A Team of Dedicated Leaders
Frontier Development is driven by a team of accomplished leaders with experience in every aspect of real estate investment. Our experts in development, acquisitions, finance, dispositions, construction management, and asset management are passionate about smart strategy, strong returns, and community development.
Evens Charles
Evens Charles is the founder and managing principal of Frontier Development & Hospitality Group LLC. A native of Washington, D.C., Mr. Charles attended Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he was a Big East Conference Division I football athlete. During his five-year athletic tenure at Temple University, he earned a B.A. in Psychology and a Master of Education.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Charles was inspired by his landlord and began investing in real estate, which led him to start Frontier Development. At the age of 25, he executed his first small transaction that required an out-of-pocket investment of $1,000 resulting in a $25K profit six months later. This transaction was the catalyst that catapulted Mr. Charles into real estate investing. After a ten-year period of several successful luxury residential and multi-family acquisition and development projects, Mr. Charles, at the age of 36, had led Frontier Development to its first hotel investment.
The firm has since grown to over a nine-figure portfolio of Hilton and Marriott Internationally branded hotel assets across six states. His accomplishments have been recognized as one of the 2019 Black Enterprise largest 100 Black-Owned Businesses in the nation; 2019 Outstanding Entrepreneur Award by the Caribbean American Heritage; The 2016 Deal of Year Award for the DoubleTree by Hilton Largo, MD, presented by NABHOOD; the 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year awarded by NAMD; the 2010 Outstanding Hotelier Award presented by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association; 2009 Hotel Owner of the Year Award; and the 10 People Under 40 to Watch in 2010 awarded by the Philadelphia Tribune Magazine.
He has performed speaking engagements throughout the country for several professional organizations and has been featured in various publications including Hotel Business, Lodging Magazine, Black Enterprise & Business Journals across multiple cities.
He has an endowed scholarship in his name at Temple University targeting underserved students, supports many philanthropic causes, and serves as a mentor to many. He is also a member of Temple University’s School of Hospitality & Tourism Board of Visitors, member of the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC), as well as industry organizations such as the National Alliance of African American Hotel Owners and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
Joseph Yi
Joseph Yi is an accomplished real estate professional with a remarkable track record of over $4 billion in hotel transactions. As the Chief Investment Officer/Principal at Frontier Development & Hospitality Group, he brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role. With a wide breadth of experience spanning acquisition, capital markets, asset management, and disposition, Joseph plays a vital role in driving the Company’s investment strategy and overseeing major transactions.
Prior to joining Frontier Development, Joseph held key positions at leading real estate firms covering multiple asset classes, and in every part of the deal cycle. He has extensive development background covering a wide range of segments that includes some of most important developments projects in New York City hotel sector.
Joseph’s legal background as an attorney has been invaluable in his real estate career. He has had unique opportunities to serve as head of investment and head of legal in multiple companies, simultaneously sometimes. This background has provided him the ability to execute transactions expeditiously and methodological while making a comprehensive risk assessment accordingly.
Joseph holds a Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Binghamton University. He is Emeritus Board Member and former board member, Asian Real Estate Association of America – Manhattan Chapter.
Woody Victor
Woody Victor has significant experience in real estate, private equity and management consulting and has advised on equity, debt and public financing for large scale residential and mixed use public private partnerships (P3). Prior to joining Frontier Development, Woody served as SVP of affordable housing for Capalino, the top urban strategy and lobbying firm in NYC. While there, Woody advised private and not-for-profit clients on development, financing and community engagement strategy. Prior to Capalino, Woody led the Real Estate Development group at SOBRO – a leading affordable housing developer in the Bronx. Woody have also held senior leadership roles at Accenture, Viacom, and several investment firms including Carthage Capital Group, a boutique private equity firm and Old Mutual Bermuda, an asset manager focused on the international high net worth segment.
Woody holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Brown University. He serves on the board of directors for Comunilife, a New York based community service organization that provides vulnerable communities with housing and culturally sensitive support services. He also serves on the board of directors for the Florida Housing Opportunity Fund, an affiliate of The Opa-locka Community Development Corporation (OLCDC), a non-profit addressing distressed unemployment and housing conditions, particularly in South Florida communities.
Woody, a native New Yorker, is a die-hard Knicks and Yankees fan and enjoys golf and African American history and literature in his free time.
Brian P. McLaughlin
Brian McLaughlin is a 25-year executive of the real estate development and finance industry with roles stretching across the non-profit, public and for-profit sectors. McLaughlin has directly sourced and underwritten more than $2B in prospective real estate investments and directly closed more than 1.5 million square feet of commercial real estate, having designed and entitled projects ranging from a community-based hospital, to a new home for the Ronald McDonald House of Maryland, to a 3-megawatt solar farm.
McLaughlin is the former President of Enterprise Community Development, Inc (ECD) where over the course of 4 years he completed one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the affordable housing industry, establishing ECD as the country’s 5th largest nonprofit affordable housing provider with more than 500 employees serving 21,000 residents in the mid-Atlantic region. ECD is the largest private owner of affordable housing in Maryland and among the top 3 in Washington, DC with notable projects under Mr. McLaughlin’s direction including the $51M Randle Hill renovation (Congress Heights, DC), the $25.7M purchase of Skyland Apartments through the District’s TOPA program, closing of $12.4M in financing in partnership with DC Green Bank for a distributed rooftop solar installation, and securing various approvals, fundings and partnerships for new construction and renovation of affordable units across the District.
McLaughlin began his professional career in the non-profit community development field, working with the Madison Park Community Development Corporation in Boston and later in York, PA where he directed the Crispus Attucks Community Development Corporation. He later worked at mortgage giant Fannie Mae where he began his work in underwriting and later asset managing multifamily properties, eventually moving to its executive office with responsibility for its management, operations and logistics, as well as leading key strategic initiatives as Special Assistant to the company’s President & CEO.
McLaughlin’s experiences also include his 2014 launch of the US arm of an overseas based multinational to create the private equity real estate investment and development company known as Lantian Development. Among his work was the acquisition, renovation and sale of a local area college campus that was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as one of the top 26 deals of 2017.
McLaughlin is also the former Assistant Secretary for Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development where he managed the state’s primary unit of government responsible for neighborhood revitalization with an annual direct investment budget of $55 million for community development, infrastructure, housing and small business financing.
McLaughlin is an honors graduate of Duke University and holds a Master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in Economics from American University. McLaughlin currently serves on the board of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, is an Independent Director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, and has been appointed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as a branch board director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Morgan C.B. Miles
Morgan has worked on and was responsible for over $1B of development projects and financing deals across the U.S. east coast throughout her 16+ years in the real estate industry. She has a proven track record working on multi-billion-dollar, complex mixed-use waterfront developments including The Wharf in Washington, D.C. and Water Street Tampa in Tampa, FL – achieving project budget and schedule goals while upholding quality standards. Morgan has development expertise working on hotels, condominiums, multi-family residential apartments, office, industrial, retail, and senior living. Select featured projects include: the nine-time, award-winning $194 MM hotel development of North America’s first Canopy by Hilton and D.C.’s first Hyatt House, as well as the initial development of the $190MM Amaris, the ultra-luxury condominium building, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects with interiors by Thomas Juul-Hansen.
A LEED Accredited Professional, Morgan holds a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Virginia (UVA) and an M.B.A. in Real Estate and Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Morgan has served on UVA School of Architecture Dean’s Advisory Board as a member since 2020 and more recently as the Vice Chair in 2022. She was also chosen as a member of the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC), a distinguished, highly selective national organization composed of senior executive minority leaders in the commercial real estate industry.
Brian Damron
Brian Damron assists with underwriting, feasibility, acquisitions and dispositions, financing and asset management. Prior to Frontier, Brian worked in brand development at Accor, where he underwrote hotel projects across North America. Brian also worked previously at CBRE Hotel Advisory, conducting market studies, appraisals and portfolio valuations, and at Hilton Worldwide, where he was a member of the small team that launched the Canopy by Hilton brand. He began his career working on-property. Brian has an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business with concentrations in Real Estate, Finance, and Entrepreneurship, and a BA from Occidental College in Diplomacy and World Affairs.