Grosvenor's North American property business has announced the promotion of Sean Wheeler to Senior Vice President, Co-Investment. In his new role, Mr. Wheeler will oversee the expansion and growth of Grosvenor’s Structured Development Finance (SDF) programme in Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle and Southern California. 

Based in the company’s Vancouver office, Mr. Wheeler has played a key role in the growth of the SDF business line, which provides capital to leading residential and multifamily developers. Since 2000, the initiative has provided capital to 79 development projects spanning over 9,600 residential units across Canada and the United States. 

Mr. Wheeler led the firm’s latest SDF transaction in February this year, a $39.6M financing for Gardena, Intracorp Homes’ newest master-plan residential community encompassing 527 condominiums and 218 rental homes across four buildings in Coquitlam, British Columbia.

Grosvenor’s SDF programme continues to seek opportunities to work with developers on the new construction of mixed-use developments, apartments, condominiums, and townhomes in Vancouver, Toronto, California, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

Ashleigh R. Simpson, Head of Structured Development Finance and Senior Vice President at Grosvenor, notes: “This well-deserved promotion reflects Sean’s strong leadership skills and the significant impact he has had on the organization. The integral part he’s played in the expansion of the SDF programme and the important relationships he’s formed, have been vital to our continued success. We look forward to having Sean in this new expanded leadership role as we continue to grow our overall lending operations.”

Mr. Wheeler has been with Grosvenor for over a decade, beginning his career as an intern and most recently serving as Vice President, Co-Investment. He has expertise in both Canadian and United States equity and lending markets, and has directly originated 15 loans representing $1.8bn, delivering over 2,400 homes. During his career at Grosvenor, he has supported the development of over 3,400 units of rental and for sale homes worth over $2.2bn in Vancouver and Seattle. In 2015, he played a critical role in setting up the firm’s first $300M SDF programme partnership and in 2022, he expanded his market coverage to include Toronto and Southern California. 

He is actively involved with the Urban Land Institute of British Columbia (ULI BC), and was recently a member of the Executive Committee. He is also a ULI Etkins student mentor and a member of the UBC Real Estate Club Board of Advisors. Sean holds a degree from the UBC Sauder School of Business and is a registered sub-mortgage broker in British Columbia.