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The crew leading redevelopment of the Con-way site in Northwest Portland is branching off into a new company.

C.E. John Co. executives Rob Hinnen and Tom DiChiara will depart C.E. John this summer to form a new company, which will remain the master developer for the 17-acre Con-way site. A third C.E. John executive, Scott Lindgren, reportedly will pursue other opportunities so that he can spend more time with his family.

DiChiara said C.E. John is pulling back from larger, mixed-use developments as it transitions from a second to third generation of family ownership. It has chosen to focus on its existing assets and retail business – including some on Northwest 23rd Avenue, as well as shopping centers like Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton.

“As you can imagine, doing new development — especially on the scale that they’re doing … it’s an involved process,” said Holly Hagerman, spokeswoman for C.E. John. “So they’re trying to get back to their roots and focus more on the management of the assets they have already.”

It’s not the first time Hinnen and DiChiara have jumped ship together. The two previously worked for Trammell Crow Residential.

“We’ve been basically in business for the last decade, and have known each other longer than that,” DiChiara said. “We’re looking forward to branching out on our own and doing the types of projects we want to focus on.”

One is the upcoming Slabtown Marketplace – a retail development containing a New Seasons Market – and another is an adjacent, 113-unit, mixed-use apartment building. Those projects will move forward with a new capital partner, though DiChiara declined to say more at present. He did, however, confirm that he has been in talks with Capstone Partners, which has several large developments under way around Portland.

“We may be partnering with Capstone on some portion of Con-way, but nothing is official yet,” he said.

DiChiara said that any time a new company opens shop, it does so with inherent challenges and risks; however, his company’s role as master developer for the Con-way site should ensure a steady queue of work into the future. In a prepared statement, Craig Boretz, Con-way’s vice president, said he looked forward to working with DiChiara and Hinnen as his company moves forward with the next phases of development.

Additionally, John Residential Construction LLC will remain the general contractor for the Slabtown Marketplace project, and agreements that C.E. John recently negotiated with the Northwest District Association – such as the Clean Diesel and Good Neighbor Agreement – will remain in effect with the new company.

DiChiara and Hinnen don’t intend to grow a giant company. They would rather run a small, boutique shop focusing on everything from office to residential. DiChiara said the transition should be fairly seamless; however, a big challenge at the moment is simply coming up with a new name.

“Coming up with a name is a hard thing to do,” he said. “We have a few finalists, but you really have to search through and look at what’s been used, and tweaked … It won’t be anything with our names because our names don’t have a good flow.”