- Mathew Focht President
- David Stockwell Vice President
- Ashley Robinson Vice President
- Alan Katz Director
- Robert Johnson Director
- Megan Schmidt Associate
Mathew has served the top restaurant-entertainment concepts in providing comprehensive real estate services for over 15 years. Services include creating strategic growth plans, site analytics, and securing real estate sites. Mathew has served hundreds of restaurant-entertainment owners and developers of lifestyle and mix-use centers.
Mathew has worked with following restaurants and entertainment concepts; Bar Louie, Silverspot Cinema, The PUB, Levity Live, Improv Comedy Club, AZN, TAPS, Adobe Gilas, Concepts America, Devons Seafood, Houlihans, Cheesecake Factory, Brio, Bravo, McCormick & Schmick, Blue Martini, Hyde Park Steakhouse, BICE, Lucky Strike, and many other restaurants.
Prior, Mathew was Principal of Sierra Advisors and Vice President of RKF Retail Property Advisors providing comprehensive leasing, marketing, and consulting services to owners and developers of malls, lifestyle centers, and mixed-use projects. Responsible for securing national expansion sites for over a dozen top restaurant and entertainment emerging chains and executing leasing for the restaurant tenant mix of 400,000-square-foot mixed-use development New City in Chicago, IL; 350,000-square- feet of lifestyle retail space at SouthSide Works in Pittsburgh, PA; the 400,000-square-foot mixed use portion of Mercato in Naples FL, and the 250,000-square-foot lifestyle retail portion of Towne Place at Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Prior to RKF, Mathew was with Pyramid Companies and Steiner & Associates where he was responsible for leasing the firm's superior-regional mall redevelopments and mixed-use lifestyle projects. He has consulted on projects in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, and Florida.
Mathew earned a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Real Estate and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He is a member of International Council of Shopping Centers, Urban Land Institute, and National Restaurant Association.
Ashley Robinson joined EMERGING as Vice President. Ashley will utilize her vast knowledge and leverage the many brands within the Emerging family to help restaurants grow sucessfully. Under the platform Emerging offers, Ashley brings multi layered solutions for her clients in all aspects of their business, allowing the real estate and the the brick and mortar locations to thrive. Ashley is excited to put her passion and expertise to work for today’s best brands and help make them tomorrow’s success stories.
Ashely finds true passion for those brands she has the has the pleasure of working with. While obtaining her BA in Political Science and International Relations at UCLA, she was recruited by Main and Main, Inc. a boutique tenant representation company, and has now been in Commercial Real Estate for almost 15 years. After 7 years as a Broker in Los Angeles specializing in growing restaurants, Ashley went in-house as Director of Real Estate for retailer Coldwater Creek, Inc. for over 3 years. This experience allowed Ashley to learn big and small markets alike, from Seattle, WA to Durango, CO.
In 2011, Ashley diversified her experience further and learn dealmaking from the “other side of the table” with LA based mixed-use developer, CenterCal Properties, LLC. As Sr. Leasing Director, Ashley worked on several outdoor regional lifestyle properties, with focused efforts in N. CA, Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Salt Lake, UT and Boise, ID. Working on the Landlord side allowed Ashley to enrich the surrounding communities in which she worked and develop a Million SF shopping center from dirt. This tenure also allowed her to work with small local business owners and help them bring their dreams to life. While a smaller part of her career, working as a Landlord/Developer was one of the most rewarding times in her professional development.
In an effort to dive further into the world of growing restaurants, Ashley joined Kona Grill, Inc. in 2016 to lead their real estate efforts in North America. Living and breathing the P+L from an in-house perspective and working the entire country, from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, elevated her expertise to that within the top-tiers in the industry. Through Emerging, Ashley was retained by Kona Grill and continues to act as their in-house real estate expert as well as others.

Alan Katz
Spending the majority of his career in hospitality, Alan brings extensive experience and knowledge in fundamental business facets including real estate, data analytics/site selection, supply chain, operations, marketing, and technology. Inherently entrepreneurial, Alan has been a cornerstone in building the EMERGING family of companies. Over the years, Alan has worked closely with hundreds of leading restaurant and entertainment groups throughout the country; consulting on creating strategic real-estate expansion plans, fundraising, and building supply chain infrastructures. Alan deploys a dynamic understanding of both growth and operations; having been instrumental in creating back-of-house efficiencies and reducing cost through negotiating distribution agreements, manufacturer contracts, and implementing technologies to help optimize day-to-day operations. Alan holds a degree from Depaul University in History/Pre-Law and Hospitality Management and Leadership. He holds his real estate license in Illinois and is an active member of ICSC.

Robert Johnson

Megan Schmidt