Chicago Student Housing & University Development

Jay Pearlman has 20 years of experience developing and implementing advisory services within the college and university environment. At Scion, he provides overall leadership for the firm’s entire advisory practice, including client work and relations, research, marketing, and product and business development. Prior to joining Scion, Mr. Pearlman was the initial employee and shareholder at Sightlines, an advisory firm focused on facilities asset management and planning for the higher education market. Over a 17-year span at Sightlines, Mr. Pearlman’s roles included operations, sales, product development and marketing. These efforts helped to grow Sightlines from a small start-up to an leading provider of facilities data and analysis to over 450 colleges and universities annually. Mr. Pearlman is a recognized thought leader in college and university planning and is routinely featured in national journals and trade publications. Most recently, he was cited as an expert in The Hidden Costs of College: Rising Student Fees, Washington Post, August 24, 2017, and has authored numerous articles, including Making a Successful Case for Maintenance, Maintenance World, January 10, 2017 and The High Cost of Deferred Maintenance, School Construction News, February 7, 2017. In addition to his writing, Mr. Pearlman participates in programming for several professional organizations. He was a keynote speaker at the 2017 Central Association of Physical Plant Officers Technology and Leadership Conference and was also a featured speaker at the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Higher Ed Facilities Forum. Mr. Pearlman has also presented at conferences hosted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Before Sightlines, Mr. Pearlman was at the Facilities Resource Management Company (an ARAMARK Company), where he served as a facilities manager at Franklin & Marshall College and as a systems and management analyst for its Control and Budgets division serving such institutions as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Mr. Pearlman earned his B.A. with honors from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

As CIO of Core Spaces, Andrew Wiedner is responsible for identifying and evaluating new development and acquisition opportunities for the company. His role includes site selection, due diligence, analyzing the company’s investment strategy, and managing debt and equity relationships. Prior to joining Core Spaces, Andrew spent 13 years sourcing debt and equity for a broad-reaching client base, ranging from small family shops to billion-dollar pension funds. In his mortgage banking role, Andrew arranged more than $3 billion of financing for all property types, including office buildings, shopping centers, student housing developments, single-tenant buildings, hotels, industrial warehouses and land development. Andrew graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and minor in Italian. He is currently the President of the Illini Real Estate Forum and Chairman of the Memory Rock Committee benefiting the Alzheimer’s Association.

Mr. Gronlie joined the firm in 2010 and is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. As a Director and Head of Education Real Estate in the Transactions group, he oversees the firm’s education investment platform. He is responsible for defining and implementing the firm’s investment strategy in university markets throughout the US as well as expanding Harrison Street’s Public Private Partnerships (P3’s). Mr. Gronlie has fostered relationships with public universities, academically selective private colleges and various other institutions, which has allowed Harrison Street to invest capital enabling its higher education partners to further their academic missions. Prior to joining Harrison Street, Mr. Gronlie was an Assistant Vice President within the Commercial Real Estate Group at Citizens Bank. In this capacity, he was responsible for underwriting and portfolio management in the Mid-Atlantic region. He also served as the bank’s student housing specialist, whereby he analyzed each lending opportunity the bank evaluated within the asset class. Before working at Citizens, Mr. Gronlie was a Senior Acquisitions Analyst at GMH Communities Trust, a student housing REIT. Mr. Gronlie holds a BBA in Finance from James Madison University.

Brian Minnehan is a Senior Vice President at Blue Vista, with responsibility for sourcing, underwriting, structuring and closing transactions for Blue Vista’s Student Housing investments. Since 2006 Blue Vista has acquired or developed close to 50 Student Housing properties throughout the US through a variety of fund and separate account vehicles. Blue Vista operates a vertically-integrated Student Housing platform through its ownership of Peak Campus, the second largest private manager of student housing in the US with over 53,000 beds under management. Since joining Blue Vista, Brian has participated in the financing, acquisition, and development of over $1 billion of student housing transactions. Prior to joining Blue Vista, Brian worked in the Structured Equity Investments Group for Eagle Realty Group, a subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group; while at Eagle, he participated in the closing of $400 million in commercial real estate assets. Prior to that, Brian worked as an Asset Manager for Boston Capital. Brian earned a BS in Business Administration from Boston University.

Ari Krigel is a Partner in the Real Estate Practice Group and a member of the Food Industry Team. Ari concentrates his practice in the area of commercial real estate, with an emphasis on acquisitions, dispositions, conventional and public financing, leasing, workouts and development. His experience includes drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, loan agreements, mortgages, commercial leases, forbearance and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure agreements, easements and performing due diligence for real estate transactions. Ari has represented large institutional investors, national and regional lenders and mid-market real estate investment and development companies. Prior to joining Freeborn, Ari was an Associate at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.

As vice president of public-private partnerships, Jason Taylor participates in American Campus Communities (ACC) business development and university partnership efforts. His responsibilities include assisting university leaders in the evaluation of facility financing and delivery options. Prior to joining ACC in 2019, Jason participated in the planning and execution of more than $1.5 billion in public-private partnership student housing, and advised more than 140 colleges and universities on the planning, feasibility and financing of campus housing. He served as managing director of university partnerships at Greystar where he led P3 student housing business development and partnership efforts in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. He also served as chief executive of the advisory services practice in his 12 years at The Scion Group, which served more than 200 campus markets and advised more than $4.5 billion of student housing development during his tenure. He is an active member of numerous industry and professional associations, including the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I) Foundation Board of Trustees and ACUHO-I P3 Working Group, and is a frequent panelist and presenter on public-private partnerships and the future of higher education. Taylor began his career in university housing marketing and public relations at the University of Michigan, where he received his degree in economics.

Renato has 20 years of experience in student living, residential/mixed-use, senior living, and hospitality practice areas. He has a desire to be on the cutting edge of housing trends and a passion to develop high quality architecture. This drives him to create innovative and progressive designs that are highly amenitized and create social/interactive communities. Renato’s experience includes design leadership, master planning, brand development, diagrammatic studies, and rendering development on local, state, national and international projects. He is a registered architect and is a LEED Accredited Professional BD+C with experience on multiple LEED projects. Notable student and university living projects include Trinitas Ventures - Collegiate, Landmark Development - Standard at Indianapolis, Harbor Bay – Center City District Apartments at Michigan State University.

Bringing his architectural experience to his role at X, Ben oversees all aspects of project delivery. He has a particular passion for incorporating compelling public spaces and programming into the portfolio, focusing on the intersection of art, design, and technology. You can typically find Ben in a hard hat on site, but when he’s not traveling you can find him at his L Logan Square apartment with his wife and pittie mix pup, Dosa.

David Pezza is a partner in the firm’s real estate group and is located in White & Case’s Chicago office. Mr. Pezza’s practice focuses on sophisticated real estate transactions, including the representation of private and institutional investors, and owners and developers in connection with the acquisition, disposition, development and financing of commercial real estate properties. He has also been involved in the negotiation and structuring of joint-venture agreements with respect to the various transactions he has been involved in. Mr. Pezza’s experience includes a wide range of asset types, including mixed use projects, land for development, retail properties, office buildings and hospitality projects.