Who We Are:
John Ewing, Principal of MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS, has over 36 years of experience in the real estate development industry. Prior to entering the industry formally in 1981, John grew up dreaming to be an Architect, as he was first fascinated, at the age of five, with the house with two attached apartments that his father built while stationed at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver CO. John and his mother, who was an artist, studied the blueprints for the building and constructed a scale model out of a sheet of 1/4" plywood. John ended up buying the house and apartments from his father in 1996 and remodeled and managed the apartments when he first formed his own company, Millennium Homes, Ltd.
In his first project after receiving his Colorado Real Estate sales license during his sophomore year of college, John participated in a joint venture between a real estate general partnership and a bank, where he sought out and evaluated over 100 residential rental properties and made recommendations to the partners regarding the top properties to assemble into the portfolio. John also took summer jobs at Denver Water where he surveyed and operated small heavy equipment to earn cash for college. His last summer of college he interned at Al Cohen Construction on several hi-rise buildings in downtown Denver. He worked on three separate projects, including the tallest building in Denver at the time, now known as the Transamerica building.
Upon completion of his degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado in 1983, John immediately went to work for Richmond Homes, the Denver subsidiary of homebuilder giant MDC Holdings, Inc. He spent time in the field learning the ins and outs of home construction and was quickly promoted to Vice-President of the Denver Multi-Family Homebuilding Operations of Richmond Homes-Denver. John later also managed the Custom Home Division and was also later responsible for warranty service, product development, architecture, engineering, budgeting, and purchasing for the entire Denver homebuilding operation.
John further honed his skills working for another real estate giant, K. Hovnanian Companies of New Jersey. John was the Project Director for four large master-planned communities in NJ, two suburban, and two inner-city redevelopment projects. Society Hill at Jersey City was an award winning redevelopment of the former Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City where Jackie Robinson played before being called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. His other inner-city project, Society Hill at University Heights in Newark, NJ, is also an acclaimed example of urban redevelopment and was featured in a highly popular Urban Land Institute Case Study. Fully 20% of every project John constructed was dedicated to providing affordable housing under the New Jersey "Mt. Laurel" housing laws. He dealt with both union shop and non-union shop projects and delivered each and every project on time and under budget for 5 years.
John left NJ and returned home to his native Colorado in 1993 and returned to Richmond Homes as VP of product development, architecture, engineering, budgeting, and purchasing. He led a team of professionals who managed over 1,600 homes per year in production on over 85 active subdivisions through out Denver. John created many SOLUTIONS for Richmond Homes which saved the company several million dollars per year in hard construction costs with his innovative look at problem solving outside of the “box”.
After working for one more national homebuilder, Ryland Homes, John ventured out on his own and founded Millennium Homes, Ltd., a boutique custom and semi-custom "on-your-lot" homebuilder. John again put his passion for architecture to work and actually designed and drafted, by hand, each of the homes his firm built during its first three years of active building.
Land development called John back to the fold when, in 1998, when he was asked to join the senior management team at the Lowry Redevelopment Authority (“LRA”), the highly acclaimed, national award-winning Base Re-alignment and Closure project (“BRAC”) shared by Denver and Aurora, Colorado. John worked for twelve years as an employee and later as a consultant for the LRA managing the engineering, planning and entitlement programs. The 1,866 acre project is nearly complete today, with just 70 acres remaining from the 2005 BRAC round of base closures to be completed, the project known as the Buckley Annex. John served with the LRA team creating the Redevelopment Plan for the Buckley Annex. He has developed long lasting relationships with the City and County of Denver Community Development Team and developed a reputation as a problem-solver whenever the challenges of the project cried out for creative SOLUTIONS. John supported every developer and builder at Lowry with his passion for timely approvals and successful, yet challenging SOLUTIONS to the unique situation at Lowry. In addition to holding a Construction Supervisor’s License Class ‘B” for the LRA, John also spent two years during this time serving as Executive Director of the Lowry Community Land Trust, the affordable housing entity created by the LRA to deliver 200 homes to the community for families and individuals making less than 80% of Area Median Income.
In 2015, John joined Boulder Creek /neighborhoods, an aging-in-place and Lifestyle Community Builder as Director of Product Development and Community Design. His roles for the just under two years there was to scour every subdivision, plan and future project for cost saving ideas. His successes included saving the company over $1.3M on one project alone by redesigning an existing site plan to accommodate fire lanes that met city and national code requirements. The changes to this subdivision of 140 -quad-plex townhomes saved the company from the requirement of putting NFPA 13D fire sprinklers in every home. John also saved over $240,000 on another project by redesigning the landscaping to include Zeric Landscaping and that saved nearly $300K in water system development fees. All of the company's Architectural Designs were Value-Engineered and redesigned to incorporate John's and other team members suggestions. On two product lines, roof pitches were lowered and redesigned, which saved $1,500-$300 per unit - EACH TIME those homes were constructed!
John has always been a SOLUTIONS-oriented thinker and doer. And now, he has created MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS to do that just, help other developers and builders with creative answers to the tough questions facing them in the real estate industry.
Let him help you find SOLUTIONS for your project!
In his first project after receiving his Colorado Real Estate sales license during his sophomore year of college, John participated in a joint venture between a real estate general partnership and a bank, where he sought out and evaluated over 100 residential rental properties and made recommendations to the partners regarding the top properties to assemble into the portfolio. John also took summer jobs at Denver Water where he surveyed and operated small heavy equipment to earn cash for college. His last summer of college he interned at Al Cohen Construction on several hi-rise buildings in downtown Denver. He worked on three separate projects, including the tallest building in Denver at the time, now known as the Transamerica building.
Upon completion of his degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado in 1983, John immediately went to work for Richmond Homes, the Denver subsidiary of homebuilder giant MDC Holdings, Inc. He spent time in the field learning the ins and outs of home construction and was quickly promoted to Vice-President of the Denver Multi-Family Homebuilding Operations of Richmond Homes-Denver. John later also managed the Custom Home Division and was also later responsible for warranty service, product development, architecture, engineering, budgeting, and purchasing for the entire Denver homebuilding operation.
John further honed his skills working for another real estate giant, K. Hovnanian Companies of New Jersey. John was the Project Director for four large master-planned communities in NJ, two suburban, and two inner-city redevelopment projects. Society Hill at Jersey City was an award winning redevelopment of the former Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City where Jackie Robinson played before being called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. His other inner-city project, Society Hill at University Heights in Newark, NJ, is also an acclaimed example of urban redevelopment and was featured in a highly popular Urban Land Institute Case Study. Fully 20% of every project John constructed was dedicated to providing affordable housing under the New Jersey "Mt. Laurel" housing laws. He dealt with both union shop and non-union shop projects and delivered each and every project on time and under budget for 5 years.
John left NJ and returned home to his native Colorado in 1993 and returned to Richmond Homes as VP of product development, architecture, engineering, budgeting, and purchasing. He led a team of professionals who managed over 1,600 homes per year in production on over 85 active subdivisions through out Denver. John created many SOLUTIONS for Richmond Homes which saved the company several million dollars per year in hard construction costs with his innovative look at problem solving outside of the “box”.
After working for one more national homebuilder, Ryland Homes, John ventured out on his own and founded Millennium Homes, Ltd., a boutique custom and semi-custom "on-your-lot" homebuilder. John again put his passion for architecture to work and actually designed and drafted, by hand, each of the homes his firm built during its first three years of active building.
Land development called John back to the fold when, in 1998, when he was asked to join the senior management team at the Lowry Redevelopment Authority (“LRA”), the highly acclaimed, national award-winning Base Re-alignment and Closure project (“BRAC”) shared by Denver and Aurora, Colorado. John worked for twelve years as an employee and later as a consultant for the LRA managing the engineering, planning and entitlement programs. The 1,866 acre project is nearly complete today, with just 70 acres remaining from the 2005 BRAC round of base closures to be completed, the project known as the Buckley Annex. John served with the LRA team creating the Redevelopment Plan for the Buckley Annex. He has developed long lasting relationships with the City and County of Denver Community Development Team and developed a reputation as a problem-solver whenever the challenges of the project cried out for creative SOLUTIONS. John supported every developer and builder at Lowry with his passion for timely approvals and successful, yet challenging SOLUTIONS to the unique situation at Lowry. In addition to holding a Construction Supervisor’s License Class ‘B” for the LRA, John also spent two years during this time serving as Executive Director of the Lowry Community Land Trust, the affordable housing entity created by the LRA to deliver 200 homes to the community for families and individuals making less than 80% of Area Median Income.
In 2015, John joined Boulder Creek /neighborhoods, an aging-in-place and Lifestyle Community Builder as Director of Product Development and Community Design. His roles for the just under two years there was to scour every subdivision, plan and future project for cost saving ideas. His successes included saving the company over $1.3M on one project alone by redesigning an existing site plan to accommodate fire lanes that met city and national code requirements. The changes to this subdivision of 140 -quad-plex townhomes saved the company from the requirement of putting NFPA 13D fire sprinklers in every home. John also saved over $240,000 on another project by redesigning the landscaping to include Zeric Landscaping and that saved nearly $300K in water system development fees. All of the company's Architectural Designs were Value-Engineered and redesigned to incorporate John's and other team members suggestions. On two product lines, roof pitches were lowered and redesigned, which saved $1,500-$300 per unit - EACH TIME those homes were constructed!
John has always been a SOLUTIONS-oriented thinker and doer. And now, he has created MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS to do that just, help other developers and builders with creative answers to the tough questions facing them in the real estate industry.
Let him help you find SOLUTIONS for your project!
Additional Information About John Ewing
John is currently a Director on the Board of the Denver Metro Forever Buffs (University of Colorado Alumni Association), as well as a volunteer for the Buffs4Life civic organization, which assists former University of Colorado athletes. He is a lifetime member of Tau Beta Pi - the Engineering Honorary Fraternity, and the Boettcher Scholar Alumni group. He also supports schoolchildren through his association with Erica Rae's Kids, a 501c(3) non-profit formed by one of his Aurora Hinkley High School Classmates who helps kids in the Aurora Public Schools.
Over the years, he was a member of the Denver Home Builder's Association ("HBA") Education Committee and was also Chair of the Denver HBA Purchasing Manager's Committee. John has attended several National Association of Home Builder's annual conventions to keep abreast of the latest trends in Land Development, Housing and Custom Homebuilding. John also helped found the Colorado Coalition of Community Land Trusts, a coalition of non-profit affordable housing providers. John has formerly been a member of the Urban Land Institute and attended several national conferences and seminars held by ULI.
He is also a former Boy Scout Assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 88 and Venture Crew Adviser for Venture Crew 88 in Parker, CO and has assisted 86 young men achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, including his own son. John has volunteered over 3,000 hours to the public schools, including coordinating the construction of the temporary campus of the Renaissance Charter School in Meridian Office Park in 1996-1997 and is a former member of both the Douglas County School District Fiscal Oversight and Accountability/Advisory Committees.
In 2012, John teamed up with former Hinkley High School classmate, Wende Curtis, Owner of the Comedy Works comedy clubs in Greenwood Village and Denver, to form a group of involved, caring and impactful former Aurora residents to help with the healing in Aurora after the shootings in Aurora on July 20th, 2012. STAND UP for AURORA helped promote four comedy fundraisers at Comedy Works that raised money for the victims of the 7/20 shootings. The generosity of Ron White, Rob Schneider, Doug Benson and their fans made a significant impact on the lives of those affected by this tragedy in John's hometown.
John has taken over 100 hours of continuing education from the American Management Association and the University of Denver. He has also taken CLE courses in Water Law, Colorado Subdivision Regulations and various other topics throughout his career. John has guest lectured as well at DU in the Burns School of Real Estate of Construction Management.
https://www.dcsdk12.org/fiscal-oversight-committee Former Member - 2012-2013
http://www.uli.org/ Fomer Associate Member 2006-1013
http://www.hbadenver.com Former Purchasing Committee Chair 1996-1998, Former Member - Education Committee 1995-1999
http: http://www.tbp.org Lifetime Member - Engineering Honor Society
https://www.colorado.edu/alumni/denver Board Member and Current Watch Party Chair 2014-Present
http://www.boettcherfoundation.org/ Alumni Scholar 1979-1983
http://www.buffs4life.org/ Active Volunteer and Event Planner
http://www.troop88.org/ Former Boy Scout Assistant Scoutmaster - 1994-2011 Helped 86 fine young men earn the Rank of Eagle Scout!
http://daniels.du.edu/schoolsdepartments/realestate/index. Supporter
html http://daniels.du.edu/faculty-staff/jeffrey-engelstad/ Guest Lecturer for classes Taught By Professor Jeff Engelstad, PhD
http://ericaraeskids.org/ Golf Tournament Fundraising Chair