John Cassiani

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Dec 12, 2005 by RICH LADEN THE GAZETTE

When he was hired two months ago as point man for development of the Banning-Lewis Ranch, longtime Colorado Springs businessman John Cassiani found himself as the right person, in the right place and at the right time.

Spanning about 23,000 acres, the ranch makes up much of the eastern third of Colorado Springs and will include 75,000 homes and 75 million square feet of office, shopping and industrial space when it's developed over the next half-century.

But since being annexed by the city 17 years ago, and even after it was purchased in 2001 by a California real estate company, the ranch has remained a mostly windswept prairie where cattle graze.

Enter Cassiani, 58, whose business and civic rsum is as long as the ranch is wide.

During a 36-year career, including nearly a quarterry in Colorado Springs, Cassiani has been an engineer, commercial real estate broker and developer. He's volunteered for numerous charities and nonprofits and served as a local school-board member.

From December 2003 until October, Cassiani was the Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp.'s ex- ecutive vice president for marketing -- a top recruiter in efforts to bring new employers to town.

Now, he's been hired by the Banning-Lewis Ranch's owners to oversee development as vice president of project operations. With his background, Cassiani says he has the real estate expertise, knowledge of local government and contacts in the community that will help the owners develop the massive parcel that holds the key to decades of city growth.

"This... is an absolute perfect opportunity for me," Cassiani said. "It utilizes all the strengths I've built up over 24 years and the contacts I've made in this town. It utilizes the strength of my engineering background and my development background."

There's another benefit, too.

Ranch owner Banning-Lewis Ranch Co., an offshoot of original buyer Capital Pacific Holdings of Newport Beach, Calif., has often declined to answer questions about its plans. It needed somebody who could serve as a trusted voice in the community, some business leaders say.

"Banning-Lewis people (the owners) have been MIA with regard to their relations in the community," said longtime Springs developer Steve Schuck, for whom Cassiani once worked. "John is the perfect guy to do something about it."

Cassiani grew up in a bluecollar steel town outside of Pittsburgh, where he was high school valedictorian, captain of the basketball team and a musician.

He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, worked for U.S. Steel as a construction engineer and later went back to Pitt at night to get a master's degree in environmental engineering.

His education led to a career as a sales engineer for an environmental firm -- selling specialized waste- and watertreatment equipment to industrial customers and cities. Jobs with the company took him from Pittsburgh to Boston and Salt Lake City.

In 1981, he took a job for Denver Equipment in Colorado Springs. By that time, he was married with two young daughters and was facing another move if he stayed with Denver Equipment's parent company.

"We had moved basically three times in the past six years," Cassiani said. "I said, 'that's it.' This town looked like a wonderful place to live."

He entered real estate development, got a securities license and worked as a developer and broker for two companies.

In 1989, Schuck hired Cassiani to run his brokerage operations.

At the time, the real estate market had nose-dived and Schuck had nearly gone bankrupt. But Schuck climbed out of the hole, and Cassiani wound up overseeing several residential developments.

Cassiani launched his own real estate company in 1995, which oversaw development of apartment complexes, some of which he co- owned and portions of which were set aside as affordable housing.

When EDC president Rocky Scott was looking for a new marketing executive in 2003, he offered the job to Cassiani; the two had known each other for years.

With a slowdown in the apartment market, Cassiani opted for the challenge.

"One thing I do know how to do is put deals together, which I think you need to do in that (EDC) job," Cassiani said.

During his two years at the EDC, about two dozen companies and nearly 4,500 jobs came to the Springs.

Part of Cassiani's success at the EDC was his broad business background and bigture view of the community, said Scott, who is now working in real estate investment and development near Fort Collins.

"He's well connected in the community," Scott said. "I think he brought a lot of that to the job.... We did a nation- al search. I always have a bias toward someone who can jump in and who is already trusted in the community."

Julie Boswell, an EDC vice president who's known Cassiani for 17 years, described him as an extrovert -- whether it's recruiting employers, volunteering for nonprofits or organizing golf tournaments.

But his success doesn't come from just being outgoing, she said. Cassiani demonstrated he can be trusted, a key for prospective employers.