Commercial Real Estate Developer Quintin E. Primo and the Need for Inclusivity

Quintin E. Primo III is one of relatively few African Americans operating at the highest levels of the commercial real estate business. His company, the Chicago-based Capri Investment Group, boasts more than $14 billion in real estate investment transactions completed – with more high-profile deals in the pipeline.

Capri Investment Group and commercial and residential real estate development company, The Prime Group, acquired the James R. Thompson Center, a historic building in Chicago’s Loop District.

The deal, which Capri expects will take about three-and-a-half years to complete, came about as a result of Primo’s network. “I received a call from a friend, a senior manager at Google, who indicated that the company was expanding significantly in Chicago,” he recalls. “Mike Reschke, CEO and owner of The Prime Group and I have been friends and business associates for many years. So, I went to Mike and talked about how we could team up in a fifty-fifty partnership, buy the Thompson Center together, and concurrently do a build-to-suit for Google.”

The center, built in the mid-1980s houses Illinois state government offices. Over time the building fell into disrepair due to city and state financial constraints. As many as three governors attempted to negotiate a sale of the 1.3 million-square-foot property to a private investor or developer before the current governor, J. B. Pritzker, succeeded.

Upon completion, as many as 5,000 Google associates will relocate to the property and, ideally, stimulate business in the Loop District and nearby LaSalle Street – once an economic engine for the city now plagued by commercial vacancies after the departure of major financial institutions.

A TRILLION-DOLLAR OPPORTUNITY

The commercial real estate market is pegged at $1.2 trillion by industry research provider IBISWorld. And as with most industries where multi-million-dollar projects are commonplace, there is little inclusivity at its upper echelons. While Primo’s Capri Investment Group ranks among them, there are few others: Victor MacFarlane, Founder and Chairman of MacFarlane Partners; R. Donahue Peebles, Chairman and CEO of The Peebles Corporation; Richmond S. McCoy, President and CEO of UrbanAmerica Advisors and Dallas Smith of T. Dallas Smith & Company.

Commercial real estate development is potentially lucrative but requires massive amounts of capital – a longstanding challenge for Black entrepreneurs. Typically, the developers acquire properties they build or renovate and sell them at a profit. Upon completion, real estate developers sell the property to investors, who frequently hold the properties for cash flow.

The lack of access to capital combined with the fact that the industry’s major players operate with little to no accountability to public shareholders demanding diversity initiatives, commercial real estate development is one of the most homogenous industries in the nation.

When there is no pressure from shareholders or the public and little transparency, inclusivity is never at the top of mind. Even for Primo, who has successfully completed scores of multi-million-dollar deals, the Thompson Center deal might not have happened if not for his connection with the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC), a trade association founded to create opportunities for minorities at executive levels in commercial real estate.