Leadership
The people who underwrite, build, and operate the Brickstone platform.
Founder
Daniel H. Otis
Founder & Principal
Daniel H. Otis founded Brickstone Partners in 2001 at age 20, while still in college — redeveloping and investing in student housing around his alma mater. In the two decades since, the firm has been directly and indirectly involved in more than $2 billion of multifamily, student housing, retail, and office investment and development, including more than $500 million in the University of Colorado Boulder market, where Brickstone is one of the largest student housing operators.
His investment thesis has been carefully crafted and consistently executed: pursuing opportunities with an asymmetry of risk and reward — generating opportunistic yield with less risk than normal. Daniel is also the principal of Cornerstone, the Otis family office that anchors the firm's largest commitments and keeps principal capital meaningfully aligned with every Brickstone partnership.
A veteran of the United States Air Force and a former Division I pole vaulter, Daniel completed executive real estate programs at Harvard and is a past board member of Folds of Honor and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. An accomplished aviator and a pianist of more than 30 years, he is first and foremost a family man — married more than 15 years, with four young children.
Operating Team
The leadership behind every asset.
Jon W. Hill, CPA
Nashville, TNChief Financial Officer
Jon brings more than 20 years of senior finance and accounting leadership across complex real estate platforms, private equity, and multi-entity capital structures. As CFO, he oversees all financial operations — treasury, debt compliance, investor reporting, tax strategy, and capital planning — across the firm's student housing and multifamily portfolio. He previously served as CFO of Highland Ventures, a Nashville-based family office where he executed more than 33 acquisitions and financings totaling over $150 million across 16 states, and held senior finance roles at HealthTrust and at Landmark Properties, one of the nation's largest student housing operators, where he oversaw fund management and investor reporting across a portfolio exceeding $7 billion. Jon holds an MBA and BBA from Mercer University and is a licensed CPA in Tennessee.
Dan Trimble
Denver, COVice President, Asset Management
Dan oversees the firm's asset management platform from Denver, working across the Brickstone portfolio to drive operating performance and execute on the firm's long-hold investment thesis.
Jeff J. Dawson
Boulder, CODevelopment Partner
Jeff is founder and managing principal of STUDIO Development Services, a real estate development consulting firm specializing in owner's representation and project management, and of STUDIO Architecture, a full-service Boulder design firm. A licensed architect with more than 25 years of design and development experience, he has personally been involved in over 1.5 million square feet of construction, including 500+ multifamily residences. Jeff has worked with Brickstone for over five years, helping deliver more than 300 apartment units to the Boulder student housing market. He earned his master's in architecture at the University of Colorado — first in his class — and is active in the Boulder community through the City of Boulder Design Advisory Board, ULI, AIA, and NCARB.