JLL expands project management team; Savills grows global occupier group; Hilco adds to education practice

JLL hired Donna West as senior vice president of project and development services, or PDS. Based in the firm’s Atlanta office, West brings more than 20 years of experience overseeing projects for clients in multiple industries, and joined JLL after serving as a senior project director at Cushman & Wakefield. In her new role, JLL said, she will manage major components of project planning and execution, expand the PDS team and strengthen the firm's relationships with corporate office occupiers.

JLL said it also added four experienced executives to the tax-focused team within its national value and risk advisory practice: Kenneth Zdrok in Atlanta and Matthew Gorman in Miami as senior directors; and Newt Kirk in New Jersey and Joshua Soroka in Los Angeles as executive directors. Zdrok worked most recently at law firm McGuire Sponsel, Gorman and Kirk were at Ernst & Young, and Soroka was at consulting firm Property Tax Resources LLC.

Christian Palmer joined real estate services firm Savills as senior vice president of enterprise solutions within its Global Occupier Services practice, based in its Orange County office in Newport Beach, California. The company said Palmer, who previously held senior roles at WeWork, Cushman & Wakefield and most recently Colliers, will work with clients across the Americas who occupy space in multiple regions.

Chicago-based financial services provider Hilco Global hired David Crawford as an executive director, focused on expanding the firm’s real estate advisory practice geared to education and faith-based organizations. Crawford has more than four decades of experience in higher education, real estate, law and corporate leadership, having worked most recently as president of McCormick Theological Seminary and negotiating the sale of the campus to the University of Chicago. 

Greater Los Angeles-based real estate lender Ascent Developer Solutions hired Gene Kim as executive vice president of commercial real estate strategies and Asher Patak as senior vice president and lending team officer. Kim and Patak both formerly held executive positions at Genesis Capital, where they financed projects in multiple property categories.

Alpharetta, Georgia-based Ashton Woods, among the nation’s largest private homebuilders, promoted Christina Malone to chief legal officer and corporate secretary, after the recent retirement of Deborah Danzig. Malone has more than 14 years of real estate experience, joining Ashton Woods in 2019 after previous work at law firm Alston & Bird.

Whitestone REIT, a Houston-based company that owns and operates open-air shopping centers in Texas and Arizona, expanded its leasing team with the appointment of Felice Terrigno as Houston division director. The company said Terrigno, who previously worked at SDI Realty Advisors, will oversee leasing at 10 regional centers.

General contractor Stevens-Leinweber Construction said it named DJ Peterson as business development lead to expand the company’s project slate in the fast-growing Phoenix region, where the contractor is based. The firm said Peterson is a former baseball agent and player who spent nearly a decade in the minor leagues for MLB teams that included the Mariners, Reds, White Sox and Rockies, before transitioning into construction.

Industrial-focused real estate investor and developer ML Realty Partners promoted Kevin Donohoe to acquisition director and Tracy Albrecht to leasing manager, the Chicagoland company said. Both have several years of industry experience, with Donohue having worked at Sterling Bay before joining ML Realty in 2019. Albrecht joined ML from Cawley Chicago Commercial Real Estate in 2022.

Los Angeles-based SPF:architecture, also known as SPF:a, named Alex Anamos as business development manager. Anamos, who has 19 years of design and related industry experience, most recently served as a director at Tighe Architecture, where he worked on projects in multiple property categories.