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Ron Barness has been in the commercial real estate industry for more than 27 years. He is known for his many charitable donations through the Barness Family Foundation and also as a previous owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Additionally, he previously was the owner of Retail Brokers Inc and Barness Papas Investments.

In 2008 & 2009, a number of civil lawsuits were filed against Ron Barness, principal and CEO of Barness Papas Investments (the parent company of Retail Brokers, Inc.) and his business partner at the time, Alex Papakyriakou. Those judgments were filed by a handful of investors who alleged that Ron and his partner did not accurately report earnings and the sales of property. At the time of this report, all but one of the investor lawsuits has been successfully dismissed by the Maricopa County Superior Court. The single outstanding investor lawsuit is working its way through the legal system and will likely be dismissed soon.

Barness’ 27-year real estate career includes acquisition, development and disposition of more than 300 shopping center investment properties, almost all of which included the involvement of nearly 1,000 individual investors or partners. Until the collapse of the Phoenix real estate market in 2007, not a single investor had ever lost a dollar with Barness. In fact, for nearly 15 years, investors enjoyed returns ranging from 15% – 30% every year.