JON ROOKS, ASSOCIATE BROKER/OWNER
Jon Rooks became a broker in 1990, as a natural result of his love for real estate, evident even in his childhood. Rooks is the guy responsible for over 800 people living downtown Grand Rapids at Cityview Condos, Monroe Terrace, Union Square Condos, Boardwalk Condos, another 120 that will someday move to downtown Muskegon’s HighPoint Flats, plus various coastal waterfront properties. Jon focuses on two specialties: 1) marketing old buildings downtown which have been adaptively reused in urban areas of West Michigan, making good use of incentives such as Renaissance Zone tax benefits and 2) marketing coastal West Michigan waterfront properties connected to Lake Michigan.

Jon attended Calvin College and the University of Michigan Business School. He is passionate about his hometown of Grand Rapids and enjoys West Michigan’s gold coast, boating, overseas travel, finding cool old buildings and new architecture- hobbies that stimulate creative ideas that eventually translate into unique real estate concepts.

BRAD VENEKLASE, ASSOCIATE BROKER
Brad Veneklase has been involved with Boardwalk and Union Square condos since day one, partnering with Rooks on planning, design, sales, and construction. Brad is the Associate Broker for Parkland Properties of Michigan and coordinates marketing efforts. He sold 170 condos in 2 years at Union Square and contributed to the sales of 175 Boardwalk condos in 18 months.

He earned a degree in Business Management with a minor in Marketing from Grand Valley State University and has been involved in Residential Real Estate Sales since 1997. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker and holds the Graduate Realtor Institute designation. In 2007, Brad was named in Realtor Magazine’s “30 under 30”, honoring him as one of the top 30 real estate professionals in the nation under 30 years old.

Brad enjoys investing in and building up his hometown of Grand Rapids. He has lived at three Parkland projects: Cityview Condos, Monroe Terrace Condos, and currently resides at Union Square. He also looks forward to 15 more years of tax breaks on his lakeshore condo at HighPoint Flats.

Howard Hansen
After graduating from Aquinas College, Howard Hansen began his career at St. Mary’s Hospital as Budget Director and Controller. From there, he became the COO/CFO of a local steel distributor for a number of years before joining a local real estate development firm as its President and CFO.

A few years later, Howard struck off on his own to do management and development consulting, where he met Jon Rooks and Parkland Properties. He was retained to do some consulting work on the early stages of Boardwalk and was later invited to join the company full time, in charge of accounting and finance.

“I was awestruck with the clear vision and teamwork of all the people at Parkland. Their commitment to quality and value is un-paralleled in the industry here. Their marketing and financing plans are nothing short of genius.”

Howard maintains his positions on various outside boards including the West Michigan Regional Planning Commission, Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Committee, Monroe North Business Association, and Monroe North Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA).

Howard is married to his best friend Terri and they have two grown children Ryan and Meghan. His hobbies are cooking, reading, and watching/collecting movies.