John Ragland
Founder and Managing Member
John was most recently a Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Retail for TIAA’s subsidiary TH Real Estate, now rebranded as Nuveen Real Estate. As such, he was responsible for leading the company’s dedicated retail sector investment team and overseeing all domestic retail equity acquisitions, dispositions and asset management. He was a member of the Investment Committee and served on the management team of the US Super Regional Mall Fund LP, the Super Regional Mall Venture LLC and the U.S. Cities Retail Fund. John joined TIAA in 2010 as a senior director and Head of Retail Asset Management. During his tenure, the retail portfolio grew from 75 to 99 assets and Assets Under Management grew from $8 billion to $12 billion.
Prior to TIAA, he was an Executive Vice-President at Cole Capital Advisors and The Haven Group where he was responsible for acquiring land positions in master-planned communities.
John spent nearly 24 years at The Rouse Company, which was a REIT with $13 billion in assets spread across 45 super-regional malls and 3 master-planned communities prior to its acquisition by General Growth Properties in 2004. He was a corporate officer and held management positions in retail leasing, development and market research. He was a member of the Development Committee and was involved in $1.2 billion of new development projects in Atlanta, Miami, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Baltimore from 1995-2003.
John holds a BA in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University. He is a full member of ICSC, where he has served on the Research Advisory Council and was a Founding Member of the Planning Committee for its NEXUS conference, and he is an active member of the ULI Retail and Development Council.
Ragland Retail Advisors may affiliate from time to time with other boutique firms in the industry
Larry Brocato
Principal, Brocato Development Services
Larry formed Brocato Development Services in January 2011 after 35 years in the commercial real estate industry. Larry and John have worked together since 1984 when Larry joined The Rouse Company as its Head Of Construction after serving as a Project Manager for the 1984 World's Fair.
Larry ultimately rose to a Executive Vice-President at The Rouse Company, overseeing West Coast retail development as well as the land development efforts at Summerlin, a 22,000-acre master-planned community in Las Vegas, NV. Subsequently, Larry was also with John as a SVP at Cole Capital and the Chief Operating Officer at Haven.
As such, Larry has developed deep executive experience in executing major commercial developments -- from site selection to feasibility to entitlements to ultimate completion.
Brocato Development Services has been a consultant to TIAA since 2011. He functions as TIAA's Owners Representative, overseeing developers (Simon, CBL, Fairbourne, Madison Marquette and Westfield) as they execute major re-development efforts at Super-Regional malls and lifestyle centers.