Real Estate program marks 10 years with Nov. 3 gala and keynote by real estate leader Neil Bluhm

Neil G. Bluhm, a national leader in real estate investment and development, will be the keynote speaker and James P. Grusecki, chairman and CEO of Northern Builders, Inc., the honoree, at Roosevelt University’s 10th anniversary real estate gala on Thursday, Nov. 3.

The gala, which has raised more than $3 million for Roosevelt’s Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate during the past 10 years, will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel, 120 E. Delaware Place, Chicago, starting at 5:30 p.m.  Each year the gala is the premier real estate networking event of the year in Chicago with over 400 industry leaders in attendance.

“We look forward to hearing Mr. Bluhm’s insights on real estate, the national economy and the future of the gaming industry in Chicago,” said Jon B. DeVries, director of the real estate institute. “Both Mr. Bluhm and Mr. Grusecki were early supporters of the institute and we are honored they will be highlighting the gala.”

Since its founding in 2002, the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate has grown to become one of the five largest graduate real estate programs in the country and one of the most diverse. When it was created, the institute had 25 people in its initial class.  Now it now has 70 enrolled students and more than 230 graduates, many of whom now work at Chicago firms.  The institute offers a master of business administration degree with a concentration in real estate, as well as a master of science in real estate.
 
Bluhm is one of the founders and president of JMB Realty Corp., which owns hotels, offices and mixed-use projects as well as Kaanapali Land, LLC, in Hawaii.  In addition, he is a founder and managing principal in Walton Street Capital, LLC, which invests in real estate partnerships with institutional and other investors. Furthermore, as chairman of Midwest Gaming & Entertainment, he recently helped develop the $445 million Rivers Casino which opened in July in Des Plaines, Ill.
 
Grusecki, a leader in the development and construction industry for over 40 years, will receive the lifetime industry achievement award at the event.  A family business, Northern Builders was founded in 1927 by Paul Grusecki, and today his sons (James P. and Thomas D.) guide the company, which has designed and built more than 45 million square feet of office and industrial space in the Chicagoland area. Last year, Jim and his wife, Brenda, founded the Northern Builders Future Industrial Leaders Scholarship to support Roosevelt’s real estate students. A portion of the gala’s proceeds from program tributes and honorarium ads will go toward expanding that scholarship program.

Bluhm joins a long list of well-known keynote speakers at the gala, including Albert B. Ratner, co-chairman, Forest City Enterprises; Penny Pritzker, president, Pritzker Realty Group; Dean S. Adler, CEO and co-founder, Lubert-Adler Partners, LP; Michael D. Fascitelli, president, Voronado Realty Trust;  Michael Moskow, CEO, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Quintin E. Primo III, chairman and CEO, Capri Capital Advisors; Henry Cisneros, founder and chairman, American City Vista; John Buck, founder, the John Buck Company; and Peter Linneman, real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
 
Previous honorees include Goldie Wolfe Miller, president, Millbrook Corporate Real Estate Services; Hipolito (Paul) Roldan, president, Hispanic Housing Development Corp.; Ross B. Glickman, chairman and CEO, Urban Retail Properties LLC; John R. Newman, senior executive vice president, LaSalle Bank; Anthony Pasquinelli, executive vice president, Pasquinelli Construction; Gerald W. Fogelson, president, the Fogelson Companies; Theodore L. Gross, president emeritus, Roosevelt University; Marshall Bennett, Marshall Bennett Enterprises; and Albert B. Ratner, co-chairman, Forest City Enterprises.

This year’s gala is a special celebration honoring the accomplishments of the institute’s first decade. Tickets are $500 per person.  Tables can be purchased for $5,000, $10,000 and higher. For information, call Lauren Chill at 312-341-3849 or email her at lchill@Roosevelt.edu.