For the past 20 years, Evan has been involved in many aspectsof commercial real estate. Currently, Evan is President of Preferred Development, focusing much of his efforts in land acquisitions, retail leasing and build-to-suit development.
Evan’s entrepreneurial spirit began during college, where at the University of Iowa in 1983 he owned and ran a sports management company with Quaker Oats Gatorade as his main client.
In the mid 1980’s Evan worked as an industrial agent with Fuller Commercial Real Estate (Later Royal Le Page). There he was involved in several significant development projects including the Hawthorn Works in Cicero. While there Evan was also involved in investment properties and sold his first Walgreens in Bloomington, Illinois in 1986.
Evan spent the next 5 years as Vice President of Investment Sales at Benjamin E. Sherman & Sons. There he sold many large properties including 8 South Michigan Avenue (a 15 story office building overlooking Millennium Park), a $20,000,000 building in Fargo North Dakota, and three Jewel/Osco - anchored centers in suburban Chicago.
In 1992 Evan founded Preferred Lifestyle, Inc. for the redevelopment of Chanute Air Force Base into downstate Illinois’ premier retirement community which included over 2,000,000 s.f. and a 175-acre golf course. During this time Evan became more and more involved with Walgreens selling more than 60 stores over a five-year period.
Wanting to expand the sales business into a turn-key development company, in 1997 Evan partnered with Tom Morabito and started Preferred Development focusing
on single tenant retail properties. Today, many of their clients are household names.
Evan lives in Lincoln Park with his wife Stacy and their three daughters; Haley, Madeline and Camryn.
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