About
Aaron Talarico
Founder & Managing Partner
With 20 years of experience and deeply rooted in the real estate world, Aaron has been actively involved in multiple aspects of the industry, from site acquisitions and land use entitlements to community engagement and project buildout. Aaron’s proficiency in navigating complex entitlement projects is noteworthy. He innovates within zoning laws, optimizes product layouts, and adeptly addresses challenges with engineering solutions and political strategies.
Now, Aaron is the president of ParkTerra, a newly formed development company based in Southern California. ParkTerra is funded by JEN Partners, a real estate private equity fund. JEN is an expert in residential real estate with longstanding relationships in the residential land, homebuilding, and workforce housing arenas.
For the last seven years at Meritage Homes/MLC Holdings in Southern California, Aaron was the lead in the land division and championed the acquisition, due diligence, and forward planning strategies. Under his leadership, the land team acquired and entitled over 35 communities, culminating in more than 3,500 residential units across various jurisdictions. Aaron also managed site acquisition, feasibility, entitlement, and post-entitlement processing for all active Meritage/MLC communities.
Aaron graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration, concentrating in Finance. His academic foundation, coupled with two decades of hands-on experience, firmly positions him as a leading professional in the real estate development arena.
Joahnna Crooker, AICP
Senior Vice President, Asset Management
Over the past 25+ years, Johanna has contributed to the successful entitlement of over 18,000 homes, from compact infill to large master-planned and mixed-use communities. Trained as an urban planner, she began her career working for leading engineering and architectural firms, offering both site design and entitlement services to merchant builders, developers, and property owners. Her experience preparing site plans, specific plans, design guidelines, from-based codes, and other planning documents coupled with her in-depth understanding of how architecture, engineering, and landscape design combine to create beautiful and lasting communities gives her a unique perspective that allowed her to gracefully transition into homebuilding and development.
Johanna considers herself both planner and developer, working at the intersection of civic vision and financial reality, balancing community goals with the costs and constraints required to deliver viable, high-quality development. Inspired by frequent family visits to the Netherlands and a lifelong passion for urban design, she champions creative, people-first solutions that add lasting value to every project. Her success lies in her ability to navigate California’s evolving legal landscape and local politics with a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach, building trusted partnerships among public agencies and multidisciplinary teams to move complex projects forward.
Johanna earned a Bachelor’s in City and Regional Planning from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and is an active member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).