Charanjeet “Charlie” Kaur Tiwana-Purewal

COO, President and Co-founder, KozPure Development

This story is part of our July 2025 Young Professionals issue, photographed at Bradford Animal Shelter. To learn more about adopting at Bradford, click here.

Local real estate developer Charanjeet “Charlie” Kaur Tiwana-Purewal credits her older sister with playing a pivotal role in her career.

After graduating from UC Merced with a degree in political science and history, Tiwana-Purewal moved to New York City to be near her sister, Harpreet, who was finishing up law school. Planning to follow in her sister’s footsteps, Tiwana-Purewal was studying for the LSAT when Harpreet pointedly asked her, “Why do you want to be a lawyer?” When she couldn’t come up with a good answer, Tiwana-Purewal decided against law school.

But what should she do? Again, Harpreet swooped in with some sound sisterly advice. “You have a strategic business mind,” she said. “Consider that path.”

Tiwana-Purewal began flexing her strategic business mind as a child. By the time she was 6, she was helping her Indian immigrant parents plant, pick and pack crops on their Central Valley farm. Before long, she had figured out more efficient ways to do things. Noting, for instance, that some workers were faster at certain tasks, she suggested job specialization. Her own forte? Assembling packing boxes and waxing vegetables.

In high school, she simultaneously held down two jobs, at Abercrombie & Fitch and at Jamba Juice, where she again demonstrated an innate ability to solve problems and speed up processes. During the busy holiday season at Abercrombie, she once volunteered to stay after the store closed to handle an incoming shipment of new stock, a job her boss warned would take until 2 or 3 in the morning. Instead, she came up with a plan that shaved several hours off the task.

“I’m a sponge. I worked hard and tried to learn everything I possibly could.”

After she took law school off the table, Tiwana-Purewal was managing a New York City restaurant when she decided to return to California. She met with the founder and CEO of New Faze, a Sacramento real estate development firm specializing in urban development, and was hired as a strategic adviser. Within nine months, she was promoted to company vice president.

In her nine years at New Faze, she’s worked on complex residential, commercial, multiuse and health care projects, managing every phase of development from acquisition and financing through construction — and soaked up a lifetime’s worth of knowledge. “I’m a sponge,” the 36-year-old explains. “I worked hard and tried to learn everything I possibly could.”

But eventually, she started itching to go out on her own. In 2023, she and her business partner, Josh Wood, launched KozPure Development, specializing in mixed-use, entertainment-driven developments in the Sacramento region and Central Valley. They now have several projects in the pipeline. “I can’t share details just yet,” she says.

She looks at real estate development as a giant puzzle. “Every project is unique, and every problem that comes up within that project is unique. You’re constantly learning and figuring out how to adapt,” she says. “I love that.”

Her sister is still a mentor, but Tiwana-Purewal now has an even bigger supporter: her husband, Onkar Purewal, a senior finance manager for a hedge fund. He’s her ride-or-die, the first person she turns to for advice and encouragement. “He sees in me what I sometimes don’t see in myself,” she says. Together, they have a pair of exuberant 2-year-old Maltipoos, Merry and Pippin, named after their favorite “Lord of the Rings” characters. (They’re both big fans.) The dogs frequently accompany her to her office, where they greet visitors at the door. “People love them, and they love people,” she says.

–

Get all the profiles in our Young Professionals issue delivered to your inbox: Subscribe to the Comstock’s newsletter today!