It's no surprise that when we stopped in to chat with Huitt-Zollars VP Mark Edgren at his 1717 McKinney office in Uptown, we found him looking over plans with colleagues Sergio Garcia  and  Kevin Carlson. He tells us the multi-disciplinary firm works on private and public projects and has been active in the area's mass transit development from DART to TRE and the McKinney Avenue Trolley as well as the mixed-use development Addison Circle and master-planned community Stonebridge Ranch. Mark says diversification kept things going strong during the downturn.

One of Huitt-Zollars' largest projects is the $4.8B redevelopment expansion program at Fort Bliss. This encompasses infrastructure and facilities to accommodate an increase in population of more than 30,000. Residential development—from single-family homes to multifamily—continues to move forward including West 7th (pictured), another Huitt-Zollars mixed-use project. Mark says the firm has worked with developers throughout the central and western US. President Bob Zollars was on the ground floor with the developer, credited for the inception of the garden-style apartment concept, understood to be originated in Dallas during the early 1970s.  

Mark says multifamily investors and developers are faced with a variety of challenges as they identify potential properties and new sites. He will share his expertise as a moderator at our  Multifamily Summit. (You can still register.) One question Mark ponders is whether the term "multifamily" should be rebranded to address the outdated perception of the neighboring community with regard to the multifamily complex. The demographics have changed in communities; today, young professionals and families are choosing to live in apartments in lieu of investing in a home. And if you see Mark in person (like at our Summit), ask him about coaching his son?s baseball team this spring. Or about how he ran a 4.16 mile and a 14.52 three-mile at OSU where country music legend Garth Brooks was his teammate. It helps to have friends in low places, he says.