Nick Melrose is the Founder & CEO of Melrose Ascension Capital (MAC) who has over a decade of institutional and entrepreneurial real estate experience spanning development, acquisitions, private equity, and investment banking. Nick has direct experience developing and acquiring over $1 billion and several million square feet of property nationwide during his career.

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He was recently awarded Business Insider’s national Top 20 Under 35 Rising Stars in Real Estate in 2024 and Crain’s Chicago 40 Under 40 in 2025 for his entrepreneurial achievements and industry leadership.

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Prior to founding MAC at 26 in 2019, Nick held positions at:

• Bucksbaum Properties (Chicago, IL)
• HUBB NYC Properties (New York, NY)
• JBG Companies (Washington, D.C.)
• Dome Equities (New York, NY)
• Principal Financial Group (Des Moines, IA)
• Browman Development Company (Walnut Creek, CA)
• He is also an active member of ULI and ICSC.

Prior to his full-time experience, Nick graduated from the University of Iowa with a double major in Finance and Economics. He graduated in the top 1% of his class with Highest Honors through achieving a 4.11 Finance and 4.17 Economics GPA and holds one of the highest ever-recorded single semester GPA’s at the University (4.28). He is also a first-generation college graduate and is from a small-town of ~7,400 people in northeast Iowa, which has instilled the company with Midwestern values and a unique perspective on the market.

David Crowell is the Project Manager for each of MAC’s developments.

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During his 40+ year career, he has been responsible for successful delivery of more than 150 major, high profile programs and projects totaling nearly 100 million square feet. He brings discipline to goal setting and decision- making throughout programming, pre-construction, procurement, and design phases. His work reflects a mastery of processes with high degrees of integrated technology, complexity and quality.

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A nationally and internationally recognized expert in high-rise buildings, Mr. Crowell has implemented design management, logistics and constructability efficiencies for this highly specialized building type in the United States, the Middle East and Europe. His notable work includes leading the design phase for The Shard – a new icon in London’s revitalized London Bridge Quarter, the tallest building in Western Europe; and Jeddah Tower (f/k/a The Kingdom Tower) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia currently under construction which will be the world’s tallest building when completed.

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As a founding member and COO of The Rise Group, LLC; Mr. Crowell led Rise’s best practices initiative overseeing formalization of in-house technical services. He instituted, developed and led the firm’s ongoing training, education, mentoring and cooperative education programs; including courses delivered in partnership with the Illinois Institute of Technology and Northwestern University. These programs supported Rise’s commitment to developing the best human capital resources in the industry.

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