Melissa Schrock Joins The Davis Companies as Managing Director of Mixed-Use Development

BOSTON — The Davis Companies has named Melissa Schrock Managing Director of Mixed-Use Development, a newly created position in which she will oversee the firm's expanding portfolio of mixed-use properties across the United States, the Boston-based real estate investment, development and management firm announced Sept. 22.

Schrock will support all aspects of project execution in her new role, including acquisition, entitlement and ground-up development. Her appointment comes as The Davis Companies has moved to formalize mixed-use development as a dedicated strategic capability within its national investment platform.

A Newly Created Role Tied to Platform Expansion

The position is new to The Davis Companies, signaling a deliberate effort to build out a mixed-use development function alongside the firm's existing exposure to healthcare and life science, industrial, retail, office and hospitality assets. Davis reports $13.9 billion in gross asset value invested since inception, a portfolio of approximately 10.8 million square feet and more than 4,890 residential units across the country.

Michael Cantalupa, Chief Development Officer at Davis, said Schrock's background positions her to contribute across the firm's development pipeline. "The most important resource Davis brings to its investment platform is its people," Cantalupa said. "Melissa's experience leading complex developments and mixed-use projects will be a tremendous asset to Davis' investment platform. She brings a combination of strategic vision, technical knowledge and hands-on development experiences that complement an already strong team and broaden the approach we can bring to complex development opportunities."

Schrock said she sees the timing of her move as significant. "I am thrilled to join Davis at such an exciting time for the firm's mixed-use portfolio," she said. "Davis has deep experience navigating complex development opportunities and working collaboratively with tenants, partners, stakeholders and communities. I look forward to building on that experience and helping advance projects that contribute to the long-term vitality of the places in which we work."

Two Major Projects Anchor the Mixed-Use Pipeline

The appointment aligns with two recent strategic moves by The Davis Companies that underscore the firm's growing mixed-use ambitions.

In the Boston area, Davis earlier this year cleared the final oil tanks from the Everett Docklands project site, a 105-acre former industrial property north of Boston. The firm is working with the City of Everett on a long-term master plan that contemplates a range of uses and public-realm improvements. The site's remediation history makes entitlement, infrastructure coordination and phased execution central to the project's development economics.

In Miami, Davis joined a venture that acquired the retail, dining and entertainment component of Miami Worldcenter, a 27-acre mixed-use destination in downtown Miami. The acquired component comprises approximately 300,000 square feet of retail space, roughly 2,000 parking spaces and 100,000 square feet of parks and plazas within the broader $6 billion project. The transaction was reported at $210 million, implying approximately $700 per square foot based on the retail component's size. Davis and Jamestown participated as limited partners, with Falcone Group leading operations alongside ROK Acquisitions and Andrew Mirmelli.

Schrock's Background in Urban Mixed-Use Development

Before joining The Davis Companies, Schrock served as Executive Vice President of Mixed-Use Development at HRP Group, where she led the firm's expansion into urban mixed-use development and supported approximately 5 million square feet of mixed-use and life-science innovation projects nationally. Projects associated with that role include 776 Summer Street in Boston, a 19-acre site on the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, and the Innovation Campus at the Bellwether District in Philadelphia.

She previously held development roles at Boston Properties and Samuels & Associates.

Schrock holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The Ohio State University and dual master's degrees in real estate development and city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She currently serves as a lecturer at MIT's Center for Real Estate, is President of the CREDA Massachusetts Board Management Committee, sits on the Board of Trustees of Boston Harbor Now and serves on Urban Land Institute's UDMUC Silver National Product Council.

Market Conditions Elevate the Value of Mixed-Use Expertise

The hire comes against a backdrop of significant pressure on Boston's single-use commercial property markets. Office vacancy in Boston stood at approximately 15.5% at the end of the first quarter of 2026, with overall availability reaching 21.7%, reflecting hybrid-work-related downsizing and limited leasing activity. Life-science vacancy has also risen sharply, with one market report placing availability across the broader Boston life-science market at 34.9%, driven in part by elevated supply along the Route 128 corridor.

Those conditions increase the strategic value of mixed-use development, which allows developers to phase and adjust residential, retail, hospitality, office, life-science and public-realm components in response to tenant demand, financing conditions and municipal priorities. Mixed-use projects also carry greater coordination and construction complexity than single-use assets, making experienced leadership a key factor in project execution.

Retail investment has increasingly concentrated in experiential, high-traffic urban locations, a dynamic reflected in the Miami Worldcenter acquisition. Higher financing costs have also made disciplined capitalization and preleasing more important across development asset classes.

The Davis Companies is headquartered in Boston and invests across the United States.

Sources: The Davis Companies