LaTerra Development is a leading real estate investment management and development company with a portfolio value at completion estimated to exceed $3 billion and overseeing more than $1.5 billion in committed equity throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Our success in the Los Angeles and Southern California region in part is due to our strong working relationship with Tina Choi, Partner at EKA. LaTerra specifically sought out Tina for her extensive experience in navigating the myriad of permitting, plan check and inspection requirements one must manage, to be successful.
Tina’s 30+ years of working closely with development and regulatory agencies, enabled her to leverage the valuable long term relationships with senior staff of these regulatory agencies, in securing agency permitting and code determinations on an expedited timeline, but also enabled us to secure various discretionary approvals which would not have been possible without her skillset and networking resources.
Working closely with our technical team of architects, engineers, and general contractors, Tina has played a significant role in proactively identifying and solving important ongoing issues with Building and Safety, Public Works, Transportation, Water and Power as well as other regulatory agencies. This unique quality has been critical to the success of many of our projects; saving time and millions in cost.
Tina is also unique in other skillsets allowing her to actively contribute from the earliest stages of a project’s timeline. This includes the due diligence, entitlements, plan check, permitting and inspection phases of our projects, thus providing true A-Z comprehensive concierge services. This type of comprehensive and consistent service ensures that we meet our project completion and occupancy dates on a reliable and predictable timeframe.
We know of no other consultant who provides this level of service – from the beginning of our entitlement phase to the final inspection phase. Her tenacity and ingenuity in finding solutions to significant regulatory challenges consistently encountered in our various projects, is extraordinary.
She moves between plan check issues with engineers,including onsite visits with our General Contractors and Subcontractors while negotiating solutions with City inspectors to move us through rough and final inspections , troubleshooting as needed to get us to our Occupancy approval expeditiously. She is adept in intervening with any and all agencies imposing regulatory requirements and is adaptive , creative and effective in efficient solutions to get us to our opening date. In short, Tina is the “fixer.”
I can genuinely recommend Tina. Her ingenuity, tenacity, vast network of contacts in the regulatory agencies and a consistent commitment to keep projects on schedule, has been invaluable to the LaTerra Team.
Charles Tourtellotte
CEO
LaTerra Development, LLC
Tina Choi joined my team to assist building a new, ground-up Jaguar Land Rover dealership experiencing significant challenges with the City of Los Angeles Building Department over the finish line. Severe financial impacts were faced as well as hired associates being unable to relocate and work if the occupancy date was missed.
Ms. Choi and her team have a mastery of navigating LADBS’ inspection, development and planning process and a vast, high-level network to consult and assist in their respective fields. Her methodical approach, leadership and expertise led us to achieve occupancy on the day the movers were scheduled to start the relocation process. Tina Choi and her team will be a part of my team on future car dealership projects! — Cliff Powell, Director, Construction and Development, AutoNation Inc.
