From carpet stores to golf courses and from yoga to coal, the personal and professional lives of the 2021 BizWest Icons of Real Estate involve far more than buying and selling property.

Four such icons were acknowledged Thursday during Bizwest’s Northern Colorado Real Estate Summit: Julie Piepho, president of consumer lending at Adams Bank & Trust; Dale Boehner, principal at Thompson Ranch Development Co.; Eric Holsapple, broker/owner at LC Real Estate Group; and Jon Turner, CEO of Hillside Commercial Group.

“I don’t know anyone who has said they want to grow and be a mortgage banker,” Piepho said. “We all just fell into it.”

When not writing mortgages, Piepho operates Milestone Leadership Consulting.

“I just have a passion for helping individuals be their best,” she said.

Boehner’s road to real estate development led him through stints owning carpeting and flooring store Dale’s Carpet One and stone manufacturer and supplier Signature Stone. 

“I was used to sweat equity growing up on a farm,” Boehner said. 

One of Boehner’s signature accomplishments with Thompson Ranch Development Co. is the development of 2534, a mixed-use project in Johnstown.

“The way it turned out, I’m really proud of it,” he said. 

In addition to running LC Real Estate Group, Holsapple has served as director of the Everitt Real Estate Center at Colorado State University.

His work with the university allowed him to help students launch their real estate careers, many of whom landed at LC.

“They’re really good,” Holsapple said of CSU grads, who make up the bulk of his staff. 

Holsapple is also the founder of Loveland Community Yoga.

“We teach meditation and mindful movement practice and how to use those things to reach your personal and professional goals,” he said. “… It’s very rewarding.”

One of Turner’s passions is golf, and he successfully weaved the game into his professional life with the development of courses such as TPC Colorado and Highland Meadows.

“We said, ‘Why don’t we try this?’” he said in reference to building golf courses. That willingness to try new things eventually led Turner to a partnership with the PGA. 

“These projects have given us so many opportunities,” he said. “… It’s so neat how one door can open up so many other doors.”

In addition to his development work, Turner has been involved in the energy and natural resources sector as co-owner of Rocky Mountain Fuel Co., a venture he called “a crazy roller-coaster ride.”

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