Hopkins Real Estate (“HRE”) is a private real estate development company based in Irvine California led by industry veteran Stephen Hopkins.   The company operates as a full-service development organization, specializing in the development, redevelopment, ownership, and leasing of retail and mixed use properties located in in-fill locations throughout California.

Steve Hopkins has developed and/or redeveloped nearly 100 projects encompassing over 9 million square feet of gross leaseable area since 1972. The Company’s established presence in California and reputation for sourcing unique opportunities, especially in in-fill locations, through their unparalleled relationships has made them one of the foremost retail development firms in the region.

Due to their focus on relationships, Hopkins Real Estate has the distinctive ability to secure deals through a wide variety of channels including long-standing, deep ties to the real estate brokerage and local communities and municipalities. Throughout the test of time, these relationships have given HREG numerous “first-look” opportunities directly from retailers, brokers, property owners, and former city consultants, often times, circumventing the RFQ process. In addition to existing relationships, the Company’s deep bench of talented development professionals actively seeks out attractive opportunities.

Steve Hopkins

Steve Hopkins is the CEO of Hopkins Real Estate Group and heads up the development business.  Steve started his real estate career with Coldwell Banker in 1968. He is the founder of Hopkins Development Company, the predecessor of HRE, in 1972. Over the years Steve has developed over 100 projects and over 9.1 million square feet of commercial real estate.  

Steve remains very active in several professional associations. He is a Trustee for the International Council of Shopping Centers, is on the Advisory Board of the California Business Properties Association, is involved with the Urban Land Institute as a Council Member and is a member of the Community Redevelopment Association. Steve is one of the pioneers of urban in-fill development and public/private partnerships with municipalities.

Steve was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Long Beach, California. He graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration. Steve has four children and lives in Newport Beach, California.

Tom Nguyen, Esq

Tom Nguyen is the President of HRE and heads up its brokerage business.  Tom Nguyen started his career in as a real estate attorney but quickly transitioned over to a full time commercial real estate broker.  Tom was most recently an Executive Vice President at NAI Capital where he founded and headed up its Pacific Rim Division where he was consistently a top producer.

Over the years Tom has transacted almost every product type - from retail and office to multifamily and development land totalling nearly 1 billion in deals.  The majority of his work involves acquisitions, dispositions, and portfolio management for high net worths, family offices, and institutions.  With over 20 years of experience representing clients as well as a principal, Tom can add value to any commercial real estate scenario.

Within the past 5 years, Tom has acted a principal investor and specialist in “horizontal development” where he acquires value added land and either sells or assigns the land to residential or industrial developers who builds or goes “vertical.”  Within the last four years, Tom has acted as a principal in the acquisition and assignment/or sale of over 90 million in land development projects.

Tom grew up in Orange County and has a dual BA/BS from UCLA and a law degree from CWSOL in San Diego.  Aside from commercial real estate, Tom is an entrepreneur and investor in high performing restaurants and tech startups.

Email Tom at tnguyen@hopkinsre.com

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Dean Isaacs

Mr. Isaacs has over 30 years of experience in the retail and commercial real estate development industry, from both a retailer’s and developer’s perspective, while working on projects all over the Western U.S..  He has a long history of representing developers, landowners and cities in acquisition, entitlement, property management and development issues, and performing development management functions. His clients have included the City of Oakland’s Economic Development department and the Office of Neighborhood Investment, the Contra Costa Water District, the City of Rohnert Park, Goodwill Industries, Sand Hill Property Company (development management on a $321M+ mixed-use project – “Main Street Cupertino”), Warmington Homes, Compass Acquisition Partners, Clark Realty Capital, Arcadia Development Co., ICI Development Company, Diversified Investment & Management, and Pacific Union Commercial, working on retail and mixed-use projects in Northern and Central California. He also manages and leases a 14-property Peninsula, East Bay and South Bay-based portfolio of retail, industrial and office properties for Prodesse Property Group.

He was previously employed as Vice President of Development for General Growth Properties, responsible for all ground up development, remodels and renovations on Company-owned regional mall properties in California, Arizona and New Mexico, supervising a staff of seven developers.

Prior to joining General Growth, Mr. Isaacs worked primarily on redevelopment projects in his career, necessitating constant interaction, and negotiation and teaming with local municipalities. He opened a regional office for Southern California-based Hopkins Real Estate Group, seeking development projects in Northern California, and assisted in the start-up of private development firm, Highland Development Company in San Mateo. At Highland, he was responsible for all shopping center development and redevelopment projects (in Sacramento, Manteca, Hanford, Phoenix, and Suisun City) from land acquisition through entitlement, major tenant leasing, construction and asset disposition, while overseeing the Company’s internal construction department.

He has also been employed as a Regional Director for Burnham Pacific Properties (San Francisco, a public REIT) with responsibility for all ground up and value-added development, acquisitions and construction in the Northern California, Northern Nevada and Utah region, and as a real estate manager responsible for new store locations throughout California for both Ralphs Grocery Company and Costco Wholesale Corp. While with Burnham Pacific Properties, he was responsible for all aspects of the 355,000SF Downtown Pleasant Hill project, a mixed-use retail, hotel and residential public/private partnership project, among other projects in Richmond and Cameron Park.

A graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s Degree in History, Mr. Isaacs also holds a Juris Doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law. He is a licensed California Real Estate Broker. Mr. Isaacs’ professional memberships include the International Council of Shopping Centers (Northern California Program Committee member, 1994-2000 and 2007 to the present), the Municipal Management Association of Northern California (“MMANC” - 2011-present) and the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR).