Alex is the founding partner, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of CEDARst Companies. Over the past ten years, Mr. Samoylovich has sourced, invested in and managed in excess of hundreds of transactions and has been instrumental in the acquisition and disposition of real estate with a value in excess of $500mm.

Utilizing a “fully integrated real estate developer” (IRED) approach, Mr. Samoylovich and his partners have seamlessly interwoven acquisition, construction, finance, management, and marketing under one company. In the past 5 years, CEDARst is considered one of the most active acquirers of distressed assets in the greater Chicago area.

Under Mr. Samoylovich’s leadership, the company has carved out a niche strategy for the adaptive reuse of underperforming assets through bankruptcies, foreclosure, note purchases, and other distressed situations in the Chicago area; covering a span of product types from multifamily, office, mixed-use, and hospitality. Mr. Samoylovich has cemented a well-earned reputation as a tenacious deal maker capable of closing the most complex and demanding real estate transactions and returning superior risk adjusted returns to his investors.

Prior to entering real estate, Mr. Samoylovich was an accomplished equity and options trader. During this time, Mr. Samoylovich developed a keen understanding of market psychology and timing which he forayed into a successful “short” strategy in residential real estate just prior to the recession. Mr. Samoylovich holds a BA in Business from DePaul University and is currently a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and the Economic Club of Chicago (ECC). In 2016, Alex was nominated to Crain’s 40 Under 40.

JEFFREY SHAPACK

CEO, SHAPACK PARTNERS

Jeffrey Shapack is the founder & CEO of Shapack Partners. Jeff relocated to Chicago sixteen years ago to develop luxury retail in the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park and Bucktown neighborhoods. During this time, Jeff developed Barneys New York in the Gold Coast, the Apple Store flagship in Lincoln Park, Intermix and Lululemon in Bucktown and many other retail developments throughout Chicago.

In 2009, Jeff founded Shapack Partners and by early 2011 Shapack Partners asserted itself as a leader in the creation of Fulton Market district. Since that time, Shapack Partners has been acquiring and developing properties in Fulton Market including Soho House Chicago, WeWork’s Chicago flagship, The Parker Fulton Market (a 29-story luxury residential apartment building), in addition to several nationally acclaimed restaurants such as Momotaro and Formento’s.

Currently in Fulton Market, Shapack Partners has 50,000 square feet of commercial retail space, two approved ground-up office buildings and a 182-key Hoxton hotel in development as well as a 95,000 square-foot office redevelopment in Cortland Corridor.

Jeff graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a board member of the Chicago Artists Coalition and lives in Lincoln Park with his wife and three daughters.

David joined the company in September 2014 and originally served as Director of Affordable Housing Development. An architect and urban planner, he has been involved in community development and affordable housing for more than 20 years.

Prior to joining Evergreen, David spent 12 years at The Community Builders, a national non-profit organization, where he was Director of Development for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. In his time at The Community Builders, David managed portions of three significant public housing transformation engagements – in Hartford, Connecticut, Louisville, Kentucky, and Chicago – and he also led the development of the residential component of The Shops and Lofts at 47 (with Skilken Development), a complex $46 million mixed-use, mixed-income development that included 120 apartments and an urban prototype store for a large national grocery chain.

David earned a master of architecture degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a bachelor’s degree in English from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Since 1988, Paul Fishbein has established a distinguished track record in commercial real estate by

creating innovative solutions resulting in significant savings for his clients and returns for his investors. He

has experienced success as both a commercial real estate broker and developer with over $750 million in

transactions and developments to his credit. Paul is a Founding Partner of Merit Partners, a Chicago

based firm focused on the re-development of the 1.5 million square foot former Marshall Field campus at

4000 West Diversey. Prior to Merit, Paul spent 16 years as a partner with Centrum Properties and

Amerimar Enterprises where he was a partner in charge of the 1.6 million square foot Montgomery Wards

campus at 600 West Chicago and 600,000 square foot Lafayette Corp. Center in Boston.

For more than 30 years at ESD, Kurt Karnatz has provided leadership in guiding the company in becoming a world-recognized consulting practice. As a strategic leader, consultant and engineer, he has developed long-term relationships with corporate real estate clients in finance, high-tech, medical, energy and beyond, while establishing ESD’s expertise in building sciences, intelligent buildings and smart cities. As President, he works to foster global thinkers who are admired for their innovative approach in creating sustainable solutions. ESD’s teams of professionals focus on solutions that maximize efficiency, reliability, flexibility, longevity and marketability – resulting in competitive advantage and enterprise value for its clients.

Ms. Payette is the Property Management Lead for the Chicago/Midwest market. She is responsible for the oversight of all management functions in the market. Her primary focus is to provide superior client service and work directly with the clients to ensure an understanding of investment objectives and development of property-specific strategic plans and operating and capital budgets. Ms. Payette is also involved in business development efforts for investor and occupier clients seeking retail services in the Chicago/Midwest market.

Ms. Payette has been actively involved in Property Management for more than 20 years, providing leadership and strategic direction for the operations of a diversified portfolio of regional, community, lifestyle, neighborhood, power, and strip retail centers expanding across the United States. Her experience also includes directing the management of retail/residential mixed-use, industrial and office assets. She is well versed in overseeing regional offices and commercial associations, financial reporting, negotiating, and steering legal matters. Her work history includes serving as Property Manager for Advantis Real Estate Services, Hull Storey Retail Group, and Tri-Five Property Management Corporation. Prior to joining JLL in 2013, she held the position of Regional Property Manager/VP of Property Management for Inland American Retail Management, LLC in Oak Brook, IL.

Ms. Payette holds a bachelor's degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. She is a member of ICSC, holds a Real Property Administrator license from BOMA Institute, and is an Illinois Managing Broker.

Prior to joining Avison Young, Mr. Waites was the Senior Managing Director and Midwest Regional Lead of Investor Services with Cushman & Wakefield. Mr. Waites grew property management and agency leasing from 4.5 million square feet to over 45 million square feet of office, industrial and retail properties for key institutional investors and owners. Prior to Cushman & Wakefield, Mr. Waites served as Chief Operating Officer of John Buck International where he helped establish a property and asset management division based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Mr. Waites built a property management and consulting portfolio of approximately 10 million square feet of office, retail, mixed use and university facilities. Prior to his role with John Buck, he held an Executive Vice President, Asset Management position with Riverway formerly, Prime Group Realty Trust, a self-managed and administered publicly traded REIT, where he managed approximately 8 million square feet of class A and B Chicago and Suburban office buildings, structured in excess of 5 million square feet of leasing and participated in the disposition of approximately 4 million square feet of office assets as well as the sale of the REIT’s controlling ownership to the Lightstone Group. Mr. Waites also acted as asset manager for approximately 38 facilities totaling approximately 4 million square feet of industrial and mixed use properties acquired from Sealy in the South, South East and Puerto Rico on behalf of Prime Group Realty Trust’s parent, The Lightstone Group