McCaffery Tweaks Leadership for Expansion

CHICAGO-Dan McCaffery, founder of McCaffery Interests, has changed his title to chairman and has promoted Ed Woodbury to president. McCaffery, who is leading a $4 billion steel plant redevelopment on the South Side, also has hired former Zifkin Realty President Yvonne Jones as managing director of asset and property management.

Woodbury, a former architect with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, says the company has grown well since it started about 20 years ago with three people. “We have about 70 people now, and we need to have an organization that matches that,” he says. McCaffery will work on business relationships and the strategic vision, and Woodbury will work on day-to-day operations.

The company’s portfolio of planned, completed and managed projects exceeds 20 million square feet and includes office, mixed-use, hotel and residential properties. The most notable of these is the $4 billion Lakeside development on Chicago’s South Side along Lake Michigan. The project is to be built at a former US Steel plant, and is to include more than 13,000 new homes and 17.5 million square feet of retail and other commercial property.

Lakeside is now in the marketing phase, Woodbury says, with construction expected to start in two years. He says he’s meeting regularly with firms and investors that are interested in putting something on the property. “Truthfully, I’m surprised by the amount of interest we’ve seen, there’s an unbelievable amount of curiosity about the site. We’re trying to organize that interest now, to see what we can convert to execution, what elements we want there. It won’t just be mixed-use development, we’re looking at research and development, institutional, things that can bring jobs. We want a sustainable community,” Woodbury says.

The move to hire Jones, he says, was basically in response to trying to diversify the firm while development is dormant. McCaffery has worked to establish a strong retail and multifamily product group for leasing and management, and Jones can bring this part of the firm to the next level, Woodbury says.

Ed Zifkin, a principal and founding member of the self-named firm, says he's happy to see Jones get a good position, and that it won't negatively affect his company. "Yvonne will be an asset wherever she goes. As for us, we're doing great and we continue to grow," Zifkin tells GlobeSt.com.