THOMAS S. BOZZUTO
While well known on the East Coast as CEO of the Bozzuto
Group, Tom Bozzuto is receiving national recognition as chairman of the Board of the National Multi Housing Council.
Bozzuto was elected this past January
to a two-year term to head the
national association that is an advocate for the apartment industry. The
NMHC is tapping Bozzuto’s more
than 40-year real estate experience,
which includes launching the
Bozzuto Group in 1988 with John
Slidell, Rick Mostyn and the late
Bernie Lubcher. Since then, the
company has built more than 35,000
homes and apartments and provides
development, management, home-building, acquisitions and construction services. Inducted into the Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Business Hall of Fame in 2011, Bozzuto has overseen the creation
of nearly 50,000 residential units with a conservative estimated
value of nearly $7 billion.
OLIVER T. CARR, JR.
Any list of the top real estate executives in Washington, DC has to
include commercial real estate giant Oliver Carr, Jr., who for four
decades helped shape the city’s Downtown. Carr has been credited
with transforming the city from the ruins of the 1960s civil rights
riots into a world-class business
center. Hailing from an English
family of builders, he founded the
Oliver Carr Co. in 1962. Prior to
going public, the full-service real
estate company master planned
and redeveloped the industrial
West End district of the city and
pioneered the first major mixed-use project near the new Metro
transit system. Those were followed
by a series of transit-oriented projects adjacent to the Metro. In 1993,
the company went public as
CarrAmerica Realty Corp. Carr
served as chairman of the NYSE-listed company until its sale in 1996 to an affiliate of the Blackstone
Group for a reported $5.6 billion. Although officially retired since
year 2000, Carr has formed a number of new companies within the
past decade, including Carr Hospitality LLC..
GEORGE A. CARRAS
In the real estate business since the early 1980s, George Carras, co-founder and co-manager of StonebridgeCarras, has acquired more
than 20 million square feet of assets nationwide and in excess of eight million square feet
of office, residential, industrial, retail and land
in the Washington, DC area. Carras formed
StonebridgeCarras with his partner Douglas
Firstenberg in 2004 and since that time has
focused on the development of high-quality
mixed-use projects in the Washington, DC
area. The company’s trophy asset, Constitution
Square, is being developed on a 6.9-acre tract
in the emerging NoMa district. The property,
www.reforum.com
acquired in 2006 by affiliates of StonebridgeCarras and Walton
Street Capital, currently features 1. 6 million square feet of space,
including two class A, LEED Platinum-certified office buildings, 440
luxury apartment units, retail space and a hotel. The federal government leases more than 900,000 square feet at the project.
G. DAVID CHEEK
The president and co-founder—with Bruce Lane—of the Meridian
Group, David Cheek has 33 years of experience in DC real estate, on
both the private and institutional sides, and
has developed approximately three million
square feet of office product. Since its founding in 1993, Meridian has acquired and developed 7. 3 million feet of office and industrial
space, a hotel and 439 acres of land valued, at
over $2.8 billion, in Metro DC; Baltimore;
Charlotte, NC; and West Palm Beach, FL. The
company has managed $575 million of equity
capital and has invested or committed $1.7
billion of total capitalization in 28 deals.
A. JAMES CLARK
An accomplished engineer and entrepreneur, Jim Clark is as known for his commitment to the local community as for his
professional career. Chairman of the
executive committee of Clark
Construction Group, one of the nation’s
largest general contracting companies,
he’s also chairman and CEO of Clark
Enterprises Inc., a Bethesda, MD-based
holding company formed in 1972 to oversee the management of business interests
including real estate, construction and
private equity investments. Clark has had
a hand in developing many of the buildings on Bethesda’s skyline,
as well as local landmarks such as Camden Yards, FedEx Field,
Miller Park and Petco Park. Clark Construction’s 2011 revenues
totaled $4.27 billion. In 2005, he established a $30-million endowment fund for what is now known as the A. James Clark School of
Engineering at the University of Maryland, his alma mater. When
he was selected as one of 2009’s Washingtonians of the year, Clark, a
member of Phi Delta Theta, stated, “I believe that if you make your
money in a community, you have an obligation to give back to it.”
MICHAEL DARBY
The principal and co-founder of once high-flying Monument Realty
has the company on the comeback trail. After suffering the ill effects
of its work with Lehman Brothers, the firm, in the hands of this
Australian native, is moving forward on a host of major ventures,
including Monument View site in Crystal City, VA where it recently
began construction of the 322,000-square-
foot built-to-suit project for Boeing.
Michael Darby oversees the firm’s five-million-plus-square-foot portfolio of
office, residential and hotel space, including the Watergate, Dumbarton Place,
Potomac Place, the Connecticut and
Columbia Center in Washington, DC;
and the Odyssey, the Hawthorn and the
Palatine in Arlington, VA. Active in the
Washington region’s construction and
development industry for more than 20
APRIL 2012 REAL ESTATE FORUM 23
