When supply chains seized, inspections shifted without warning, and a few would-be tenants walked away during the pandemic, William Johnston didn’t flinch. He recalibrated. The CEO of Johnston & Co. tightened communication with equity partners and retailers, reworked timelines, and kept the bar high on design and fit. That resolve had already been tested in late 2017, when initial development partners exited despite pre-leasing nearly half the space. Johnston had to tell signed tenants their dreams were on hold while he rebuilt the team.
His approach was forged long before the cranes. Johnston grew up on his family’s farm in Gilbert, absorbing the rhythms of soil, weather and work ethic from his parents. He names the same three values first every time: hard work, humility and honesty. As a young manager at Liberty Market while attending the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, he studied firsthand how leadership styles felt to people doing the work. Those years shaped a leadership style grounded in autonomy, clarity and empathy.
His shift from restaurants to real estate was a leap of faith sparked by family. After a decade at Joe’s Real BBQ, Joe’s Farm Grill and Liberty Market, Johnston moved into the family development office. Timing mattered. Epicenter’s concept emerged around 2010 when a grocery deal collapsed. A launch party followed in 2012, and Johnston joined in 2014. The mandate was bigger than a building: Translate the agrarian DNA of Agritopia into a vertical mixed-use hub that felt native to the neighborhood his family had stewarded for generations.
Financing that vision brought its own gauntlet. With residential above retail, he pursued a single lender willing to structure loans across both parts. The choice added complexity and legal documentation but protected the coherence of the whole. His simple system — prioritize what moves the mission — helped him navigate daily resequencing to match materials, absorb cost spikes and manage COVID-era disruptions. A people-pleasing streak made some calls harder, so he learned to anchor decisions in first principles.
Community input was constant. Early surveys and focus groups shaped the tenant wish list and eased concerns, and open houses kept the process transparent. Johnston and his team didn’t wait for inbound calls. They drove across Arizona to recruit what they called the best of Arizona — operators devoted to craft, quality and operational excellence. He credits mentors like Casey Treadwell and Greg Nadeau for sharpening his development toolkit and extends that respect to tenants, lenders and construction partners. When pandemic constraints blew up predictability, he over-indexed on transparency. Some walked. The ones who stayed shared the long view — a filtering effect he believes improved the final lineup. First move-ins made years of planning feel personal.
Epicenter sits within the 960-acre Agritopia community — a blend of farmland, homes, retail, assisted living and a private school — where Johnston also helped shape the Bar None maker space. Across projects, his leadership carries the same fingerprints: Hire for character and craft, set the destination, and create room for people to do their best work. He makes time to understand what motivates team members, a habit learned in dining rooms where dynamics matter as much as nightly covers. Among operators at Epicenter, his Epicenter Family, that neighborly ethic applies. They share advice, swap help and grow together.
Age presented its own hurdle early on. In rooms full of seasoned developers and financiers, Johnston had to win credibility twice — first for himself, then for a community-first blueprint. He learned to let results speak and to protect his calendar for the work that produced them. He returns often to the Warren Buffett line about reputation taking decades to build and minutes to lose. That’s why he’s slow to compromise on tenant mix or craftsmanship, and why he accepts short-term pain to preserve long-term trust. Faith and stewardship frame the hardest choices. Selling out for a strip center or generic apartments might have been faster and more profitable, but it would have shortchanged the neighborhood he lives in and the legacy his family intends to leave.
There’s also a line from J. R. R. Tolkien he keeps close: “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” It’s more than sentiment. It’s a design brief. Epicenter’s public spaces, local operators and everyday rituals reward belonging over spectacle. As the place matures, landscapes will fill in and operators will find their rhythm. The evolution will be about depth. For Johnston, who lives among the outcomes, leadership is still the same: Plant well, tend daily and harvest at the right time. The buildings are just the proof.
Quick Take: Johnston & Co. + Epicenter
- Johnston & Co.: Established in 1960, Johnston & Co. is a multi-disciplinary development firm that focuses on agriculture, manufacturing, food and communities. Simply said, they make things and places.
- Signature: Epicenter at Agritopia® — Three hundred and twenty apartments over 49,000 square feet of high-end retail; a walkable, wellness-forward hub in Gilbert.
- Honors: Mixed-Use Project of the Year, 2024 RED Awards
- Partners: StreetLights Residential & Construction; architecture by Looney Ricks Kiss.
- Purpose: “We make things and places” — community-first, design-driven development.
- Scale: Three hundred and twenty residences over an activated ground floor.
- Titan named William Johnston a 2025 Phoenix Titan 100, a program that recognizes the Phoenix area’s Top 100 CEOs and C-level executives.
Photo courtesy of Johnston and Co.
