Gary Westholm brings over 40 years of real estate experience to the Rosso Commercial team. Gary has professional experience in real estate valuation, zoning matters, consulting services and real estate sales. Gary is also principal at Westholm & Associates, LLC, a well-known and established commercial real estate appraisal firm based in Annapolis.
Gary has served as an expert witness in over a thousand cases involving either rezoning’s, special exceptions, or variances and has consulted on litigation matters, condemnation cases, charitable donations, and is qualified as an expert in both real estate appraisal and in zoning matters (up through Federal District Court).
While Gary has historically maintained a low profile relating to brokerage work, Gary has assisted buyers and sellers with transactions upon request over his career. Some notable transactions Gary has brokered include acting as the selling agent and representing the owner of the well-known “Quiet Waters Farm” in Annapolis. Gary was tasked with marketing the property, identifying qualified purchasers, and selling the property on an “as is” basis. Gary successfully concluded this assignment in just six months, with a sale of the property to Anne Arundel County, whereby it is operated as “Quiet Waters Park” today. Another request found Gary representing the Maryland Renaissance Festival in their quest to relocate from Columbia to Anne Arundel County; culminating in the successful relocation to the Crownsville site where they have now been located for over 30 years. Resourcefulness includes when Anne Arundel Medical Center gave Gary seven days to find a suitable joint venture partner to develop One Annapolis Exchange, located across from the AAMC campus in Annapolis. Gary was able to accomplish the mission when he brought Constellation Real Estate (now known as Corporate Office Properties Trust) to AAMC, whereby the two parties formed a partnership, and One Annapolis Exchange became reality.
The foundation of knowledge and experience that Gary brings to Rosso Commercial comes from his rich and diverse professional experiences in the valuation of commercial real estate. From valuing properties that literally range from a “snow cone” stand, to valuing 150,000+ acres of timberland, in addition to historic properties (including, as an example, parts of Monticello), proposed development properties, major commercial, industrial, or multi-family developments, charitable donations, conservation easements and, it seems, everything in between.
Another unique dimension Gary brings to the Rosso Team includes his expertise with the IMPLAN-Economic Impact Analysis; an extensive database platform which, in the world of real estate, provides insight of the impacts of new or existing property use/uses and/or models the impacts of expected growth or changes. His economic impact analyses of such mixed-use Tax Incremental Funding districts as the Arundel Mills TIF, the Parole Town Center (aka, Annapolis Town Center TIF, the Park Place TIF and the Market Common Potomac Yard TIF (with over 4,000,000 gross Sq. Ft. of improvements worth over $1,100,000,000 at the time of analysis) were instrumental in the development of these major projects.
Gary has lived in Annapolis for over 40 years. Gary is an avid mountain biker (and spin classes when weather does not permit); having logged over 5,000 miles per annum each year over the past six years. His son Alex and Margie (Alex’s wife) also live in Annapolis.