James Gulson, Account Representative
James Gulson brings fifteen years of construction and development risk management experience to the team. Of those years, five were spent exclusively on large-scale hospitality renovations and conversions. His primary role was serving as the owners’ representative for private equity hotel investment and ownership groups. Mr. Gulson served as the liaison between the project management team and the ownership group to maintain pace and budgetary control for each asset under his purview. In addition to advocating for the ownership, Mr. Gulson is also a fiduciary in the assets on which he was engaged. Working closely with the acquisitions team of his clients, he provides cradle to grave guidance for the construction and re-development process. This oversight included soft costs, FF&E and contingency control as well as analysis of ROI initiatives for the asset management process.
Prior to joining Howalt McDowell, Mr. Gulson founded GCON, LLC to fill a niche of principal oversight for private equity groups that were lacking in-house expertise in the hotel construction and development arena. These clients entrusted hundreds of millions of dollars to Mr. Gulson’s discretion due to his experience and integrity in realizing the value of industry relationships and knowledge. Inclusive of this position was interfacing with the mezzanine and senior debtors as the information channel on this aspect of the assets. Mr. Gulson is considered a trusted resource by several investment banks as well as institutional investors.