Skender

Making a difference! Skender is proud to announce the start of construction on United Yards, an affordable housing development in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. This three-building project will bring vital housing, business opportunities, and youth programs to the area. We’re excited to collaborate with Celadon Partners, LLC, Blackwood Group LLC, DESIGNBRIDGE, LTD., Tandem Ventures LLC and our trade partners on this transformative project.   https://lnkd.in/giRJJE3z

Big moves for Skender in Indiana! Featured in today’s Indianapolis Business Journal: Skender sees major growth and relocates to a larger office. In under five years, we’ve built a construction portfolio of over 5 million square feet across central Indiana and earned multiple industry accolades.   Our Indy team is leading the way with a fresh approach to construction—driven by efficiency, innovation, meaningful collaboration, and a relentless focus on being a great partner to our clients.   Thank you to our Indy team for your hard work and passion in building something extraordinary. Here’s to making the most of the new space—until we outgrow it again!   IBJ article: https://lnkd.in/epmiChev Full release: https://lnkd.in/e9jYZQRi

BIG NEWS: Five industry veterans join Skender’s growing commercial and residential building construction team, instantly injecting 1,200 stories and 13,000 units of additional high-rise experience. Brian Bezanis, Don Koehler, Ricardo Lopez, Ryan Pieper, Terez Sturrup – welcome to #TeamSkender!   Read the full announcement: https://lnkd.in/g4AFgikG

Another year, another successful Women Build Day for Habitat for Humanity Chicago! #TeamSkender raised money to support the mission and spent the day helping to build homes that will empower families to achieve strength and stability long-term in our community. Great work, and congratulations!

Skender Project Executive Lauren Torres recently participated in a panel discussion at Bisnow's 'Art of Tenant Attraction and Retention' event, which took place at the new amenities-packed Fulton Market residential property, Arthur on Aberdeen. The panel, moderated by Joseph X Cushing, featured Torres alongside Stream Realty Partners' Jordan Decker, Matt Pistorio of Madison Rose, Tony Coglianese of CBRE and Jonathan Metzl of Cushman & Wakefield. The discussion centered around the ways in which both office and multifamily tenants are continuing to define the leasing cycle, and what can be done to understand their evolving needs in a market driven by low demand and high turnover. The panelists noted that while Fulton Market has, in recent years, been a hotspot for new office development, there's an emerging opportunity for companies to find quality space in Class B buildings in the Chicago Loop. Torres cited an example of a recent office buildout client who moved from a Class C property to a Class B space downtown. "In this situation, moving into a Class B building was an upgrade for them," Torres said. "We are seeing a lot of older buildings investing funds in refining and updating their common and amenity spaces to be more appealing to tenants long term." As more companies solidify their return-to-office policies, the Loop is becoming more enticing to office tenants due to its proximity to public transit and access to suburban commuter trains. With Google's remodel of the Thompson Center underway, panelists agreed that the Loop is likely going to become a hot commodity for office space in the near future. Pistorio noted that when running commute optimizers for his clients, the central Loop is hard to beat in terms of speed and efficiency. Torres also explained that the recent push from companies across all sectors for a return to at least a few days in person is going to be good for the office market in Chicago. "Companies today have a much better sense of what working from home means," she said. "They have been able to work out the bugs in the structure and solidify their hybrid policies, and with that, office stability is coming into view." Read Bisnow's full event recap: https://lnkd.in/gHiH87N3

27 buildings, 272 units, 27 phases! How do you seamlessly pull off a large-scale rehab of an occupied property? Skender’s Erik Amos shares his insights on the lean, people-centric approach used to successfully complete the rehab construction of the Barbara Jean Wright Court Apartments on Chicago’s West Side. Read Erik's article in Multifamily & Affordable Housing Business magazine: https://lnkd.in/gYtNmwHm 

Huddle up! We had a blast last night at the ASA Chicago Meet the GCs event. Our team met and built connections with amazing people and companies all across our industry. Thank you, ASA, for hosting and having us!

At Bisnow's Chicago Healthcare Summit this week, Skender VP Brian Kane moderated a keynote conversation with Brandon King, System VP of Facilities & Real Estate for RUSH University Medical Center. The discussion centered around RUSH's real estate strategy and King's strategic vision for the future of the organization's built environment.    One major theme of the conversation was how healthcare project teams can create administrative and medical spaces that can easily be repurposed when organizational needs change.    "As we head into the future, my team is focused on flexibility and adaptability in the built environment and how our spaces can be transformed over time," he explained. "Making changes is expensive, so it's important we build with future shifts in mind. Instead of designing a cardiology exam room, for example, design a RUSH exam room that we can customize to our needs whenever we need to."   Additionally, King said that younger administrative workers are pushing for better, more sustainable offices that support their mental health and their productivity.    "We are considering 'well built' as a philosophy," he said. "It's not just the building that needs to be healthy, but the people inside of it. The younger community of workers coming into the healthcare sector are very aware of this. They will choose where they want to work based on their surroundings, so we need to be sure to meet their expectations." Read more: https://lnkd.in/dDXd_5CD

FUTURE CONSTRUCTION LEADERS: We're coming to you! Say hi to #TeamSkender and learn more about the industry at Purdue University tomorrow (9/27). We can't wait to meet you!

Law firms, like many businesses, are navigating post-pandemic complexities and how they impact the redesign and reconstruction of their workplaces. So, how do they future-proof their offices?   Spoiler alert: The key is the “designing for day three” approach, which Skender’s Ashlee Pforr explores in detail for Work Design Magazine. Drawing from Skender’s extensive law firm renovation experience (50+ firms!), Ashlee discusses flexibility, client-centric customization, efficient space utilization, digital courtrooms and more.   Read the full article in Work Design Magazine: https://lnkd.in/dNY_F5PD   Photography: Confidential Law Firm – Built by Skender. Credit: Brandon Stengel, farmkidstudios