Equity Residential Returns To Atlanta With Midtown Skyhouse Purchase

After a year of working from home, streaming from home and learning from home, multifamily tenants agree that one of the most important things landlords can offer is a fast, reliable internet connection. Staying connected has never been more important for tenants, which is why it has never been more…

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The use of mass timber in U.S. commercial real estate has been growing rapidly over the past six years, spurred by official recognition of its safety and strength. Corporate leaders have also come under increasing pressure to make environmentally friendly business choices, leading to an uptick in new mass timber developments, which have a lower impact on the environment than using concrete or steel.

That momentum took a hit during the coronavirus pandemic as projects were postponed or delayed. But industry experts say enthusiasm for mass timber has endured: More than 1,100 projects are in the pipeline, and recent building code changes mean that specialty wood products can be used to build high-rise developments for the first time.

“If mass timber gets to a market share of 10%, it's a home run. Those are big numbers when you start to get up into that kind of figure. And I could see that happening by 2035,” Forest Economic Advisors partner Art Schmon said.

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Football gave Hugh Williams his shot at a commercial real estate career. A former inside linebacker and co-captain of the Northwestern University Wildcats, he had discovered a teammate had a father in the business, and soon after completing several degrees, that connection helped Williams find work as an industrial broker.

Several decades of experience showed him that without such connections, Black people have found it tough to break into the industrial sector. Williams’ latest gig means he can now do something about it.

Developer Sterling Bay wants to deepen its partnerships with minority- and women-owned businesses, according to Williams, and earlier this year, the firm brought him on board as its director of strategic growth and entrepreneurship. Sterling Bay wants him to do more than simply boost the level of minority participation in its projects, which include Lincoln Yards, an effort to remake a stretch of the Chicago River’s North Branch into a $6B mixed-use community. Instead, he’ll forge partnerships with midmarket MBEs and WBEs, which could involve Sterling Bay becoming partial owners, giving these growing businesses access to capital and expertise that will outlast any single project.

Williams already wears many hats. He’ll continue as managing broker and principal of Chicago-based MK Asset Management, where he helps oversee a $100M real estate portfolio. And as co-owner of Circle City Rebar, an Indianapolis-based fabricator of steel rebar, he’s also an entrepreneur. But with Sterling Bay, he now has a chance to fulfill his top career goal in the industry: becoming a coach as well as a player.

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