Projects range from mixed-use, including multi-family and commercial, to office buildings. As a developer, Turnbuckle is responsible for all aspects of the development process, from the inception of a project through entitlements, financing, construction and disposition.
Turnbuckle also provides third-party consulting services across the spectrum of development activities. This includes site evaluation, pro forma authorship, entitlements, debt and equity sourcing, selection and oversight of the design and construction and sustainability consultants, and disposition recommendations.
Turnbuckle was founded by Emilie Baratta, a ten-year development veteran of mixed-use, LEED Gold and Silver infill projects in Denver, Baltimore and Michigan. She has specialized in complex public-private partnerships and their associated financing mechanisms, green buildings, brownfield sites and varied infill developments. She has underwritten dozens of deals in order to determine feasibility and developed over one million square feet of sustainable urban real estate projects with budgets totaling more than $100 million. Projects include 600 recently-completed and 300 under-construction residential units within the City and County of Denver. Emilie has worked on mid-rise wood frame, high-rise concrete post-tension and complicated adaptive reuse projects.
Immediately prior to establishing Turnbuckle, Emilie served as the Director of Finance and Development at Zocalo Community Development, the premier local developer of LEED Gold apartment buildings. In 2012, the small company was awarded Developer of the Year by the Denver Business Journal.
Emilie’s first career was in the non-profit sector, and she continues to demonstrate her commitment to mission-driven work through board service. During her tenure as Groundwork Denver Board President (2009-2012), the organization experienced enormous growth in impact, budget and staffing and was recognized by the Governor as the best nonprofit in the state (www.groundworkdenver.org). She continues to serve on the GWD Board.
She is a founding board member of DRI Goods, the non-profit Denver Retail Incubator, and in the past served on the Metro Denver Steering Committee for the Denver Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Emilie has an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Yale University and earned an MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She is a LEED AP BD+C.