MeetYOUR AIRPARK
NEIGHBOR
FROM RANCHING TO
Real Estate Jason Wood’s connection to land spans generations
Story and photo by Alison Bailin Batz
J
ason Wood’s 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 ranchers who settled in Arizona in the late 1800s,” Wood says. “They lived off of the land, and I think that is how the seeds of working with it – albeit in a very different way – were sown within me.” Today, Wood works for law firm Quarles & Brady, helping 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, among others. He never got the chance to live on the family ranch. His grandparents would sell it – and ensure it was protected, 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,” Wood says. “My grandparents didn’t sell the land squarely due to my father, but it was certainly part of the reason.” But Wood’s father didn’t let the disease control his life. “Determined to make the most of whatever time he had, he became a dentist, married my mother and had both me and my brother before losing his life to the disease at 29 years old,” says Wood, who was just 2 years old at the time. Certainly, his father’s resolve inspired him as he grew, but there was also another person he looked up to when it came to fortitude and strength of character. Jason Wood comes “My mother was a homemaker from a long line of ranchers who settled before we lost my dad. There she was Arizona in the 1800s. in the early 1980s with two little boys to care for and what did she do – she got her MBA and eventually became a financial advisor,” Wood says. “You would be hard-pressed to find anyone
20 | Scottsdale Airpark News November 2017
stronger than her. I am very lucky.” Inspired by both his mom and dad – and his grandparents, who were often there to lend a hand – Wood eventually graduated high school and attended the University of Arizona. He was still interested in working with the land, but also inspired by his daily discussions about the stock market with his mom. “But a rancher, I was not. So I decided to study finance and see about getting into real estate,” says Wood, who graduated from UofA 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 business law back in Arizona. Wood moved back to Arizona – this time the Valley – in 2007 after he graduated, just in time to get his start in real estate as the housing crash began. “Talk about timing,” he says. But he focused on helping his clients restructure their existing real estate portfolios and overcome other challenges, and in 2014, he was selected for inclusion in Southwest Super Lawyers’ annual list of rising stars. He would eventually earn the coveted AV® Preeminent rating by the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings system. He also wanted to make sure he was involved in helping ensure the land in Arizona and beyond is being developed thoughtfully, like his grandparents did before him, so Wood became actively involved in 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 – now married and, with the help of his “supportive and inspiring wife,” raising two boys in the Airpark – was ready for a new challenge, so he joined Quarles & Brady. Last month, he was chosen as the Arizona chair of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group.