Tower Companies Hires Industry Expert Sri Velamati VP of Development

ROCKVILLE, Md., Sept. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- THE TOWER COMPANIES announced today that Sri Velamati, a 16-year real estate industry expert, was hired as Vice President of Development. Mr. Velamati will be responsible for implementing Tower's new urban vision at The Blairs, in Silver Spring, MD, a USGBC LEED® Gold EBOM certified community initially built as a suburban planned development with large surface parking lots, into "a vibrant urban hub totaling 2,800 residences, connected by a series of parks, 450,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, and across the street from Metro," said Tower partner, Jeffrey S. Abramson.

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"The Blairs project is a development that creates a strong sense of place and integrates new assets with the existing assets of this family-owned and managed sustainable property, which we envision will work together now and for generations to come," said Velamati.   Construction on the first building of the new smart-growth urban concept is expected to begin in late 2014. 

Mr. Velamati has extensive residential acquisition and development experience most notably with Archstone-Smith in Washington where he oversaw development of their multi-family residential projects.  He has published several papers, including, "Wall Street to Main Street; Valuation Insights & Perspectives." He is a full member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), NAIOP Maryland/DC and Bethesda Green.

Mr. Velamati earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from The University of Pennsylvania and graduate degree in Real Estate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About The Tower Companies

The Tower Companies (Tower) is a family owned, award winning sustainable real estate and property management company with a 4.5 million square foot portfolio and a pioneer builder of U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED® Certified residential and commercial properties in the National Capital Area.  Tower is an EPA ENERGY STAR® and Green Power Leader, certified carbon neutral by The Climate Registry, recognized for environmental excellence since 1998 and a purchaser of wind power REC's for over 10 years.  Tower is the winner of the 2013 Sustainable Business of the Year Award from USGBC of the National Capital Region and 2013 DC Mayor's Sustainability Award from Mayor Vincent Gray and the DC Department of Energy.

Contact: Elizabeth Oliver-Farrow 
[email protected] 
Direct: 202.494.1977

SOURCE The Tower Companies