Since joining the Chicago office of CRG in 2021, Mireya Guzman has been involved in more than $800 million in transactions, including land purchases and construction financing for new industrial developments. She joined the firm as a senior financial analyst and has since been promoted to senior associate, capital markets, with a focus on the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Southeast U.S.
Besides bringing financial acumen to deals, Guzman also has introduced new portfolio reporting and market analysis protocols to improve communication with investors and other stakeholders and helped the team stay organized during fast-paced times.
Outside of the office, Guzman is active in several nonprofit and professional organizations, including a group focused on empowering young Latinos to become transformative leaders.
Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?
I was born in Durango, Mexico, and at the age of 6 moved to Northlake, Illinois, about 20 miles northwest of Chicago. While in high school, I interned with a civil rights law firm, researching how state budget cuts to mental health services for former Cook County Jail inmates was causing higher recidivism rates. This experience sparked my interest in law. While attending Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, where I majored in economics, I also spent nearly four years working as an administrative assistant for an attorney specializing in workers compensation and personal injury cases.
How did you get your start in the CRE industry?
As an undergraduate, I continued to be interested in law and thought I might go to law or business school after graduation. My career path changed after completing a four-month internship as a credit analyst with the commercial real estate team at Hinsdale Bank & Trust Company, a Wintrust Community Bank in Hinsdale, Illinois. I really enjoyed the work, and at the end of the internship, Shane Green, the chief credit officer at the time and my supervisor, encouraged me to apply for a two-year credit analyst program with Wintrust Financial Corp. I applied immediately following the internship and had a job offer by the fall semester of my senior year.
For the next two years, I rotated through different commercial lending areas every six months. My work included conducting financial analyses of transactions, reviewing credit facilities, ensuring compliance with bank regulations and more. At the end of the program, I was hired by Wintrust as a portfolio manager and oversaw $1.3 billion in loans secured by multifamily, office, retail, industrial and hospitality assets located around the country.
Next, I was hired by CRG as a senior financial analyst for industrial assets, earning a promotion to associate, capital markets, in 2023 and senior associate, capital markets, in 2024. Although I did not end up studying law, I do have the opportunity to work with our legal department on a regular basis. My focus is on the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Southeast, all key markets for CRG as it continues to grow its national industrial portfolio. In all, CRG has planned, broken ground on or completed over 53 million square feet of industrial projects, primarily through its national industrial brand, The Cubes.
Did you have a mentor who helped you get on your feet, or is there someone you turn to now for support?
As a first-generation college graduate, mentorship has been instrumental in my professional development (which is why I am passionate about being involved in mentorship programs for younger generations). I’ve had multiple mentors beginning with great professors at the Brennan School of Business to others I’ve encountered post-college while at Wintrust and beyond.
But if I had to name two people, I’d say Janet Koranda and Ciere Boatright. Janet was my first boss at Wintrust, as well as my last, because I worked for her as a portfolio manager once I completed the rotational program. She helped me develop my analytical skills in commercial real estate and taught me a lot about strategic thinking, good leadership and the importance of work/life balance. Ciere is a veteran and rockstar in the industry, and she is the reason I am at CRG, because she called me when CRG was looking for a financial analyst. She had started at CRG a few months before I did and provided a lot of support and encouragement as I settled into my new role.
What does an average day at work look like?
It looks very different depending on the season! I might work on underwriting and analyzing a market for a new land site we are pursuing or with a joint venture partner on financing for a development site we already own. After a quiet 2023, lenders are picking up their pencils again, and we are looking forward to starting more projects in the second half of 2024. Some of my workdays are spent touring the market with capital partners, lenders and our local brokers or at open houses for our recently delivered projects. Getting out in the field with colleagues and capital partners is one of the best ways to assess a site’s investment potential. Sometimes we’ll work late into the evening and on weekends to get deals across the finish line.
What do you like most about your job?
Being able to see projects come to life is very rewarding. The first Cubes-branded project I saw under construction was a more than 1-million-square-foot facility called The Cubes at French Lake near Minneapolis. The first one I saw in use was the 1-million-plus-square-foot Costco facility near Seattle. It’s great to see all the employees working and knowing I’ve played a role in a project that has brought so many economic benefits to the city.
Looking to the future, what do you hope to work on/achieve that you haven’t already?
It can take years to develop a multi-building industrial park. I look forward to “round trips” – seeing some of the land acquisitions in places like Savannah and Nashville come to fruition with multiple buildings. I’d love to work on more specialized industrial facilities; I have yet to work on a cold storage deal and would love to be exposed to that. I also look forward to continuing to grow my capital markets expertise, learning more about the industrial sector and watching it evolve. When I first came to CRG after the pandemic, e-commerce was driving a lot of the industrial development. Now, several macroeconomic factors have caused companies to focus on nearshoring or reshoring. As we continue to see technology evolve and experience the AI “boom,” industrial real estate will also be impacted so I am curious to see that impact evolve.
How do you spend your time away from the office?
I’m co-founder and co-chair of the junior board for Iskali, a nonprofit organization focused on forming, empowering and equipping young Latinos to become transformative leaders. Through that work, I am involved in the group’s mentorship and scholarship programs.
I also participate in NAIOP’s Developing Leaders program. We meet twice a year, in the spring and fall. For the recent spring meeting in Minneapolis, I gave a tour of The Cubes at French Lake. The program offers an excellent opportunity to connect with peers in the industry.
In my free time, I do yoga and recently picked up running – in fact, I just did my first half marathon! I love being in the city and taking walks along the lake. I also enjoy traveling and recently went back to Salamanca, Spain, where I completed a study abroad program in college. And, while I went to Iceland in the winter, I’d love to travel there again in the summer.