Ed Hogan grew up in a small town in South Dakota, and by age 8, he was sketching cities. His fascination with how they take shape has carried over into a career in which leasing decisions help determine how neighborhoods function and feel.
"I never felt at home in the country," Hogan told CoStar News. "And I always felt at home in the city."
That interest never faded, though his career path took some turns, shifting from architecture to commercial real estate. Most recently, Hogan was named head of leasing at New York-based JVP Development.
Now he's looking to Texas to replicate one of his biggest professional successes: his role in the development of Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan. The project transformed the former World Financial Center, heavily damaged in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the nearby World Trade Center, into a roughly 9 million-square-foot office and retail complex.
In his new role, Hogan will oversee office and retail leasing at The Mix, a $3 billion, 112-acre mixed-use development in Frisco, Texas, outside Dallas. He has high hopes for the project. "I think I have another Brookfield Place in me," Hogan said.
At full build-out, The Mix is expected to include 375,000 square feet of upscale retail, more than 2 million square feet of Class A office space, 3,299 residential units and two hotels.
Seeking the 'fun decisions'
Hogan studied architecture and began his career at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as an architect. He eventually moved into real estate after concluding that the "fun decisions" around design were largely made by developers and landlords. That shift led to roles at Olympia & York, Brookfield Properties and Vornado Realty Trust.
Across those firms, Hogan worked on projects nationwide, not just in New York. He said he is particularly drawn to the Dallas area.
"All of Texas, I think, is very fascinating because it's really becoming a center of the world," he said. "When you see the job growth that's going to Dallas — and it's not back-office jobs, it's high-paying front-office jobs — that's very interesting to me. And these companies that keep moving there, it's not a one-off. It's a structural change."
At The Mix, Hogan will shape the retail lineup, tailoring it to prospective office tenants and the surrounding population. He said he enjoys the collaborative nature of the work.
"Retail leasing is kind of designing cities," Hogan said. "You put a restaurant here and a clothing store there, you change the character of the neighborhood and the energy of the neighborhood. So, I found that retail leasing was a means to design cities."
Hogan's resume includes work on a laundry list of prominent projects. He has led retail leasing and redevelopment across more than $10 billion of assets, including Moynihan Train Hall, Penn Station and the ongoing transformation of Fifth Avenue, all in Manhattan. His forte is tenant curation, property repositioning and leasing.
Learning to lure shoppers
Most recently, he served as executive vice president and head of retail leasing at Vornado, where he oversaw a 2.4 million-square-foot portfolio spanning Fifth and Madison avenues and Times Square.
Hogan is accustomed to tough challenges, recalling the effort to make Brookfield Place a reality and the skepticism about its viability.
The site was located directly across from the World Trade Center, then a grim reminder of the death and destruction that occurred at that site.
"Brookfield Place was a big project," he said. "We came out of the ashes of 9/11 and built a luxury center across from where tragedy struck. It was a huge effort. No one really believed that the luxury customer was going to come downtown at that time, but they were moving to Tribeca and they were there."
Hogan sees similarities to Lower Manhattan at that time and Texas.
"It was a great opportunity to see what was happening and design for that change," Hogan said. "And I see this as a great opportunity to see what's happening in Texas, what's happening in Dallas, what's happening in North Dallas and design for that change."