Meet The Placemakers Putting Smith On The Board

Leaders need strategy and vision. But they also need bricks and mortar — places where their teams can live, work and collaborate. The late Robert H. Smith ’50 understood the importance of great physical spaces. He studied accounting at the University of Maryland and then went to work in his family’s construction business, which he guided to become the largest property owner in Washington, D.C. The school that bears his name has produced many other powerhouse players over the years who have designed, constructed, financed, managed or renovated real estate projects that bring communities together. Following are eight notable achievements, starting with one from Bob Smith himself.

Washington real estate developers raced to keep up with demand in the 1960s. But Bob Smith looked across the Potomac River and saw potential in a neglected part of Arlington, Va.

“It was a conglomeration of places that sold junk, used tires, a drive-in movie theater, a run-down ice skating rink, second-hand materials — it was very unattractive,” Smith told The Washington Post in 1996. “I did see that there was an airport, there was the Pentagon, and that driving to D.C. was a pretty short distance.”

Going against his father’s advice, Smith started construction on two apartment buildings in the area. The first one featured a crystal chandelier in the lobby, so Smith called it the Crystal House. After that came Crystal Gateway, Crystal Towers, Crystal Square, Crystal Plaza and dozens of other projects.

Smith took a gamble on the emerging neighborhood called Crystal City, and the move paid off. “The person who is afraid to take risks and make mistakes will never achieve everything of which he or she is capable," he told graduates at the University of Maryland during a 2008 commencement address.

Two of Washington’s biggest names in real estate will merge in 2017, but key players who helped build the companies involved came together decades earlier on the tennis courts at UMD. Ambassador Joseph Gildenhorn ’51 attended business school with Bob Smith, and the lifelong friends played tennis frequently.

After college Smith went to work immediately at the Charles E. Smith Co., taking over construction and development, while Gildenhorn took a less direct path into real estate. He headed to Yale for a law degree, served in the U.S. Army, and then launched a Washington-based law firm with two partners.

The young attorneys saw the region’s potential, so they quickly transitioned to real estate. Gildenhorn became the “G” in the JBG Companies, which has developed more than 36 million square feet of office and retail space in Greater Washington since 1960.

Over the years JBG has also built 15,000 residential units and 16 hotels with 5,500 rooms. One of Gildenhorn’s favorites is the Four Seasons in the historic Georgetown neighborhood. His daughter got married at the five-star hotel, and his grandson had his bar mitzvah reception there.

JBG occasionally sells its holdings, including its stake in the Four Seasons. “If I had my way, we’d keep everything,” Gildenhorn says. “But if the price is right, we sell to benefit our investors.”

This year, JBG and the company currently known as Vornedo/Charles E. Smith will join together as the JBG Smith Properties, a publicly traded firm which will create additional opportunities for the firms. The merger will combine the histories of two proud Terps who reshaped the region.

Gildenhorn, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland from 1989 to 1993, shares his passion for UMD with his wife, Alma G. Gildenhorn ’53. Among their other philanthropic activities, the 1997 “Washingtonians of the Year” support the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, the Gildenhorn Recital Hall at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and serve as University of Maryland College Park Foundation trustees.

“I learned a lot and was influenced at the University of Maryland,” Joseph Gildenhorn says. “I had professors who were outstanding and great mentors to me.”

Everything old is new again at The Beacon, a historic renovation project brought to completion by Mitch Bodner ’99, managing director of development for Building and Land Technology.

The amenity-rich apartment community gives a second life to Jersey City Hospital, founded in 1882. The site is listed on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, and it represents one of the largest historic renovations ever completed in the United States.

“We’re built up on a hill, so everyone on the lowest floors has great views of Manhattan,” says Bodner, who previously worked for Bob Smith at Archstone in Washington, D.C. “The Beacon will be standing on that hill for another hundred years. It’s a sense of pride.”

Bodner says doing a demolition and new construction would have been easier, but the renovation allowed his firm to preserve the Art Deco-style architecture and other links to the past. “You know there was a ton of love put into the project when it was built initially,” he says. “If you walk into the lobby of several of the buildings, you see marble columns and marble staircases — interior spaces that nobody would ever build today.”

The renovation started under different ownership in 2005 but stalled in 2008 during the financial crisis. Building and Land Technology took over in 2011, and Bodner joined the project in 2013. Since then he has overseen everything from construction to property management.

“I like being able to apply a diverse skillset,” says Bodner, who started at UMD as an architecture major before switching to finance. “Everything you learn in business school you get to apply.”

Visitors to the National Museum of African American History and Culture can’t miss the restored Pullman railcar that dominates the Segregation Gallery in Concourse 2.

The artifact has historical significance, pointing to an era when African American porters were required to live in separate quarters. Its placement in the museum also has engineering significance for Lisa Anders, MBA ’95, who oversaw construction of the Smithsonian Institution’s newest property.

“I remember everything that it took to get that artifact in the building,” says Anders, vice president of business development for McKissack & McKissack, the architecture and planning firm that worked with the Smithsonian on the project.

Anders says crews had to shut down Constitution Avenue, lower the car into place about 50 feet below street level, and then build the museum around it. “We were still pouring concrete and we still had dirt,” she says.

The project kept Anders busy with business and engineering challenges from 2008 to 2016, but it also opened her eyes as an African American woman to the contributions of so many people who came before her.

“It wasn’t that long ago that slaves were building the Capitol,” she says. “Now an African American-owned firm like McKissack & McKissack is working for profit to build the African American Museum on the Mall — within eyeshot of the Capitol.”

Learning to drive a car is not the rite of passage that it used to be. The percentage of people with a driver’s license has dropped steadily in recent years across all age groups as more people move to cities and embrace bicycles, ridesharing, Uber and mass transit.

The trend might alarm automakers. But New York-based real estate developer Paul Schulman ’90 also takes notice. “It’s pretty telling that this shift is real and not short-term,” he says. “So for us in real estate, it’s all about providing dynamic sites that allow people to live close to where they work and play.”

This means mixed-use environments, centrally located near bus and metro stations, greenspaces and social venues for dining, retail, art and music.

As president and chief operating officer of the U.S. Office Division of Brookfield Property Partners, it’s Schulman’s job to anticipate what tenants will want in five, 10 or even 50 years and give it to them. Brookfield is an owner, operator and investor in commercial property assets globally.

Schulman’s latest effort is Manhattan West, a signature Brookfield project that fits within a larger shift on Manhattan’s west side toward the live-work-play concept. When finished in the early 2020s, Manhattan West will include 7 million square feet of real estate representing $8.6 billion in value.

The site will feature restaurants, shops, a luxury boutique hotel, two office towers, a renovated commercial building with high ceilings and large floorplates, a residential space with 844 units and a 2-acre greenspace built over a Penn Station track.

“It is all about creating an environment that can help employers attract and retain the best talent,” Schulman says. “If you create that, it will be successful.”

Schulman came to UMD to study marine biology but discovered a passion for real estate development when two Rouse Properties executives visited his Smith School marketing class. “That’s when I knew real estate is what I wanted to pursue,” he says.

Schulman graduated with a business degree and then launched his career at two Terp companies. He got an internship with the Charles E. Smith Co. and then took his first job with JBG.

“It’s been about leveraging the Smith experience through the relationships that I’ve made,” Schulman says.

JBG sold its commercial property division to TrizecHahn in 1998, which allowed Schulman to transition from a regional developer to a publicly traded global firm. Soon he was running the Washington office for Trizec, which positioned him for another leap when Brookfield acquired the company in 2006. Schulman moved to New York in 2009 to start in his current role.

“Effectively I’ve been with one company through two acquisitions over a period of 25 years,” he says.

Under Armour Founder, CEO and Chairman Kevin Plank ’96 has ambitious goals for his global performance brand. He also has a bold vision for Baltimore, home of the global headquarters for his upstart company that already has put Nike and Adidas on alert.

Among other Baltimore investments, Plank envisions a 266-acre redevelopment that would convert mostly vacant waterfront property into an economic hub with offices, homes, stores, restaurants, parks and a world-class whiskey distillery. The 20-year Port Covington masterplan also includes new global headquarters for Under Armour.

“I believe that we have a great opportunity in front of us, and I believe that the redevelopment of Port Covington is the right thing for our city,” Plank writes in an open letter to Baltimore residents on Sept. 7, 2016.

Traffic studies suggest more than 42 million vehicles will pass by the property each year along Interstate 95, and Plank wants to give motorists something to see — a front porch or gateway “showing an authentic American city on the rise.”

Working with his real estate company, Sagamore Development Company, Plank vows to do the work with local contractors, giving priority to women- and minority-owned companies. He says Port Covington will also provide inclusionary housing.

“We are not just developers — this is our home,” he writes. “We want to invest in Baltimore, hire in Baltimore, live in Baltimore and give in Baltimore.”

Beautiful exteriors make great first impressions, but people live and work indoors. That’s where Kim Sullivan, EMBA ’10, puts her focus as a senior associate of workplace design and consulting at Gensler, a San Francisco-based architecture, design, planning and consulting firm with more than 40 offices worldwide.

“People spend so much of their time in an indoor environment,” says Sullivan, who earned an undergraduate degree in interior design from Virginia Tech. “Our clients know how important their workplace is for creating an environment that helps people work effectively.”

Sullivan’s latest project, the renovation of Hogan Lovells law offices at Columbia Square in Washington, D.C., will transform 450,000 square feet of historic space into a modern facility connected vertically with a monumental staircase spanning seven floors.

Each level will include high-energy gathering spots called “Hogan hives,” where people can meet and get coffee. Glass office fronts, state-of-the-art lighting and collaboration zones with smartboards and video conferencing technology will add to the open feel.

Gensler also designed a glass-walled conference room on the roof, flanked by terraces with herb gardens, dining facilities and views of the National Mall.

“They’ve been in this space for nearly 30 years,” Sullivan says. “To reimagine what it could be, and to work through the process with them, has been fascinating.”

The process started with workshops and focus groups, which produced a set of guiding principles like the “one team” concept. “They want to serve their clients with many minds, not just one,” Sullivan says.

The phased renovation started with a pilot floor, where stakeholders could test ideas in the real world. The project will wrap up in March 2018. “It’s a complete day and night difference,” Sullivan says. “The workspace is being transformed.”

Who’s Who

The late Ed Snider ’55 built the Spectrum in 1966 for his NHL expansion franchise, the Philadelphia Flyers. Thirty years later he built the Wells Fargo Center, above, on the same site. Here are some other notable Smith School alumni in real estate development:

Thomas R. Burton ’84, vice president, chief investment officer and chief operating officer, Alex Brown Realty; advisor, Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development at UMD’s School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation

George Carras ’79, founding principal, StonebridgeCarras

Nick Egelanian ’79, president, SiteWorks Retail Real Estate Services; Colvin Institute advisor

Akshay Goyal ’10, vice president, Starwood Capital Group

John Lin '81, president and CEO, CapStar Commercial Realty; Colvin Institute advisor

Scott Price ’79, managing director, RCLCO; Colvin Institute advisor

Laurence Ross ’85, managing principal, Highcap Group

Jason Smith ’88, senior vice president-producer, NorthMarq Capital; Colvin Institute advisor

Rich Thometz ’87, co-owner/manager, Efficient Home; Colvin Institute advisor

Josh Wooldridge, MBA ’08, senior development director, The Bainbridge Cos.; Colvin Institute advisor

Advancing the Science of Sport

Construction is moving forward on a renovation and expansion project that will convert the University of Maryland’s historic Cole Field House into a state-of-the art center for advancing the science of sport. Under Armour founder, CEO and chairman Kevin Plank ’96 has pledged $25 million to support the project, scheduled to open in early 2019.

“This project brings together two of my favorite passions, Maryland athletics and entrepreneurship,” says Plank, a former Terrapin football player. “The lessons I learned on the football field in College Park continue to fuel my entrepreneurial spirit and shape my professional approach.”

The completed complex will include an indoor football field, two outdoor football fields, strength and flexibility facilities, student incubator space, and 40,000 square feet of research and clinical space.

The project was developed in part through MPower, a collaboration between the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Real Estate Group Connects Terps in NYC

Real estate developers know how to build things. As a recruiter in the industry, David Floyd ’87 also likes to build networks. “I’m always trying to make connections and meet new people,” he says. “Networking is everything.”

About two years ago, he met real estate capital advisor Marc Schulder ’95 at a University of Maryland gathering in New York City. Together, they decided to launch a specialized group for local Terps in the industry.

The result, Real Estate Terps-NYC, meets quarterly for cocktails and presentations from keynote speakers like Paul Schulman ’90. Already Floyd and Schulder have about 225 professionals on their roster, and each event attracts as many as 75 participants.

“If you’re a Terp, and you’re involved in real estate, we should know each other,” says Floyd, a principal at search firm Rhodes Associates.

Membership is diverse with owners, developers, private equity professionals, lenders, brokers, architects, contractors and property managers. “Real estate is a broad field,” Floyd says. “You need to know other service providers, and Terps always like to connect.”

Schulder says the industry’s breadth has allowed him to apply all of his Smith School skills in marketing, finance, accounting and management over a 22-year career. Currently he is a managing director at Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, where he structures and arranges debt and equity capital for various real estate transactions.

“I have been involved in many aspects of investment real estate, having worked for private developers and owners, private equity funds, and now as a capital advisor,” he says. “Billions of dollars of real estate transactions have crossed my desk.”

Schulder says every transaction requires collaboration with other professionals, which is why the UMD networking group has grown so quickly. Awareness of the group has spread by word of mouth, but Schulder also has tapped into Smith School resources.

“The Smith School app was especially helpful in filtering the different industries and identifying alumni in real estate,” he says.

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