“I want to create systems where our vision for a site has a positive impact on the broader community we’re developing. It’s our duty as developers in these neighborhoods to make them better.”

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Age: 39

Partner, Milhaus Development LLC

Anyone who knew David Leazenby at Westfield High School must have figured he’d end up in some area of design and development. At 17, he was already working for Woollen Molzan and Partners Inc., a downtown Indianapolis architecture firm, and he kept that going during summers through his years at Ball State University, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in environmental design and in urban planning and development.

After graduation, he took a job in San Francisco, where he did consulting for developers. He returned to Indiana in 2000 to work for Crossmann Communities, and then moved on to Buckingham Cos., where he worked on several projects in downtown Carmel, including the Arts & Design District and the Old Meridian Corridor, then left in 2007 to start his own company.

In 2009, “it was time to ramp up,” so he partnered with Tadd Miller, Andrew Lahr and Greg Martin to form Milhaus (Miller’s high school nickname), which specializes in developing mixed-use and multi-family neighborhoods. Its projects include 451 Market downtown and The Mozzo in the Holy Rosary neighborhood near Fountain Square.

“We spent a lot of time with four neighborhood organizations working on what they wanted to see on the [Mozzo] property, intending to build something that was going to be there for a very long time,” he said. “We’re hoping people see our commitment not just to our project but the neighborhood we’re building it in, so we work really hard at forming those relationships.”

Leazenby doesn’t just develop and leave, either. He, his wife and their two children live in a downtown Carmel home they built as part of a project he redeveloped.•