OUR TEAM
Chuck J. Schoninger
Founder
Charles “Chuck” Schoninger (pronounced shoh-neen-gehr) is a seasoned real estate developer and mezzanine debt fund manager. His real estate career began in Colorado Springs, Colorado as a broker for a leading real estate company and then forming his own company Zephyr Development in 2000. Zephyr’s primary business activity was the acquisition, entitlement, development and sale of mixed use real estate projects. Chuck acted as general partner to create a private equity network of over $50 Million, investing in development-related private placement offerings paying preferred returns in the 12-14% range. Under leadership from Mr. Schoninger, Zephyr Development created over 12,000 single family lots as a conduit developer for some of the largest publicly traded homebuilders while also involved in over 30 communities and mixed use developments.
Zephyr Development’s primary focus was in Colorado, however, projects were also completed in Florida, Texas and Oklahoma. Chuck Schoninger was instrumental in creating and enacting several large municipal special improvement districts and subsequent bond funding of those projects. In 2007, Mr. Schoninger relocated to Wilmington, North Carolina to oversee the completion of the Wilmington Riverfront Redevelopment. His focus has been devoted to maximizing the value added to this project. Chuck, closely monitors national and local economic and market conditions in order to minimize investment risk and maximize profits through recapitalization of assets.
Charles McCarthy
President of Operations
Mr. McCarthy started his career in the Cold Storage industry in 1984. In his 28 year career he has founded, owned, managed, and operated new-build and major expansions of cold storage facilities. He is well-versed in all operational aspects of large-scale distribution and transloading cold storage centers.
Born and raised in North Carolina, Mr. McCarthy attended High Point University where he received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Economics. Mr. McCarthy enjoys learning about technological advances in the field, new systems, and ways to increase the bottom line. He remains on top of trends and industry changes by attending seminars, workshops, trade shows, and networking events with industry giants. He has attended several week-long training programs offered at the University of Oklahoma by the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW).
In addition to continuing education, McCarthy is an active participant in industry organizations. He served for 3 years on the WFLO Institute Board of Governors, a Core Partner of the Global Cold Chain Alliance, and is an active member in the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW).
Rene Mondejar III
Vice President of Business Development
Mr. Mondejar has been in Real Estate Finance & Development for over 31 years. As a VP & Partner, he took a Florida Mortgage Brokerage Firm from 4 to 22 offices in 7 years - resulting in the largest mortgage brokerage company in the state of Florida. As a resident of Colorado, he was also a VP/Senior Partner of a regional residential mortgage company that covered Colorado, Oregon and Washington. He assisted in all facets of the business; production, operations and marketing. While the company grew to $400 million annually, he and his partners successfully completed a sale of their company to a major bank from Houston, Texas.
René was the President/Partner for a real estate development company that successfully master planned & developed over 3,500 lots that involved over 15 projects on the East Coast of North Carolina and Florida. His Development Management responsibilities included; contracts, covenants, LLC agreements, land planning, financing, investor relations and accounting for all projects. In the process he was responsible for over $20mm in project funding (institutionally and private).
René has also owned and managed his own commercial real estate properties for the last 20+ years. He has extensive experience in negotiating contracts, leases and tenant finish in construction.
René graduated with B.A. from Bethany College in Kansas.
He, his wife and two children live in Colorado Springs Colorado.
Hobbies include: Golf, Traveling, Outdoors