, permitting, budgeting, contracting, construction management and project turnover. She works closely with designers, neighborhood groups and Cityview’s in-house Asset Management team to deliver best-in-class multifamily projects. Prior to Cityview, Anh worked as a project engineer and project manager at Cobalt Construction. Le holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.
Zory Grigoryan is responsible for the full cycle development of several of Cityview’s projects, which includes managing the due diligence, underwriting, entitlement, design engineering, construction processes and turnover to asset management. Prior to joining Cityview, Zory worked for Oakmont Capital as a Project Manager overseeing the development and construction of several multifamily projects. Prior to that, he worked at Cobalt Construction as a Project Manager on the construction of numerous mixed use and multifamily projects. During his career, Zory has been responsible for the development, preconstruction and construction of over 1,500 units.
Zory holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Construction Management from the California State University of Northridge, where he was the top ranked graduate of his year. During his time at Cobalt Construction, Zory was also selected as distinguished alumni by the CSUN department faculty and appointed as ambassador for alumni recruitment by CSUN construction management department’s board of governors committee.
Con Howe leads Cityview’s partnerships to finance, assemble and entitle land for development in the greater Los Angeles area. With over 40 years of experience in planning, entitlements and development, he assists all Cityview funds with acquisitions and development strategies. Prior to coming to Cityview, he was the Director of Planning for the City of Los Angeles responsible for the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance and zoning to encourage infill housing. Previously he was the Executive Director of the New York City Planning Department. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and his master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Shane Robinson sets Westhome’s strategic direction and oversees the firm’s operational and financial performance, ensuring consistent, best-in-class execution in support of Cityview’s investment strategy. With more than 24 years of experience in property and asset management, Shane is focused on positioning Westhome as a best-in-market property management platform by sharpening execution, refining operations, investing in the firm’s people and systems and maximizing asset-level performance.
Previously, Shane served as Vice President of Asset Management at Cityview, where he managed all aspects of the firm’s stabilized, value add and new development assets. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Property Management at Westhome, where he helped build the operational infrastructure that facilitated market expansion. During his tenure at Sunrise Management, Shane established and scaled operations in new markets, helping create a strong foundation for the company’s continued growth and long-term success.
Adam Perry oversees all aspects of the commercial real estate development process from acquisition due diligence and entitlement processing through design budgeting, contracting, construction management, closeout and turnover. Prior to joining Cityview, Adam worked at CIM group as an Associate Vice President of Development overseeing ground up retail, office and mixed-use developments. ​
Adam holds a BA Degree in Political Science and History from UCLA and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Jennifer Halvas is a member of the firm’s investor relations team, where she is responsible for maintaining relationships with the investor community and helping to develop investment strategies and initiatives. Over the years, she has been instrumental in securing capital needs for several Cityview funds across a broad base of institutional investors, foundations and endowments, family offices and high-net-worth investors. A 15-year veteran of the firm, Jennifer is also a partner at Cityview and a member of its investment committee.
She was previously at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where she represented a variety of clients in real estate, project development and finance transactions. Jennifer holds a B.A. with honors from the University of Southern California and a JD from Vanderbilt Law School.
As Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Damian Gancman oversees Cityview’s asset management, property management and accounting strategy. A 21-year veteran of the firm, Damian is also a partner at Cityview and a member of its investment committee.
He has helped create a multitude of strategic initiatives to support Cityview’s rapid growth, including the launch of Cityview’s property management division, the creation of its opportunity zone fund platform and the build out of its finance and capital markets teams.
In addition to his role at Cityview, Damian serves on the University of Southern California (USC) Lusk Center for Real Estate Executive Committee and is a guest lecturer for the USC Master of Real Estate Development program.
Sean Burton co-founded Cityview in 2003. Prior to joining Cityview, Sean was vice president of corporate business development and strategy at Warner Bros. Before that, he was an attorney in the real estate and corporate groups at O’Melveny & Myers, LLP and also served in the White House during the Clinton Administration.
Sean currently serves on the board of The Real Estate Roundtable and will chair the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in 2027. From 2022-2024, Burton was appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the federal nominee on the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Board of Directors, which oversees Washington Dulles and Reagan National airports.
From 2013 to 2021, Sean oversaw the $20B modernization of LAX as President of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. He also served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve. Sean holds a B.A. from the University of California, Irvine and a JD from New York University School of Law.
