Matt Koart

President - Koart Residential

 Matt Koart is the founder of Koart Residential, Inc., a group of privately held companies focused primarily on entitlement, development, construction and private equity investment within the California residential real estate sector. 

Prior to founding Koart Residential, Matt served as the Chief Executive Officer of Shapell Industries, Inc., a multi-billion dollar diversified real estate firm based in Beverly Hills and with operations throughout California. At Shapell, Matt oversaw the development of more than 7000 lots, 6000 apartments, and 4 million square feet of office and retail space.  During his tenure at the Company, he conducted a massive overhaul of its operational structure, back-office accounting functions and information technology systems, and successfully repositioned Shapell within the marketplace to become a more nimble, competitive and technologically sophisticated organization.

As Area President for Pulte Homes, a Fortune-500 publicly traded company, Matt oversaw up to 7,300 annual home sales in California and Nevada and over 1,200 employees and was responsible for managing both the Company’s Del Webb Active Adult brand and Pulte’s Urban Infill and Greenfield projects. During his tenure at Pulte, Matt transformed its California operation into one of the most financially successful divisions in the Company nationwide. Throughout the course of his career, he has developed tens-of-thousands of homes and has gained experience and expertise in every major segment of the Real Estate industry. 

Matt began his career in Real Estate as a land use attorney with Allen Matkins et al in Los Angeles and as Vice President of Acquisition and Planning at KB Home in the Bay Area, where he was instrumental in doubling the size of the Company’s North Bay Division in only 3 years. 

Matt graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California’s undergraduate Marshall School of Business and, subsequently, graduated fourth in his class from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. 

In addition to his real estate career, Matt also excelled in athletics as a defensive lineman for the 1981 – 1986 University of Southern California football teams. His athletic honors include Academic All-American, Defensive Player of the Game in USC’s 1985 victory over UCLA and the Jess Hill Trophy for most outstanding senior athlete. The Green Bay Packers drafted Matt in the 5th round of the 1986 NFL draft. 

Matt has been married for 22 years and has three children. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, mountain biking and icing old football injuries.