Andrew McGeorge, Hines’ New DC Office Head, Plots First Moves
By Keith Loria January 18, 2023 11:35 am
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Times they are a-changing at Hines, a national real estate firm that’s developing the historic Walter Reed site.
On the heels of Tommy Craig stepping down from his position as co-head of Hines’ New York office, the real estate investment, development and property management company has made leadership changes throughout its executive ranks.
In the Washington, D.C., office, Andrew McGeorge, former senior managing director, was promoted to city head, taking over from Chuck Watters.
In his new role, McGeorge is responsible for new business procurement, development, acquisitions, and asset and property management activities in the mid-Atlantic region.
“In the short term, my goal is to execute our current development pipeline and deploy our discretionary fund capital to take advantage of the current asset repricing that is taking place in this volatile market,” he told Commercial Observer. “My long-term goal is to diversify our revenue streams by growing our development, acquisitions and management services businesses.”
McGeorge has been with Hines since 2020, coming over from Fairfield Residential after three years serving as the D.C. firm’s vice president of development. Before that, he spent 10 years at Monday Properties in the District, holding several executive titles.
Things shouldn’t change too dramatically under McGeorge’s leadership, as he still plans to continue all of Hines’ existing projects, which includes the 66-acre development at The Parks at Walter Reed, currently being co-developed by Hines and Urban Atlantic.
When complete, the development will include more than 3.1 million square feet of new construction and adaptive reuse of historic structures.
McGeorge characterizes the current D.C. market as extremely sluggish and challenging.
“For many of the new acquisitions we are evaluating, the rapid rise in interest rates is creating a negative leverage situation,” he said. “Unfortunately, we won’t pursue assets with negative leverage. On the new development front, projects are suffering from cost escalation, rising cap rates and modest rent growth. This difficult economic time will yield some opportunistic buying opportunities. We have plenty of dry powder to take advantage of the dislocations in the market.”
In that regard, Hines plans to grow its various verticals, including its multifamily, industrial, development and acquisition platforms.
Other changes around Hines include Jason Alderman taking the top position in New York; Steve Luthman now leading the firm’s Midwest, Southeast and Canadian regions; Sean Sacks taking over as Boston’s lead; and Syl Apps heading its South America office.
“This is a new era for the East region,” Sarah Hawkins, CEO for Hines’ East region, said in a prepared statement. “Jason, Andrew, and Sean are the right leaders to grow our business and take advantage of the significant real estate opportunities we see ahead.”
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
