Team Experience

Market Share

While the Layline team has valuable experience across all product types and the most competitive markets in the West, there is one key stat that highlights Layline’s ability to source and execute San Francisco Bay Area industrial opportunities. Focusing on just the close-in submarkets, Layline team members are responsible for sourcing, entitling and/or building approximately one third of the entire Bay Area industrial pipeline since the current development cycle started in 2012. That equates to over 6.4 million square feet across 21 projects totaling over $1.6 billion in stabilized project costs. The Layline team is grateful for the opportunity to work with the following market-leading companies as partners, employees, or clients.
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Mark English

Mark English

Principal
Mark founded Layline after being a developer and entrepreneur for more than 20 years. His professional career began with Bechtel Enterprises developing and financing private infrastructure in Latin America. Mark worked for Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (fka RREEF) specializing in asset management and deal structuring for the company’s West Coast Value-Add and Development portfolio.

In 2014 he left RREEF to start Seven Bridges Properties, focusing on development of industrial and office projects for clients that included NY Life, Columbia Property Trust, Black Creek Group, Ares, Prologis, W.P. Carey and 9th Street Partners. During this period Mark also helped form Paceline Investors, making several investments in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Mark earned both an undergraduate degree from Boston College and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Outside of work he has been active philanthropically, serving as a member of the Board of Trustees for Fort Mason and as a member of the Guardsmen. He is also an accomplished sailor winning the Pacific Cup regatta from San Francisco to Hawaii in 2016.
Drew Hess

Drew Hess

Principal
Drew founded Layline as one of the most active infill industrial investors in California and Seattle over the last 20 years. Most recently he was Regional SVP for Duke Realty, responsible for forming and leading a team and expanding the public REIT’s portfolio in Northern California and Seattle. Responsible for all capital deployment and portfolio management, he grew the team to 12 staff and expanded the portfolio by 7 million square feet totaling $1.7 billion of total investment over 22 transactions.  His experience also includes working for American Realty Advisors as Senior Director of their investment group, serving as VP, Investments for Prudential Real Estate Investors and VP Acquisitions with Prologis predecessor, AMP Property. Drew started his career in the real estate audit and advisory team at Arthur Anderson LLP.
A graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Drew has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an Accounting specialization.  In addition, he is a Certified Public Accountant in California and is a LEED® Accredited Professional.  He is a former president and board member of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of NAIOP and currently on the real estate executive council for the Bay Area chapter of Make-A-Wish.
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Revitalize

Layline believes creating appealing, functional and flexible buildings for the evolving needs of industrial tenants will lead to great outcomes for our partners and growth and improvement in the community.  To do this, we design in a large power supply, extra clear height and flexible yard space to attract quality companies to use them.   Our goal is to make a lasting impact in the community by building attractive properties that create both construction jobs in the short term and permanent jobs in the long term.
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Diligent

We combine our effectiveness and technical expertise to execute in complicated situations.  From intricate entitlement work to heavy environmental remediation or difficult soil conditions to unstable capital markets, we work closely with our partners as well as passionate communities to bring about the best outcome for all involved.  We strive for open and transparent communication with our internal project teams and external stakeholders because every successful project has an extensive group of people collaborating together.
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Local Focus

We are singularly focused on urban, infill investments around the San Francisco Bay.  Living and working locally for our professional careers, we understand how to effectively source opportunities and partner with our local cities, agencies and communities to improve existing properties and create new high-quality buildings.