In the world of commercial real estate, the most impactful deals rarely begin with a shovel in the ground—they begin with a vision. A vision backed by deep knowledge, technical acuity, and the confidence to look at a raw parcel of land and see not what it is, but what it could become. This is the rare skillset that Rosie Cooper and Stew Weston bring to the table, reshaping the land advisory landscape in Southern California and beyond.

 

The Hidden Advantage: Expertise Meets Execution

Rosie Cooper is not your average land broker. With degrees in civil and environmental engineering, as well as a master’s in development and construction from USC, Rosie brings a developer’s lens to every site evaluation. “I know how a developer is going to look at a project,” she says. “I understand the highest and best use, and what product type will generate the best yield for a site.” This blend of technical and market fluency allows Rosie to uncover 85–90% of a site’s challenges before it breaks ground or goes to market.

 

On the other side of the table is Stew Weston, a seasoned deal-maker and master relationship builder. Described by colleagues and clients alike as “The Deal Whisperer,” Stew brings three decades of experience, strategic intuition, and a network that spans every corner of the institutional multifamily world.

 

Together, Rosie and Stew lead with a uniquely integrated approach, one that not only identifies value but engineers it.

 

When you get the team & Rosie’s running point, one client said, you’re getting a civil engineer, an environmental engineer, & a real estate strategist. There’s nothing else like that in the marketplace.

 

Turning Challenges into Opportunity

Rosie and Stew’s impact is perhaps best illustrated by their work on a complex, unentitled 11.6-acre site on Lincoln Avenue in Cypress, CA. The property had significant environmental concerns, yet they navigated these challenges with clarity and confidence, meeting with city officials, liaising with environmental regulators (SARWQB), and presenting a transparent, de-risked opportunity to the market. The result: 21 qualified offers and a bidding war that maximized the value for the seller, increasing the unsolicited offer pool from low $60M to mid $70M.

 

“We were able to present the environmental issue in a different way,” Rosie explained, leveraging her technical background to secure a national homebuilder willing to take on the clean-up. That’s not just selling land—that’s transforming it.

 

The Art & Science of Land Strategy

Effective land selection is as much science as it is art. It involves a rigorous analysis of:

• Site size, shape, & traffic patterns
• Zoning & entitlement complexity
• Environmental conditional & infrastructure readiness
• Competitive positioning & demographic trends

 

The Matthews™ advantage lies in integrating this diligence into a broader platform. “Many of our larger competitors operate in silos,” Rosie notes. “Because Matthews™ includes retail, industrial, and office specialists, we can position a site as land, office, or even mixed-use. That allows us to clear the market more completely and drive value higher.”

 

Rosie’s development experience also allows the ability to creatively optimize these variables, sometimes suggesting density shifts or design changes that significantly increase a site’s yield. As one client described, “They are exceptionally thorough, creative, and strategic in who they approach and how.”

 

This analytical precision transforms how developers and capital partners view a deal. “Stew creates win-win outcomes with unmatched detail and diplomacy,” said another. That rare ability to bridge technical, transactional, and interpersonal dynamics creates consistent client confidence.

 

Client Q&A

With Brian Hobbs | President & Co-Founder, Salt Development

 

Tell us about Salt Development

We’re a boutique development firm, small in number but large in projects. We’re a multifamily developer originally founded in Southern California back in 2014. Since then, we’ve been active in the intermountain West, especially around Salt Lake City. We’ve purchased or developed land in Idaho, Utah, and California.

 

We do large multifamily projects that range from about 520 units down to 280 units. All of them are high-end, luxury, resort-style developments.

 

How did your relationship with Stew and Rosie begin?

Stew and I worked together in his previous life at CBRE when we were assembling a site in Anaheim. We used him as a reference for market studies and thought processes.

 

Later, when it became clear that project wasn’t going to get approved by the city, we reached out to him again, not realizing he’d already joined Matthews™. That morning, when we decided I should call him, he called me first.

 

What was a pivotal moment in the partnership?

I explained our situation—we had 76 acres, potentially 90 with options, in Orange County. Stew told me he was working with Rosie who had a deep background in land development, and they both wanted to meet.

 

They studied the site and came back with a presentation. At first, I was annoyed when they showed us that multifamily wasn’t going to pencil. But looking back, I tease them about it, they knew what they were doing.

 

Stew prepped me for the big reveal: that while the site didn’t make sense for multifamily, it was fantastic for single-family detached. That was the pivot.

 

Rosie and Stew helped us understand the current market, both multifamily and single-family, better than we could’ve on our own. They opened our eyes. We had originally thought we’d just get out with our costs and a small profit. Now, we’re looking at a significantly higher return.

 

Was there a moment you knew you’d made the right choice in working with them?

Yeah. We were talking to a big bridge lender in New York about refinancing the land. They asked, ‘Who’s your broker?’ We said Matthews™. And they said, ‘you couldn’t do better.’ That gave us real peace of mind.

 

Stew is relentless, he pushes hard to get the best deal. Rosie? She understands how projects actually get entitled, financed, and built. That combination is rare. They’re in the weeds with you, mapping it out.

 

If we have additional land that we’re going to market, I absolutely am going to go to them. No question. They’re the best choice.

 

How has the relationship expanded since then?

It’s grown into a real partnership. Stew and Rosie have supported us not only on that original Anaheim deal, but they’ve continued to advise and add value across multiple assets. One example is 4th West in Salt Lake City, one of the city’s premier core Class A apartment communities, with an unparalleled rooftop amenity deck. That was a flagship for us, and they helped reinforce its market positioning.

 

More recently, they’ve played a role in structuring bridge financing and raising debt and equity for a project we’re doing in Riverton, Utah. What sets them apart is that they they understand construction financing, entitlement risk, and equity placement.

 

They have the depth to handle everything from land entitlements to capital markets, whether it’s sourcing equity, arranging construction financing, or helping us evaluate feasibility. Rosie and Stew don’t just show up when there’s a listing, they’re in it the whole way.

 

Unlocking Value: Strategic Vision in Action

Identifying Underutilized Assets

In today’s high-priced land market, true opportunity lies in overlooked sites—vacant parcels, B-grade locations with A-level potential, or properties mispositioned by brokers unfamiliar with development intricacies. Rosie and Stew specialize in reframing these assets, often delivering 20–40% premiums over traditional valuations.

 

Zoning & Permitting

Whether it’s obtaining substantial conformance for entitlement adjustments or navigating high-fire hazard areas, Rosie’s deep expertise allows them to reposition challenging sites for broader buyer interest.

 

Environmental & Regulatory Due Diligence

Rosie’s ability to conduct pre-market due diligence—wetland assessments, fire zone constraints, required improvements—means developers enter negotiations with eyes wide open. This reduces retrades, shortens due diligence, and boosts closing efficiency.

 

Execution Built on Trust & Tenacity

While Rosie applies engineering insight to unlock physical value, Stew applies strategic insight to unlock relationships. He’s not simply a broker. He’s a connector—someone who understands the subtleties of each stakeholder’s goals and tailors his approach to fit.

His decades-long client relationships and deep market visibility means they often receives calls about sites that appear unworkable. Yet time and again, they find a way to make the impossible viable, whether through re-entitlement, environmental remediation, or adjusting the development mix between for-sale and for-rent product types.

When challenges arise mid-deal, Stew is known for his persistence. “Stew went above and beyond,” one client shared. “Most agents would have walked away and left the heavy lifting to us. He did the opposite.”

 

Case Studies

Mission Grove Plaza | Riverside, CA

±9.97 AC | ~236 MF Units + 60 Townhome Units

Marketed during entitlements, with the seller agreeing to close upon achieving final entitlements. Stew and Rosie guided the seller through a substantial conformance process post-entitlements, resulting in a lower-density plan that generated a 60% higher land residual compared to previous multifamily-only use. The project received 13 offers and is currently in escrow.

 

4456 Lincoln Ave | Cypress, CA

±11.63 AC

Environmental cleanup, entitlement complexity, and valuation uncertainty all loomed large. Yet, the marketing campaign yielded 151 confidentiality agreements and 21 offers.

 

The Bowrey | Santa Ana, CA

±14.69 AC | 1,070 Proposed Units

Despite the complexity of entitlement and infrastructure planning, Stew and Rosie secured five strong offers and achieved significant value per unit. This case reinforced their ability to balance entitlement scale with both affordability and feasibility.

 

Conclusion

The journey from raw dirt to closed deal isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires deep technical knowledge, real-world development fluency, and a sharp eye for untapped opportunity. For Rosie Cooper and Stew Weston, it’s not about putting deals together for the sake of transaction volume. It’s about unlocking value others can’t and delivering outcomes clients never imagined possible.

 

Key Takeaways

True value in land lies in seeing beyond surface constraints. With technical insight, relentless execution, and market-savvy guidance, Rosie and Stew consistently deliver their clients not just deals—but transformation.