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The Team Behind Blackstone
Blackstone Development and Construction is led by a small, hands-on team with direct experience in commercial development, general contracting, and the real estate side of getting a medical or retail project built and stabilized.
Ben Nielsen, Co-Owner & Chief Executive Officer
Ben leads preconstruction, general contracting, and tenant improvement work for medical office and retail projects across Utah. Licensed as a general contractor since 2004, he built his first construction company from the ground up at age 27 and turned $2,500 in start-up capital into more than $1 million in first-year revenue. Over 25 years in commercial construction and real estate, Ben has delivered projects across Utah, Idaho, Washington, New Mexico, and Texas. He spent 2015 to 2019 with a major Utah builder before focusing his practice exclusively on the Utah market. Today he applies that experience to a narrower, higher-stakes niche: getting specialized commercial space built right, on schedule, and on budget for investors, medical groups, and retail operators.
Courtney Nielsen, Co-Owner & Chief Investment Officer
​Courtney drives financial strategy and investment decision-making across Blackstone’s medical office and retail projects. Through Nielsen Property Group, the real estate team she and Ben lead at KW Westfield and KW Commercial, she brings live market data on comps, land values, and absorption directly into deal sourcing, underwriting, and go/no-go decisions. That connection lets Blackstone carry a project from site selection to stabilized asset without handing you off. The same people who find the site and walk the numbers also build it and support the lease-up or sale. Her approach rests on three principles: communication, education, and transparency. Partners and investors stay informed at every stage with clear reporting and direct access. Courtney holds a Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) from the University of Utah and a Master’s degree in Education. Both show up in how she works: she believes stakeholders should understand the full financial picture behind a project, not just the finished building.
Matthew Nielsen,
Business Development
​As Blackstone’s Business Developer, he works the line between real estate brokers and their clients and the general contracting team: Creating great relationships that last is Matt's most important goal and he also gets into sending out bid requests, gathering subcontractor proposals and numbers, and keeping the estimating process moving forward so business owners can get their project numbers quickly and accurately.