Brett Merrill - Managing Partner

Brett Merrill is the Managing Partner of Donovan Stewardship. He oversees the operations of the company, including sourcing, vetting, and executing on opportunities that fit Donovan Stewardship’s overall strategies and purpose.

Previously, Brett founded Telos Ventures to bring the same focus and approach from his institutional background to the boutique commercial real estate space. One of Telos Ventures’ first investments was in Track West Partners, a commercial real estate development company primarily focused on single-tenant net lease retail which Brett co-founded in 2019. During his time as a Founding Principal at Track West Partners, Brett worked in all facets of the operating company as well as the acquisition, development, and disposition processes for individual projects with an aggregate value of $87.5 million.

Prior to founding Telos Ventures, Brett was Director of Asset Management at Blaze Partners, a multifamily-focused operator, where he was responsible for the performance of the investment portfolio, optimization of portfolio-level returns through asset strategy implementation and standardization of protocols to drive efficiency, accuracy, and benchmarking of operational metrics.

Brett was formerly a Vice President of Asset Management at Jamestown, a national, vertically integrated real estate investment company and operator, where he served in various roles across the acquisitions and asset management groups. Most recently, he worked directly with the Head of Portfolio on fund and property-specific strategic investment decisions for approximately 60 assets valued in excess of $11 billion domestically. Over his 10-year career at Jamestown, Brett was also directly involved in the growth of Jamestown’s West Coast and Southeast portfolios through the acquisition of nearly $800 million of assets, including the Lantana Entertainment and Media Campus in Santa Monica, CA and the iconic Ghirardelli Square retail complex in San Francisco, CA. Prior to his role in acquisitions, he worked in the asset management group with a focus on urban office and retail properties in gateway cities, as well as, multifamily, medical office, and industrial office types in the Southeast.

Brett earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Furman University in 2005 and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in 2007. He has been involved with the Urban Land Institute and ULI’s Young Leader Group throughout his career.