About Us

About Us

Greenfield Communities is a privately held real estate development company based in Raleigh, NC with a primary focus on single-family residential, townhomes, mixed-use and multi-family communities in select North Carolina markets. As a trusted partner for local, regional and national homebuilders, Greenfield seeks to acquire and develop land through creative and sound development practices – from small twenty-lot neighborhoods to large, mixed-use master-planned communities with full amenity packages.

Meet Our Team

Yang Song

Founder and Managing Principal

Yang Song is the founder and Managing Principal of Greenfield Communities. His responsibility includes setting the business model, deciding the investment strategy, and overseeing the deployment of equity investment capital.

Originally from China, Yang grew up in a real estate business family and was engaged in the real estate business from a young age. Over the past 35 years, his family has successfully developed over 15 million square feet of commercial and residential projects in China.

Yang holds a Master of Business Administration and a Doctor of Philosophy in the United States. He and his family now live in Wake County, North Carolina.

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Matt Brubaker

Founder and President

Matt Brubaker is a founding member of Greenfield Communities, serves as President of the company, and is responsible for vision-casting, sourcing of new investment opportunities, and oversight of all operations for Greenfield and its subsidiaries.

Before starting Greenfield, Matt was the owner and operator of Cornerstone Realty Ventures, a Raleigh-based land development, entitlement and brokerage company that provided real estate services for local Triangle builders as well as regional and national builders.

Prior to forming Cornerstone, Matt oversaw acquisitions and development across four North Carolina markets for D.R. Horton, America’s largest homebuilder. His department managed every stage of the company’s new community development process, including strategic land searches, financial feasibility studies, contract negotiations, land planning, permitting & entitlements, horizontal construction and homeowner associations.

Over his career, Matt has been involved in the acquisition, entitlement or development of over seventy-five projects totaling over 10,000 lots across North Carolina.

Matt has called Raleigh, NC “home” since 1986 and is a proud graduate of Campbell University (MBA & BBA) and Southeastern Seminary (MA & MDIV). He is a licensed North Carolina real estate broker, current member of the Board of Directors for Trinity Academy of Raleigh, past member of Wake County’s Planning Board (4 years) and Board of Adjustment (3 years), past chairman of Wake County’s Subdivision and Site Plan Subcommittee, member of the Wake Transit Advisory Committee in 2016, and has served as a teacher and deacon at Providence Baptist Church.

Matt lives in North Raleigh with his wife, Laura, and their three young children, Abby Rose, Lila Kate and Graham.

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Ben Taylor

Vice President of Development

As Vice President of Development, Ben Taylor brings 15 years of engineering and project management experience to Greenfield Management. In this role, Ben performs due diligence investigations on potential acquisitions to verify the nature of development that may be permissible. Once under contract, he then coordinates all behind-the-scene efforts with consultants and governing jurisdictions to secure zoning approvals, permitting, and completion of construction document preparations. Due to his extensive construction management background, Ben also oversees the infrastructure completion for Greenfield’s projects.

Prior to joining Greenfield, Ben provided two years of consultant engineering services as a Sr. Design Engineer with Bohler Engineering after relocating to Raleigh from his home state of Maryland to keep up with their territorial expansion in the southeast. Prior to Bohler, Ben spent thirteen years at Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc. (DBF), where he learned the importance of business ethics as well as costing and resourcing projects of all kinds from one of the industry’s foremost businessman and engineers, the late Jerry Friedel. For his efforts with DBF, Ben was awarded the Young Professional of the Year from the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce and had several projects receive state and local recognition for ingenuity and overall success.

Ben is a registered Engineer-in-Training and Erosion Control Specialist. He is a former board member (4 years) and president (2 years) for the Chamber of Commerce young professionals and was a board member (8 years) at the Shorepine Hunt Club. Ben was a student teacher for surveying while completing his studies at the University of Delaware. After college, he played semi-pro baseball out of Salisbury, MD. Now, as a certified athletics coach, he enjoys the opportunity to share the passion with others. Off the field, he can be found exploring the great outdoors if the Triangle region with his family.

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Kristle Osteen

Finance Manager

Kristle serves as Finance Manager at Greenfield Communities. With over 20 years of accounting experience, Kristle oversees the company’s bank accounts, bookkeeping, and financial records. She began her career performing financial analyses for Bank of America’s commercial lending division before transitioning into the bank’s corporate tax department. Immediately prior to joining Greenfield, Kristle spent the last ten years in public accounting.

Originally from Charlotte, Kristle graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She and her family moved to the Triangle area in 2007 and since then has earned a Master of Arts in Christian Studies from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Kristle lives in Wake Forest with her husband, Grayson, and their two children, Rachael and Seth. She is active in her church community at Wake Cross Roads and leads a small group. In her free time, she enjoys time with family and outdoor activities.

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Christopher Ackerman

Project Manager

As Project Manager, Chris is responsible for the coordination and oversight of due diligence, entitlement and project management for various Greenfield projects. Typically starting with raw land, Chris will assist with determining the viability of a target site and obtaining the numerous regulatory approvals required to develop our communities.

Prior to joining Greenfield, Chris worked as a Senior Field Analyst at KCI Technologies, a utility engineering firm in North Raleigh. In this role, he gained knowledge of the installation of site infrastructure, construction, and utility mapping with software tools such as ArcGIS and AutoCAD.

Prior to joining KCI, Chris was a surveyor at Taylor Land Consultants. During his time there, he became proficient in surveying and project management, overseeing construction, wetland delineation, boundaries, and topography surveys.

Chris grew up in the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. He is an alumnus of North Carolina State University and can frequently be found cheering on the Wolfpack at sporting events. While at NC State, he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources with a concentration in Ecosystem Assessment. He resides in Raleigh and is married to Alexandra. Together they enjoy hiking and the great outdoors.

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Dawn Forrest

Director of Marketing

Dawn Forrest brings to Greenfield 20 years of Real Estate experience, with a specialty in master-planned communities. Dawn is an integral part of new community visions, land planning, marketing, product selection, and community phasing. She works closely with development consultants and builders to insure the community vision will exceed expectations.

Dawn’s experience consists of Marketing Director for Wakefield Development Company from 2001 until 2010, afterwards becoming an independent marketing consultant. Since then, she has teamed with some of the biggest developers in the Triangle, producing award-winning communities that are top-sellers in their markets. She believes that developing communities that center around the homeowner’s dreams and lifestyle will ultimately be successful for both the developer and the residents.

Dawn moved to Raleigh with her daughter in 2000 from Florida where she spent 15 years with the Nestle Company, first in their hotel chain as Tournament Manager for the Nestle Invitational at Bay Hill, then as PR Manager, and ending as Key Account Manager for Alcon Labs. Dawn lives in North Raleigh and enjoys spending time with her 3 grandsons.

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Zak Shipman, PE

Senior Project Manager

Zak serves as a Senior Project Manager with Greenfield Communities and brings almost 20 years of engineering design, entitlement, and construction management experience to the development team. In this role, Zak is responsible for working with engineers, surveyors, and other professional consultants to complete construction drawings for upcoming land development projects, as well as providing due diligence assessments and budget analysis. Zak also works with government agencies and local municipalities to secure entitlements, site plan approvals, and other regulatory permits necessary for construction. Once a project is approved, he coordinates with contractors to manage the construction of Greenfield projects to ensure timely completion and product delivery.

Before joining Greenfield, Zak was the owner of Shipman Engineering, a Holly Springs based civil engineering consulting firm that provided land development design services for a variety of projects across the State. Prior to that, Zak spent 4 years with Curry Engineering in Fuquay-Varina, NC, and has also spent time working with other engineering firms in the Triangle area. He has experience with residential and commercial land development projects and has technical expertise in site layout, grading, stormwater, and utility design. In particular, Zak has worked extensively with the United States Military, using the Design/Build and Design/Bid/Build delivery methods to complete projects for the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force at various Federal installations across the Southeast.

Zak is a North Carolina licensed Professional Engineer and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University (2004). Born and raised in the Raleigh area, Zak lives in Holly Springs with his wife, Caroline, and their three sons, Will, Pierce, and Grey. Outside of the office, Zak is active with his church community at Apex Baptist and enjoys fishing and woodworking.

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Susanne Lempka

Office & Administrative Coordinator

Susanne serves as Office & Administrative Coordinator at Greenfield Communities. She brings to Greenfield 35 years of administrative experience (from Executive Assistant to Office Management) and a strong background in real estate and accounting.

Originally from Atlanta, GA, Susanne moved to North Carolina in 2003. She resides in Louisburg with her husband, two bonus kids, nine animals, and has a grown daughter in Atlanta.

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Kenny Goetze

Senior Advisor

Kenneth W. Goetze (Kenny) is a native of Wake County and has over 35 years of business and real estate experience in the area.

Kenny serves as a Senior Advisor to Greenfield Management, where he plays a key role each month in long-term vision-casting, analyzing investment opportunities, risk analysis and determining exit strategies for various Greenfield assets.

Kenny’s background includes three years of commercial banking and nine years of experience owning and operating manufacturing companies serving hi-tech industries of the Research Triangle Park and eastern United States. In the early 1990s Kenny moved his focus and efforts to real estate investing and development opportunities. He has developed or re-developed residential and commercial properties from Asheville, NC to Manteo, NC ranging in size from 20 units to over 600 units. His portfolio has or does include single and multi-tenant commercial buildings, medical buildings, build-to-suits, raw land, development tracts, multi-family and single-family properties.

Kenny has a passion for Christian ministry and service and is a leader in his church. Kenny has served on boards at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC for over 25 years and has participated in ministry opportunities through numerous organizations, including With Purpose International and Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU). Kenny’s community service has also included a local bank board and chamber of commerce.

Kenny is a life-long resident of Wake County and currently resides in Zebulon, NC with his wife, Debra. They have four adult children and 5 grandchildren. Kenny is a graduate of Woodberry Forest School in Woodberry, Forest, VA, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Guilford College.