Top 100: HSA Relies on Diversity
| With more than 17M SF of commercial properties in 14 states and more than 100 employees in Chicago, HSA Commercial Real Estate (formerly Hiffman Shaffer Anderson) has survived 28 years and two recessions. Eating healthy and avoiding cable news? Not quite. They have a variety of talent and every member has skin in the game. |
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CEO Bob Smietana, President Dan Miranda, and Chairman and co-founder Jack Shaffer tell us each employee has the opportunity to be part owner of the company, which helps with motivation. This year, it's one of the few still working on significant developments, like the 56k-SF MOB it just opened 95% leased as part of Silver Cross Hospital campus. (MOB stands for medical office building, for those mistakenly excited that Tony Soprano was going to be your midwife.) It's also leasing up its industrial properties in Aurora, Wisconsin, and Baton Rouge. Oh and somewhere in there, Jack managed to get away to Europe for two and a half weeks. |
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HSA has formed a team of professionals working mostly in the industrial and healthcare sectors. But it's more than just a developer: it also does brokerage, management, and acquisitions, which, along with their relationships with lenders, has kept it alive during the recession. Jack says it didn't focus on reinventing itself, rather on playing up existing business lines and cutting back on others. |
