About REthink
REthink Development, with offices in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California, has differentiated itself by initiating development projects that reflect the context in which they are built. The context that informs the project includes considerations of the sun, wind and natural environment and the historical and cultural context in addition to the traditional influences of economic conditions and market trends.
REthink’s contextual development approach makes us capable of achieving entitlements in challenging neighborhoods and difficult sites where other companies would struggle. Unlike many developers, every REthink project evolves from the unique set of site characteristics including environmental, historic, and cultural/ social influences. By doing so, the community is involved in defining the final product. REthink backs this unique approach with sound fundamental financial analysis. By integrating our ownership perspective with the contextual design approach we achieve sustainable buildings with superior economic performance and value.
Team members are astutely knowledgeable on the technologies, techniques, solutions, and materials that encompass the green building industry as well as bringing modern creative buildings to the market. Lastly, the team as a whole truly believes in the benefits of green building and wants to spread its practice as much as possible throughout the country and world.
Team members also have ample experience in the real estate and financial markets enabling the close tying of green building and renewable energy to their very important financial benefits and implications. Additionally, the Team is supported by Advisors who have developed, owned or consulted on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of multifamily, retail, office, and industrial developments, have acquired, disposed of, and financed billions of dollars worth of real estate and own and manage a number of shopping centers, industrial, and multifamily developments throughout Southern California.
Greg Reitz, Principal, REthink Development
At REthink, Mr. Reitz has been responsible for sourcing, financing, securing City approvals and managing the construction of several ground-breaking projects including an 89-unit apartment building on State Street in the City of Santa Barbara, its first significant apartment building in nearly 50 years. He also ensured REthink’s Cherokee Studios mixed-use development project in Hollywood was designed to achieve LEED Platinum and was awarded the National AIA Top 10 Green Project Award. In 2009, Greg was selected as a Green Leader by the California Real Estate Journal.
As the former Green Building Advisor for the city of Santa Monica, he was responsible for overseeing all green building activities and programs including authoring the Residential Green Building Guide. During his tenure there, Santa Monica went from having no LEED-certified buildings to having more LEED buildings per capita than any other city in the country.
A LEED Accredited Professional and an emeritus board member of the Los Angeles chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), he has supported the efforts of many cities across the state – including Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Culver City – in developing green building policies.
Mr. Reitz has a degree in Cybernetics from University of California Los Angeles.
Steve Edwards, Founder and Principal, LEED AP
Steve Edwards is an entrepreneur committed to pursuing innovation through sustainable and creative development. He is a founder and principal of Rethink Development. He leads the Los Angeles and Bay Area development practice.
At REthink Edwards bridges the gap between the real estate industry’s past and its bright “green” and technology driven future. Edwards’ mission is to prove into practice how green technologies, measures, and practices positively affect the bottom line and have substantial environmental and human benefits. He is responsible for creating financial and decision based frameworks, methods, and tools to help building owners, managers, and operators make the most out of their built environment. Edwards speaks and contributes on the financial aspects of green building and renewable energy for various organizations.
Prior to founding REthink, Edwards served as managing director of Winebright Properties, a commercial real estate investment and management organization, where he managed, expanded and developed its portfolio of shopping centers.
Before his transition into real estate and green building, Edwards held leading positions at new media and software companies. He designed and developed revolutionary software and gaming products. Edwards parlayed years of digital product development into the literal brick and mortar kind. He saw the opportunity to apply emerging green building and other real estate technologies and measures to substantively affect the way people live, work, and interact with the built environment.
While in product development, Edwards served as head of the product management and production group for RedPoint Ventures backed LivePlanet, a world renowned integrated production company founded by Chris Moore, Sean Bailey, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. He was recruited to design and manage the technology and game development in support of their integrated entertainment experiences on ABC, HBO, and feature films. These shows and experiences were the first of their kind in which millions of people were watching TV, playing a game for financial reward, and interacting via the internet in real time.
Prior to LivePlanet, Edwards co-founded Verge Software/XMarkstheSpot. As Director of Product Management and Marketing he lead the development of a backend online advertising and marketing engine and an enterprise software application based on a neural network engine for corporate information management for clients such as Intel, Hewlett Packard, Ernst & Young, and Yahoo. Verge was venture capital backed and was sold to the public company Aptimus Inc in 2000.
Edwards received degrees from LEEDs School of Business in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management and a BS in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Colorado.