Lawrence D. McLaughlin, former chairman of Detroit-based Honigman’s real estate department, has joined the Bedrock team in Detroit as its first executive vice president and chief development officer. He will lead the development team, creating strategies for commercial and residential projects.
“When we began the exercise of drafting a job description for a chief development officer, Larry became the natural choice,” says Matt Cullen, CEO of Bedrock. “His decades of experience working on some of Detroit’s most prominent real estate projects combined with his years of service as general counsel for the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy reveal both a keen strategic instinct and a love for our city’s built and natural environment.”
McLaughlin has experience in all aspects of real estate development with emphasis on real estate finance, retail development, urban development, public-private partnerships, construction law, government incentives and inducements, complex transactions, joint ventures, and distressed debt. His career has included work on the redevelopment of the Renaissance Center, the McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport, Merchant’s Row, and the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center.
He is also a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and has served on its board of governors, the program committee, and as chairman of the member selection committee. He is also a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers program planning committee and served as chair of the U.S. law conference program committee. He is also a member of the finance council of the Archdiocese of Detroit and was chairman of the real property law section of the Michigan State Bar.
In August, Bedrock announced Cullen and Mark Dunkeson would take over leadership of the company as CEO and president/COO, respectively.
McLaughlin’s appointment is one of several leadership changes at Bedrock.
Chuck Wilson will join the company as senior vice president of operations and chief security officer. He will remain the chief security officer for Rock Security, a division of Rock Holdings and a separate company from Bedrock, a position he has held since April 2018. He was previously vice president of support services at Greektown Casino-Hotel after serving a 20-year career with the Detroit Police Department, retiring as a commander and chief of staff.
RJ Wolney has been promoted to senior vice president of corporate development and analytics, leading the investment and market research teams. His team will continue its work related to Bedrock’s investment decisions including market and strategic analyses, partnerships, project underwriting, and portfolio-wide capital structure execution. He joined Bedrock in 2012 and supported a statewide legislative effort to deliver a new real estate development incentive to unlock investment across the state. The legislation is being applied to Detroit projects including the Hudson’s Site. Wolney was also a leading member of Detroit’s Amazon HQ2 proposal team in 2017, working with representatives from across the region.
Sam Hamburger has been promoted to vice president of acquisitions and leasing from his former position of director of acquisitions. He will continue to lead the company’s acquisition team and will expand his focus to include the leasing team. He started at Bedrock in 2012 and has since worked on more than 100 real estate transactions as well as leases with tenants such as Ally Financial, WeWork, and Waymo.
Gabrielle Poshadlo has been promoted to vice president of communications. She will lead all internal, external, and executive communications for the company. She joined Bedrock’s communications team in 2016 and previously led communications at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Bedrock is a full-service real estate firm. Since its founding in 2011, the company and its affiliates have invested and committed more than $5.6 billion to acquiring and developing more than 100 properties, including new construction in downtown Detroit and Cleveland totaling more than 18 million square feet.
