14.
Rabbi Bruce E. Kahn, executive director, Equal Rights Center. If you think your rental project meets accessibility requirements, check again. That’s the advice of lawyers in the wake of discrimination suits that Rabbi Kahn’s Washington-based center has brought against three major apartment developers: Archstone-Smith Trust, AvalonBay Communities, and The Bozzuto Group. Archstone-Smith in June agreed to pay $21 million to renovate some 70 complexes. Critics of Kahn say he has chosen to follow an extreme interpretation of the 1986 Fair Housing Act, in effect treating design, development, and construction guidelines as if they were strict codes. Kahn, a former Navy chaplain and senior rabbi of a Chevy Chase, Md., synagogue, sees it differently: “Many players in the rental housing industry seem to believe that they can, with impunity, shut their doors to people with disabilities. This attitude is wrong, legally and morally.”
13.
Steve Ross, chairman and CEO, The Related Cos. Often people stand out in just one aspect of real estate, whether it’s financing, development, or operations. But Steve Ross shines in multiple areas. Ross created one of the largest financiers of debt and equity for affordable housing in the country, and he is one of the largest developers of condos in the country. Ross owns 19 percent of CharterMac, which has more than $19 billion of assets under management. The Related portfolio includes more than $8 billion worth of developments. Ross’ projects cover all ends of the spectrum, from financing affordable developments to building the $2 billion Time Warner Center in New York. “The breadth of his reach is quite extraordinary,” says Andrew Farkas, a Ross friend and colleague and chief executive of Island Capital.
12.
George M. Marcus, chairman, Marcus & Millichap Co. Emigrating from Greece to San Francisco at age 4, Marcus has built a huge and diversified real estate empire. Marcus & Millichap, which he founded in 1971, closed $14.4 billion in transactions in 2004, making it one of the country’s biggest real estate brokerage firms. Marcus also pulls the strings on privately-held Pacific Property Co., which buys, rehabs and sells multifamily properties, and the publicly held Essex Property Trust, perennially among the top-performing apartment REITs. Focusing on California and the Pacific Northwest, Essex owns some 26,000 units and is much admired for its ability to read markets. This past fall, Essex distributed a dividend for the 45th consecutive quarter. Other activities controlled by the reserved, hardworking Marcus include: home building, a strong research arm, joint-venture real estate financing, and venture capital for Web-based real estate companies.
11.
John K. McIlwain, senior resident fellow, Urban Land Institute. In 2001, ULI picked McIlwain, a prominent Washington lawyer, to fill the newly created J. Ronald Terwilliger chair for housing. As experts see it, the institute couldn’t have made a better choice. “John has done a great deal to raise ULI’s consciousness about the need for workforce housing,” says one affordable housing advocate. Prior to joining ULI, McIlwain headed Fannie Mae’s American Communities Fund, dedicated to financing low-income housing and revitalizing deteriorating neighborhoods. Described as a “thought leader and intellectual entrepreneur,” McIlwain is constantly crisscrossing the country, working with ULI chapters, nonprofits, and local governments to find creative solutions to the affordable housing shortage. His views and analysis, shaped by those experiences and his work as former chairman of the National Housing Conference, appear frequently in newspaper articles, research reports, and government testimony.
10.
Shekar Narasimhan, managing partner, Beekman Advisors. When it comes to housing finance, you need to mention just one word: Shekar. “He’s got rock star status in our industry,” notes one observer. HUD and USDA officials sought Shekar’s help on special task forces to provide temporary and long-term shelter in areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. USDA also tapped him to analyze the much-neglected area of rural housing. For such assignments, Shekar draws on years of experience as a mortgage banker and participant on boards ranging from nonprofit groups to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Multi Housing Council, and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Known for his “burning passion” for fostering affordable housing, Shekar doesn’t hesitate to challenge HUD, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to do more. Meanwhile, his firm engineers key industry deals, such as the 2004 acquisition of Berkshire Mortgage by Deutsche Bank.
