Conor
Keilty
Senior Development Leader | Principal | Licensed Architect
Senior real estate development leader with 15+ years spanning construction, architecture, and sponsor-side development. Full-cycle experience from acquisition through disposition, with the owner-side judgment to bridge capital, consultants, and internal teams, with a track record of building the processes, workflows, and decision-support systems that make development platforms run more consistently.
About
Background
Over 15 years of experience across construction, architecture, and sponsor-side development. Ground-up and adaptive reuse projects across multiple markets and use types. Responsibility from land acquisition and master planning through entitlement, financing, construction, and disposition. Strong development judgment with an owner-side ability to translate between capital, design, construction, and stakeholder perspectives. Early risk framing in complex regulatory, programmatic, and capital environments. Licensed architect with deep owner-side experience in principal-led development environments.
Across roles, a consistent focus on building the internal processes, workflows, and systems that improve how a development platform operates, from standardized reporting and tracking to structured diligence workflows and underwriting frameworks. Practical technical fluency in financial modeling, BIM, automation, and AI-enabled workflows, applied to improve execution speed, operational consistency, and decision-making across the development lifecycle.
Core Competencies
Technically fluent in financial modeling, BIM, and automation workflows, including practical use of AI-enabled tools, to interrogate assumptions directly, reduce manual overhead, and support clearer, faster development decisions.
Experience
Professional History
Structured Real Estate
Chicago, IL and RemoteMerchant-Build Development Platform · January 2016 – Present
Contributed to the formation, growth, and operation of a full-cycle merchant-build development company over more than a decade, progressing through increasingly senior sponsor-side development roles. Built internal processes, workflows, and operational systems alongside the core development work.
Principal
Jun 2022 – Present- Land acquisition strategy, feasibility parameters, underwriting assumptions, and investment positioning alongside co-principals
- Master planning and platting with ownership, consultants, and municipalities
- Commercial negotiations with tenants and operators: lease terms, build-out requirements, delivery schedules
- PSA negotiations and legal review with co-principals and outside counsel
- Capital structuring and financing execution with lenders, equity partners, and internal principals
- Entitlement and permitting coordination for complex, use-intensive projects
- Multidisciplinary consultant team direction
- Owner-side construction leadership: scope, cost, and schedule resolution
- Internal process design: structured diligence workflows, underwriting frameworks, and reporting systems to improve consistency across projects
- Practical application of financial modeling, BIM, automation, and AI-enabled workflows to support faster, better-informed development decisions
Senior Development Manager
Sep 2018 – Jun 2022- Led multiple concurrent projects from acquisition through construction and stabilization
- Sponsor representative with lenders, equity partners, tenants, consultants, municipalities
- Underwriting, financing, closing processes, diligence coordination, capital reporting
- Feasibility studies, budgets, schedules with risk allocation and return sensitivity focus
- Primary interface with planning departments and entitlement authorities
- Construction cost control, value engineering, risk mitigation
- Built and improved internal processes: standardized project tracking, workflow procedures, and reporting frameworks to support a growing project pipeline
Development Manager
Jan 2016 – Sep 2018- Land acquisition analysis, site due diligence, early-stage development strategy
- PSA, lease reviews, legal coordination
- Zoning approvals, entitlements, permit submissions
- Early design coordination and consultant management
UEB Builders
Dallas, TX and Phoenix, AZAssistant Superintendent → Systems Engineer → Estimator · Aug 2010 – Dec 2015
- Began in the field supporting daily construction operations, subcontractor coordination, and site logistics
- Managed RFIs, submittals, document control, and field/design coordination
- Designed and implemented company-wide systems and processes, including standardized templates, workflow procedures, and reporting frameworks to improve operational consistency
- Led CRM system design and rollout, establishing a single source of truth for project history that fed into automated marketing materials and proposal generation
- Marketing and proposal support: pursuit strategy, project narratives, client-facing materials
- Part-time estimating while completing Master of Architecture, including quantity takeoffs, pricing analysis, and bid preparation
- Developed comprehensive understanding of scope definition, pricing, constructability, and execution risk across the full project lifecycle
Credentials
Education & Licensure
Registered Architect, State of Arizona
License No. 72077 · Issued September 2020 · Active
Arizona State University
Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) · 2013–2016
University of Arizona
B.S. Engineering Management · 2006–2010