Chicago State of Office

As a member of Skender’s executive leadership team, Clay plays an integral role in strategic business initiatives, particularly those relating to operational excellence and building customer relationships. He also oversees and collaborates with Skender’s team of interior project executives, who develop and execute the growth strategy for Skender’s award-winning interior construction market. With nearly 20 years of construction experience, Clay has directly managed or overseen millions of square feet of interior tenant improvement work, including many of the most prestigious and pioneering projects in recent Chicago history. His interior construction expertise spans numerous sectors, such as law, technology, financial and professional services, and non-profit. Skender tailors its preconstruction and construction services to every project, proactively addressing each client’s unique needs. With a focus on efficiency, quality and delivering tremendous value, Clay helps direct the production and successful implementation of these client-focused project delivery plans. Clay volunteers with the homeless shelter network BEDS Plus Care and is a long-time coach of

Mr. McElroy founded Level-1 Global Solutions, LLC in 2001-present and is a member of the Mayor’s Office of Technology Advisors and The Chicago Community Trust. Level-1 is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) licensed, certified, and registered in the City of Chicago, County of Cook, and State of Illinois. Thomas McElroy is the founder and president of Level-1 Global Solutions, LLC. Since the firm’s first project at the New Cook County Hospital in 2001, Level-1 has been a timely, reliable, and costeffective resource in meeting the City of Chicago’s infrastructure needs. Mr. McElroy prides himself and his company on building and maintaining stellar relationships with Level-1 customers and team members – relationships built on mutual respect, trust, open communication, and the successful meeting of shared goals. Mr. McElroy and his executive administrative, program management, and technology officers remain involved in each and every Level-1 project. Maintaining a complete open-door policy, they are available and accessible to clients and technical teams leads alike to provide executive guidance, decision-making, and escalation services as needed. Level-1 is a Technology Systems Integrator with a wealth of experience embedded in our core capabilities of providing technology systems integration and the design, implementation, and management of interoperable technology infrastructure, communications, security and audio-visual systems. We offer successful project experience within the federal, local and private industry sectors. Level-1 has received numerous accolades regarding our project performance via client reference letters. Key Clients Chicago Public Schools: Data Center Move and Relocations services for the Board of Education; Network and Security Camera Infrastructure support; Local Area Network System Improvement; Audio Visual Equipment and Installation services; Web Filtering services City Colleges of Chicago: Audio Visual Equipment and Installation services; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Services; City of Chicago: Department of Aviation & City of Chicago O’Hare Modernization project (OMP) United Airlines, Willis Tower: Operations Center Power Protection and AV Infrastructure project Cook County/Department of Homeland Security: Power Protection for County-Wide Security Camera Installation Cook County Juvenile Detention Center: Telecommunication Infrastructure support State of Illinois: Statewide Unified Communications Implementation.

Mr. D’Arcy is a senior managing director and has been involved in headquarter development management projects for several companies. He also has been working on Hines equity developments, as well as multifamily projects, and on leading new business initiatives or projects. Mr. D’Arcy has been with the firm since 1998 and has also been responsible for assisting in the acquisition, leasing and development of several Chicago-area projects. D'Arcy earned a BA in Political Science from Kenyon College.

Clayton McCaffery leads and is responsible for the identification and coordination of strategic acquisitions in alignment with the company’s goals. With a real estate career spanning more than 21 years, Mr. McCaffery previously led the firm’s leasing and development teams for more than 15 years; prior experience included tenant and landlord representation work with Mid-America Real Estate Group in Chicago and Liberty Greenfield in Denver. He is a licensed real estate broker in Illinois, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Clayton holds an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a B.A. from Colgate University.

Brandon Svec is a Director of Market Analytics with the CoStar Group, where he leads the firm’s research and analysis on the Illinois and Wisconsin multifamily, office, logistics and retail markets. Prior to his current role, Brandon was Vice President of Research and Product Development at Inland Real Estate Investment Corporation, where he developed fund strategy and led firm-wide research initiatives. Prior to this role, Brandon was Vice President and Director of Due Diligence at Inland Securities Corporation, where he was responsible for reviewing and approving over $1 billion of real estate security offerings. Prior to his time at Inland, Brandon was a due diligence analyst at First Allied Securities, where he primarily focused on due diligence of REITs and closed-end real estate funds. Brandon’s past additionally includes commercial real estate loan underwriting and portfolio management experience. Brandon previously held Series 7, 24, and 66 securities licenses and is a MBA candidate at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, where he is finishing his studies in real estate finance and investment.

Jeff is currently an Area Vice President with the IWG Group, which owns Spaces and Regus brands. In that role, he is responsible for a team of 25 field leaders managing over two million square feet of flexible office space serving over 5,000 clients. With and aggressive growth strategy, between existing location relocations and new locations, he has been involved in opening 50 new centers. Jeff has also facilitated the acquisition and assimilation of 10 locations. Specifically, to Chicagoland, Jeff has seen IWG locations increase from 35 to 48 during the last five years. At IWG, Jeff has run the following market’s over his tenure: Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Columbus as well as smaller markets across 15 states. Jeff joined IWG in 2014 after spending 15 years in executive leadership roles at FedEx Office, OfficeMax and RadioShack.

Paul H. Layne is President, Central Region for The Howard Hughes Corporation. He is responsible for the master planned communities of The Woodlands, Bridgeland, and The Woodlands Hills in Houston, Texas and the office development at 110 North Wacker in Chicago, Illinois. He also provides strategic oversight for Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada and Columbia, Maryland along with other smaller assets within the HHC portfolio. For more than 30 years, Mr. Layne has been a vital leader in Houston’s commercial real estate community as well as in national and international real estate. Mr. Layne received a bachelor’s degree in Management from the University of Houston and attended South Texas College of Law. He currently serves on the boards for the University of Houston Graduate Real Estate Program, the Board of Trustees for Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School of Houston, advisory board member for Houston’s Urban Land Institute and Catholic Charities. He previously served on the boards for the Houston Downtown Management District, the Central Houston Association, the University of St. Thomas, Lone Star College Foundation, Houston’s Coalition for the Homeless and Houston’s Center for Hearing and Speech. He also serves as a Trustee for the Scanlan Foundation, a moderator and advisory board member for the Houston Business Ethics Forum and the South Texas College of Law Real Estate Conference and is a member of the Serra Club. He is President Emeritus of the Houston Downtown Management District Board and the Christian Community Service Center Board of Directors. Mr. Layne has been a speaker at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Business Ethics Conference.

David Moore joined Equity Office in late 2016 to lead and oversee the firm‘s Chicago market. David is responsible for the strategic direction and management, business development, and value creation efforts for the company’s assets and activities in downtown and suburban Chicago, with a current portfolio of approximately 11 million sq. ft. of commercial real estate. For the prior 10 years, David worked at Hines where he was responsible for sourcing, analyzing, underwriting, and driving execution of acquisition and development opportunities across multiple product types of commercial real estate. In this role, he led cross-functional design, construction, leasing, accounting, and property management teams on multiple complex development projects.   Prior to his time at Hines, David held positions at Henry Crown and Company and Credit Suisse First Boston. David also has an entrepreneurial spirit and previously started Red Room Ventures, an outdoor media company that produced and placed specially-designed advertising units at grocery stores throughout Chicago, and Illini Messages, a campus-based advertising concept.    David holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from University of Illinois and earned his MBA from Northwestern University. He is also a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Jay Longo is a Principal at Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) and is part of the firm’s commercial office leadership team. In his 20+ years of design practice, he has built an impressive portfolio of mixed-use and office projects, including international corporate headquarters to multi-tenant creative office developments, and corporate build-to-suit projects for public, private, and governmental clients.   His current projects include two new speculative office buildings in Chicago’s Fulton Market; 210 North Carpenter, a 12-story creative office building, and 310 North Sangamon, a 300,000-square- foot office building proposed to be the largest the Passive House-Certified office building in the country. Prior to joining SCB, Jay’s design work included the LEED Gold Panduit world headquarters in Tinley Park, IL; AMCOL headquarters in Hoffman Estates, IL; and the headquarters for Reinsurance Group of America in Chesterfield, MS. Jay serves on the Alumni Board of Governors at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectured and given numerous presentations regarding commercial building design and sustainability at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago History Museum, USGBC Chicago Chapter, Green Build, University of Illinois (Chicago and Champaign-Urbana campuses), and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan.

Richard Morell is Executive Vice President of Business Development for North America at Equiem. Based in Equiem’s Manhattan office, Richard leads a team of business development and customer service professionals as Equiem continues to expand its operations across the United States, Canada, the U.K. and Asia. A seasoned management and sales professional with over two decades of real estate and business development experience, Richard was previously Head of Business Development for Equiem’s Australian operations from 2013-2014. He has also held leadership positions with design firm Five at Heart. As Executive Vice President for Business Development, Richard’s responsibilities include working closely with landlords to develop custom tenant engagement solutions, representing Equiem at key commercial real estate events and shaping and executing on Equiem’s business development goals. Richard earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing & Human Resource Management from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. He has also studied executive leadership development at The ExecutiveConnection, a business mentoring and coaching company, also located in Melbourne, Australia.

For the past 20 years, Kevin has been active in all facets of commercial real estate, including asset management, development, construction, workouts and leasing. Under his leadership MB Real Estate’s asset management portfolio has increased more than 100% and now exceeds 20 million square feet across the country. Kevin has worked closely with clients such as GE Asset Management, the City of Chicago, Wirtz Realty Corporation, and AREA Property Partners. Currently President of Leasing and Management Services, Kevin is responsible for business lines which include asset management, agency leasing, construction management and accounting. Prior to his advancement to Chief Operating Officer, Kevin oversaw the $125 million repositioning and redevelopment of a vintage property portfolio in downtown Chicago in which he directed all leasing efforts. As a result of Kevin’s management, the occupancy levels of the portfolio rose from 20% to 92%. He also secured Class L real estate tax status for several of the properties. Kevin sits on the board of directors for BOMA Chicago as well as numerous civic organizations. Most notably, he was recently appointed as a fellow in the Leadership Greater Chicago program. Leadership Greater Chicago is the only organization in the Chicago area that brings together diverse leaders from the business, professional, nonprofit and government sectors to examine issues facing the metropolitan community. Kevin was one of 37 Fellows which were selected from more than 100 candidates for the class of 2014.

Nat Porter is the Managing Director of the Chicago office of NELSON, a global design, architecture, branding, space planning and space management organization. Porter’s responsibilities as managing director include growing the business, creating a positive culture, building the brand and ensuring processes continually improve. Recent clients of NELSON’s in Chicago include Nielsen, Civis Analytics, Husch-Blackwell and Bank of America. Prior to NELSON, Porter was Vice President of LDI Spaces where he led the operation of brands such as Safco Products (office furniture and office products), Seeyond (specialty architectural products) and Verscene (building products). Porter started his career at Steelcase Inc. where he held various sales, marketing and general management positions with Steelcase, ending as the Director of Corporate Strategy. He then served as VP of Sales and Marketing for Revest Midwest, a furniture re-manufacturer, and President of A & M Business Interior Services, a furniture service company. Porter’s undergraduate degree (BBA) is from the University of Michigan Business School and he holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. In his spare time, he likes to ski, golf, cycle and run.