Michigan Real Estate Club Visits Chicago
Jonathan Nawrocki
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: Features
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The trip started off with a visit to Bond Companies and alumni Damon Dance (MBA '07), who is already immersed in his first development project, Springbrook Prairie Pavilion in Naperville, after graduating from Ross less than a year ago. Club members bore the cold weather to tour the site in hardhats and boots. Following the visit with the Bond Companies, the club headed Southwest to Bollingbrook to tour and gain some insight into Forest City's newly opened Promenade at Bollingbrook. Twenty-two club members met with with Valerie Westley of Forest City as she presented the Promenade and described how she orchestrated the design and construction of the project from concept to completion.
After 2 hours in Bollingbrook, the MREC got settled on hopped back onto a rented charter bus with party tables and lunch food from a restaurant within the Promenade and headed back to the city to visit one of Ross' most notable alumnus - Sam Zell. Zell had invited the club to talk with him for one hour about the business of real estate and the current market. After an hour of hearing some unbelievable stories, the MREC moved down a couple of floors where they met Equity Residental's CFO, Mark Parrell and a bobblehead of Bo Schemblecher to talk about Equity's recruitment calendar and what they are looking for in possible summer interns and full time hires.
Due to the tight schedule, the club had to move on, as the bus was waiting for the club as they left Sam Zell's office, to head to the last stop of day: Chicago's Central Station. Alumnus Tom Foos was able to show the club a tour of the site along with detailed showing of the project sales center. Tom was able to show the enormity of the 80-acre, 14 million sq foot Chicago Central Station Project with multiple models of the buildings and actual scale models of the apartments being sold. Most of the club thought that they could definitely see themselves living in one of the models, though MBA2 Isha Ganhdi had questions about the 2-bedroom, 1800 sq ft unit and asked, "Where is the washer dryer?" After a long day touring visiting with Michigan alumni, the MREC retreated back to the Chicago Hyatt for some food and rest in preparation for another day in the Windy City.
On Friday, February 15th the MREC woke up to a rather sunny but cold Chicago day (15ºF) and headed down to visit Joseph Freed and Associates (JFA) in their new headquarters at the Sullivan Center; previously known as the Carson Pririe Scott building. JFA is headed by alumnus Larry Freed, who was able to give the MREC access to two of JFA's more high profile projects: Block 37 and the Sullivan Center. Even though Larry was not able to make it to the presentations, Joey Carr and Kirsten Hull were able to give insight to the construction and development of both projects.
After a bone chilling tour of the exterior of the in-progress Block 37 project, the MREC headed up State Street to visit Alumnus Steve Luthman (MBA '05) at Hines to talk about some of their new projects going up along the Chicago River. Steve hosted the club for lunch and showed off two of the newest projects that Hines Chicago is currently pursuing. Over the next three hours, Steve and his assistant project manager John Wilbeck talked about real estate in Chicago and possible recruitment for both the summer internships and full-time positions within Hines.
After leaving Hines the MREC ventured back into the cold and met with alumnus Joe Valerio's firm Valerio Dewalt Train to understand a little more about the design process and retail branding. Bill Christenson, a partner in the firm, gave the MREC members a presentation on how they design buildings and where they see their firm is going with new construction design.
The club finished an intense two days in Chicago at the Cliffdwellers Club with presentations from both alumni Michael Tobin and Susan Aarons. The Cliffdwellers Club was started by architect Daniel Burnham as a private club of members who are interested in advancing the arts in Chicago. Alumnus Michael Tobin of Northern Realty presented his current projects in Chicago, including the restoration of the Schubert Theater. Alumnus Susan Aarons followed up the two days of visits with presentation of the Burnham Plan of Chicago and the 2020 plan for the next 100 years of real estate development in the Chicagoland metropolitan area.
After visiting 8 different companies and alumni in two long days, the MREC's Chicago Forum was definitely a hit for both alumni and MREC members - as the bridge between the alumni and MREC students was built once again.
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