CRG, a real estate developer that’s leaning into the headwinds slowing the U.S. industrial market, has promoted two executives as it looks to keep expanding a firm that has hit $2 billion in annual transactions.
President Shawn Clark has moved up to the newly created role of CEO, the Chicago-based company said. Chris McKee, formerly the firm’s chief development officer, took over Clark’s former role as president, the firm said in a statement.
The promotions come after CRG’s recent hiring of former Duke Realty executive Steve Schnur as chief operating officer. Schnur recently was hired after a three-person industrial acquisitions team from Duke joined CRG late last year following the Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust’s sale to Prologis.
CRG made those hires with plans to invest $2 billion in logistics properties throughout the country as the U.S. industrial market is performing better than its office counterpart but still is facing challenges because of the struggling economy. CRG also is buying and developing office, apartment, student housing and mixed-use properties.
“U.S. industrial market performance is downshifting heading into mid-2023,” according to a recent CoStar report. “While the national vacancy rate is expected to remain below its 20-year average of 7.3%, the next six to 12 months could still prove one of the more challenging periods for the market over the next five years.”
CRG said its recent promotions and hires will help guide the firm’s long-term strategy amid continued expansion.
"We feel fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated team at CRG and are confident that, together, we will achieve even greater success in the future,” Clark said in the statement.
CRG is the real estate development arm of construction firm Clayco. Its founder and executive chairman, Bob Clark, is Shawn Clark’s father.
Shawn Clark joined CRG in 2011 and had been president of the firm since 2018.
Clayco is vertically integrated, with staffs dedicated to development, design-build and architecture services.
Besides its headquarters in Chicago, CRG has offices in St. Louis, Seattle, Indianapolis, Southern California, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
Formed in 1993, privately held CRG says it has developed more than 220 million square feet of space valued at more than $14 billion.