John Simon, a Chicago real estate industry veteran has held management roles at several global real estate firms that include CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield for over three (3) decades where he was focused in the commercial real estate investment sector. John earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Loyola University (Chicago) and a Master’s Degree in Taxation from DePaul University in 1979 and later joined the faculty of the University’s College of Commerce as an adjunct professor of real estate where he taught real estate valuation in the Douglas & Cynthia Crocker Real Estate Center and has since retired.  Simon spent 20 years as a senior vice president specializing in traditional and structured investment sales and asset recapitalization at CB Richard Ellis. In this capacity, he was primarily responsible for the management of institutional accounts, disposition of real estate portfolios and transactions involving multifamily assets, including several of the largest real estate portfolios in the firm’s history during those periods.  

 

At Cushman & Wakefield, he led the Midwest division of the Apartment Brokerage Services Group.  Prior to that, he worked with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler in Chicago as a senior managing director and with Cohen Financial as the managing director of its multifamily division. Historically he has represented more than 100 different companies and investment institutions, numbering in excess of 300 transactions, totaling more than $4.0 billion in value across all property sectors and regions of the country.  Although not currently active, he has been a certified commercial investment member (“CCIM”) since 1994; he is also a Certified Public Accountant, however not currently active.   As an active investor and entrepreneur, he has privately invested via the Simon Group and its affiliates, his family’s investment vehicle.  Mr. Simon is headquartered in Naples (FL) and commutes regularly to Chicago.