Issue date: February 24, 1999
By BUD WENDELL
Buyers in the hot local real-estate market recently snapped up the first two town houses built by a development firm, Cornerstone Investments, started by three women in Menlo Park.
The purchases of the properties at 701-715 Fremont St. were made the day after they were displayed at the first public open house.
Before selling the two, 1,600-square-foot homes, with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, the entrepreneurs had already launched their second project, building two detached homes at 865 Partridge St. in the Allied Arts section of Menlo Park.
Danielle Donahue, Terri Kerwin, and Cheryl Rioux, all residents of Menlo Park, decided in June 1997 to merge their real estate, marketing, design and administrative experience and start a development firm to build high-quality, up-scale homes.
The firm is the first all-woman owned home developer in the area, according to Bay Area Bank, which plans to feature the company in its annual report this year.
Bank vice president Mark Schoenstein, who negotiated financing for Cornerstone Investments, says in his 11 years in the construction lending business, they are the first women he has heard of who have organized a real-estate development firm.
"They were referred to us, and we were very favorably impressed," Mr. Schoenstein explains. "They clearly knew what they were doing."
The idea for the new firm began when Ms. Kerwin helped Ms. Rioux purchase her house, and the two talked about building homes. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Rioux and Ms. Donahue, who are friends, were fixing things at Ms. Rioux's new house, and they talked about joining Ms. Kerwin to form Cornerstone Investments. The pact was sealed, and the firm was born.
They acquired the Fremont property from Ms. Kerwin's family real-estate business, Kerwin & Associates, and rolled up their sleeves. Bay Area Bank in Redwood City provided the initial financing.
The wife of former San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback John Paye, Ms. Donahue, a Pepperdine College graduate, brought construction experience to the group. She and her husband had acquired and remodeled two office buildings on Santa Cruz Avenue and El Camino Real after leaving a sports-marketing business he had started.
"I just decided this new firm with Terri and Cheryl would be something I'd like to do," says Ms. Donahue. "Everything came together in 1997. I thought my experience in real estate and running a small company would be helpful."
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and a former product designer with The Gap, Ms. Rioux, together with Ms. Donahue, handles the interior design of the properties, selects the fixtures, ensures the quality, oversees the contractors and handles operational aspects of the company.
Ms. Kerwin, also a Berkeley graduate, adds her years of experience in real-estate with her family's firm. She is responsible for finding property to develop and for marketing the new houses.
The three developers have three children among them, and Ms. Rioux is expecting her second child.
In an interview with The Almanac during an overflow open house for real estate agents, Ms. Kerwin said the three partners haven't had any serious problems working together, because they haven't interfered with each other's jobs and capabilities.
Ms. Rioux adds: "When we have issues, we talk about them and work through them. While this has always been a man's business, there is room for women, and we're being welcomed. The city's cooperation has been phenomenal. They're strict but very cooperative and approachable."
Pat Looney, a real estate agent with Campi Properties in Los Altos who sold one of the new homes to a local entrepreneur, emphasizes the commitment of the builders to producing a product that the buyer will really like. They want buyers to appreciate their work, she says, and that builds their reputation.
© 1999 The Almanac. All Rights Reserved.