Christine Choi, vice president, Avison Young, was named the winner of AIRE’s achievement award that recognizes outstanding leadership, community service and real estate brokerage success among young industrial real estate professionals. Tom Boyle of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, AIRE’s 2013 president, presented the award to Choi at the association’s May membership meeting.
The Frank Mahoney Award of Excellence is given each year to one entrepreneurial AIRE member to recognize the positive impact s/he has had in the industry and the community. The award considers transaction volume, but has been rededicated to focus on giving back to the community, supporting the industry and serving the needs of clients.
“Success in our industry goes above and beyond doing the deals,” Boyle said. “Going beyond client service, it is important to give back to the real estate and business communities, and the community at large. Christine embraces that, just as Frank Mahoney did a generation ago.”
Choi has been an active member of the Chicago real estate community for five years. She is a vice president with Avison Young – Chicago LLC and joined the firm in January 2010. She provides tenants and landlords, owners and investors with integrated solutions. She specializes in real estate strategy, property transactions and portfolio lease administration.
She gained valuable experience in the industry working on the institutional side at First Industrial Realty Trust. There she was integrally involved in the company’s expansion into the European market. At First Industrial, she also developed and executed marketing strategies, activities, budgeting and deliverables for the U.S. and European real estate markets.
“Christine is a valuable member of the Avison Young team in Chicago,” said Michael McKiernan, managing principal, Avison Young. “She has a tireless work ethic and an infectious approach to business.”
Choi serves as president of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Chicago Roundtable; is the founder and president of IWIRE, an organization for Chicago’s industrial women in real estate; and serves on the Developing Leaders Board of Directors for the Chicago Chapter of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.
In the community, Choi has served as an auxiliary board member and tutor for the Sue Duncan Center’s Center, an after-school educational and recreational program for inner-city children, for the past six years. She is actively involved in her alma mater’s alumni association.
Frank Mahoney began his industrial real estate career in the early 1970’s after serving as a clergyman in South America. He started his career with Van Vlissingen & Company before ultimately beginning his own firm, Frank Mahoney & Associates, in the early 1980s. Throughout his career, until his death in the late 1980s, Mahoney was an active member of the Association of Industrial Real Estate Brokers serving as a member, committee chairman, director and an officer of the organization.
