EXECUTIVE PROFILE
??????? Carrying on a family legacy Preservation, planning key to real estate leader’s practice
By ALISON BAILIN BATZ
J
ason Wood’s roots in Arizona run deep. The story starts more than 100 years ago in Aravaipa Canyon, a wilderness preserve located about 50 miles northeast of Tucson. “I come from a long line of cattlemen who settled in Arizona in the late 1800s,” says Wood. “They lived off of the land, and I think that is how the seeds of working with it – albeit in a much different way – were sewn within me.” Wood, however, never got the chance to live on the ranch. His grandparents would sell it – and ensure it was preserved, in fact – in 1970, in what was then the largest purchase by the Nature Conservancy, which now owns and manages over 7,000 acres in the area commonly referred to as the Aravaipa Preserve. “My father was born with a rare and incurable genetic disorder that affects the body’s ability to fight infection,” says Wood. “My grandparents didn’t sell the land squarely due to my father, but it was certainly part of the reason.” Wood’s father didn’t let the disease
10 | January-February 2018
control his life – not by a longshot. “He became a dentist, married my mother and had both me and my brother before passing away at 29,” adds Wood. Inspired by both dad and mom, initially a homemaker who eventually got her MBA and became a financial advisor, Wood graduated high school and attended the University of Arizona, still interested in working with the land, but also inspired by daily discussions about the capital markets with mom. “But a rancher, I was not. So, I decided to study finance and see about getting into real estate,” explains Wood, who graduated from UA and then, after working in Tucson for a law firm, entered law school at the University of Texas, with the goal of practicing real estate and corporate law in Arizona. Wood moved to the Valley in 2007, just in time to get his start in real estate as the housing crash began. Like his parents, Wood pressed on, focusing on helping clients restructure existing real estate portfolios and overcome other challenges. Today, he helps clients in a multitude of
industries acquire, finance, develop, lease and operate real estate of all types, including shopping centers, residential developments, automotive dealerships, hotels, office and industrial parks, apartment complexes and raw land. By 2014, he was selected for inclusion in Southwest Super Lawyers’ annual list of rising stars and earned the coveted AV Preeminent rating by the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings system. Also eager to ensure the land in Arizona and beyond continues to be developed thoughtfully, Wood became involved in both the Arizona District Council of the Urban Land Institute and the Arizona and New Mexico Operations Committee of the International Council of Shopping Centers, while also taking on a board position at Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona. By early 2016, Wood was ready for a new challenge, so he joined Quarles & Brady, LLP. Less than two years later, in late 2017, he was chosen as the Arizona chair of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group.