In this episode of Real Estate for Breakfast, host Phil Coover is joined by Mike Drew, a founding principal of Structured Development, a Chicago-based real estate company. Phil and Mike discuss the history of Structured Development, including the company’s recent shift toward developing projects in up-and-coming areas of Chicago. Specifically, they discuss Structured Development’s Big Deahl project, a residential and mixed use building at the corner of Dayton and Blackhawk Streets in Chicago’s Clybourn Corridor.

They also discuss Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) and the requirements for affordable housing in the city. Mike explains how the ARO works, its’ challenges and pitfalls, and how Structured Development has approached meeting the city’s ARO requirements with its Big Deahl project.

As you may suspect, Mike has extensive war stories from his remarkable career building Chicago. Mike regales us with the tales of the great Chicago flood in the 90s, his team’s near-death proximity to the calamity, and overwhelming aftermath of that situation.

As a founding principal of Structured Development, LLC, Mike has been engaged in the real estate development and construction management business for nearly 40 years. He has extensive experience in all phases of the construction process, especially scheduling labor forces and subcontractors and comparatively purchasing material and equipment. Some of the notable projects he has completed include the City Hall Lobby and Entrance Renovations, Marshall Field and State of Illinois Pedways, Clark Lake and Roosevelt Subway Stations, McCormick Place Expansion, and numerous utility tunnel installations. He was an active participant in the conversion and renovation of obsolete loft buildings to commercial and residential reuse throughout the city, including Riverworks on Goose Island, Lincoln Lofts in Lakeview, 1415 Dayton and 1333 Kingsbury in the Halsted Triangle. During his tenure as a principal of Structured Development, the firm completed over 2,000,000 square feet of product including Lincoln Park Center, Blackhawk on Halsted, Kingsbury Center, and Kendall College at Riverworks.

Mike has represented the Builders Association of Greater Chicago on the City’s Minority Relations Committee, has served on the recent Land Use Task Force Committee, and is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, Urban Land Institute, and Lambda Alpha International. He is a 20-year member of World Presidents Organization, and a past President of Olympia Fields Country Club. He has also served on the Advisory Board for the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate at Roosevelt University for over a decade.