Focused on multi-family, ground-up development, the firm’s pathway to value creation is built around a central thesis of transit-oriented site selection, architecturally distinctive and thoughtful design, deep understanding of the construction process and an end-user focused, hospitality-oriented approach to management of assets.

Recognizing that the development of new buildings does not occur in a vacuum, the firm takes a balanced approach to the development process with a stated goal of positively impacting all stakeholders through the transformation of the built environment utilizing collaborative, transparent and values driven practices.

We are actively seeking development opportunities in select Greater Boston submarkets.

Chris Wholey founded Copper Development Company in 2021.

Prior to this, he spent over fifteen years working for several of Boston’s leading real estate development firms. From 2012 to 2021, Chris held various positions within the Commercial Development group at Skanska. During his tenure with the firm, Chris developed Watermark Seaport, a 346 unit residential building with 25,000 of ground floor retail in Boston’s burgeoning Seaport District and was responsible for all aspects of the development process, including coordinating due diligence, obtaining entitlements with the City of Boston, managing a team of ten design and engineering firms, assembling $140M in debt and equity from the capital markets and integrating financing into a complex joint venture partnership, oversight of a two-year construction phase, supervision of a third party property management firm during a one year lease-up of the asset, including rollout of a full marketing campaign, and subsequent disposition of the property. Chris also had management responsibility for the initial phase of development for Two Drydock, a 225,000 square foot office building on the South Boston waterfront’s Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park and performed many of the same functions as outlined above. From 2019 to 2021, Chris led efforts to source new land acquisitions for the group, a role which culminated in the purchase of 625,000 square feet of development rights at 380 Stuart Street in Boston’s Back Bay.

Prior to his tenure at Skanska, beginning in 2007, Chris worked for Criterion Development Partners on the development of over 850 units of multi-family housing in the Greater Boston area. He also spent several years working for the design-build construction management firm MCMUSA, Inc. coordinating the design and build-out of a variety of residential, retail and medical projects.

Chris holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Development degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics degree from Boston College. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and previously served as the Chair of the Programming Committee for the organization’s Young Leaders Group.

Chris lives in Boston with his wife and two young children, with whom he spends as much time as possible. He is also an avid runner, skier, and football fan.