Sam Drew is a Project Manager for Structured Development, a Chicago-based real estate development company formed in January 2002. Drew focuses on affordable housing and oversees such projects with a “soup to nuts” approach that includes front-end research, entitlement and public approval processes, due diligence, proforma development, design management and GMP procurement as well as construction delivery, sales coordination and buyer success. Over his short career, Drew has managed the development of 70 for-sale affordable units, 150,000 square feet of completed construction and over $60 million in developments on Chicago’s West and North Side.
Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?
I grew up on the North Side of Chicago, in Lakeview. I learned to cross the street at the intersection of Lincoln, Ashland and Belmont and took the Halsted bus and Brown and Red Lines as much as I drove to high school at St. Ignatius College Prep. I went to Marquette University for undergrad, receiving my bachelor’s in philosophy, and spent a semester in service learning studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, at the University of the Western Cape while volunteering in the Khayelitsha township. After college, I lived in Buenos Aires and taught English. There, I finally realized my travels and passion had always brought me to major global cities. So, I decided to pursue a master’s in urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago which prepared me for a career in real estate.
When you were young, what did you aspire to be?
I wanted to be a crime fighting, pizza eating, sewer-dwelling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but my karate and kung fu capabilities were lacking. Or a fireman. Neither came to fruition.
How did you get your start in the industry?
UIC’s Master of Urban Planning & Policy (MUPP) program had an internship requirement, and I was lucky enough to end up at Integra Realty Resources as an intern for real estate appraisal. After a year at 10 S. LaSalle in the ugliest building in the Loop, we were acquired by JLL, so I spent a year in the Aon Center with a view over Millennium Park. The driven young professionals I met there showed me just how little I knew about the industry to begin with, and how hard I was going to have to work just to keep up with my peers.
Those first two years with IRR and JLL redefined what a career in Chicago’s real estate industry was for me. After two years of valuations, I joined Structured Development to work on meeting its affordable housing requirements under the city’s ARO program.
Did you have a mentor who helped you get on your feet, or is there someone you turn to now for support?
Eric Enloe and Brandon Nunnink gave me my first position as an intern at IRR. Scott Belsky showed me the ropes of appraisal and Tim Fitzgibbons dried out more than a few red pens reviewing my first reports. Their help was invaluable. The plethora of unique properties I was able to comb through, from a sprawling exurban iron-smelting plant to newly renovated condo conversions on North Avenue, opened my eyes to assets I wouldn’t have ever looked at otherwise.
At Structured Development, the principals, Dan Lukas and my father, Mike Drew, are mentors and I’m honored to be a second-generation member of Chicago’s real estate community. On a daily basis, Jeff Berta, Structured’s director of real estate, is an encyclopedia, a conductor and an immersion blender all at once. His knowledge, foresight and grit make our projects run. He has always patiently allowed me to present my ideas and questions while teaching me industry best practices to address those questions. From start to finish, Jeff is a guiding hand every step of the process and I’m thankful for his tutelage.
What does a day in the life of Sam Drew look like?
I love biking to and from work when weather allows (shout-out to the all-weather road warriors out there). Pumping pedals through the city, seeing and hearing life on the streetscape, and feeling the wind on my face while avoiding traffic is one of my favorite things to do. Otherwise, I take the Brown Line into the Loop.
I always try to keep a clean inbox, staying in contact with engineers, architects, consultants, contractors and city officials while staying out of the way so everyone can do their jobs. Project management is a daily dance between offense and defense, planning while putting out fires. I’m constantly updating project budgets, honing the proformas, making sure numbers work on the spreadsheet and then overcoming the speed bumps and hurdles that are realities in the field. Making maps, navigating GIS, scouring city and county records, filtering through CoStar reports, and approving invoices are all tasks that come across my desk daily. But getting out of the office is vital and I try to get on-site as often as possible.
My current schedule has me on-site at Harrison Row Townhomes, at 2854 W. Harrison St., where we are finishing the construction of 40 modular and affordable townhomes in the East Garfield Park/North Lawndale neighborhoods. We’ve turned a 50-year-vacant site into new affordable housing for an area of the city that has suffered decades of disinvestment. We are also finishing a 34-unit affordable condo building, The Seng, at 869 W. Blackhawk St. I also was involved in the construction and delivery of Schiller Place Apartments, a 48-unit mixed-income apartment community at 711, 731 and 749 W. Schiller St. on Chicago’s Near North Side, where Structured has done most of its work. Between ensuring compliance with the ARO, coordinating sales efforts, addressing the needs of new owners and overseeing the on-time completion and construction of the final units, our team in the office and on-site remains busy.
What do you like most about your job?
I love stepping back and seeing the big picture. Seeing a project like Harrison Row completed is such a rewarding feeling. From finding vacant land, or distressed property, or underutilized property, identifying the highest and best use—what a place could be to making it happen—is a long process and wild ride, but it’s a rewarding one. Acquiring a 50-year-vacant lot, getting it through the entitlement process, finding a team of professionals to design and build with us, and finally turning it into 40 total units of new affordable workforce housing is gratifying. Walking the block when it was just a vacant lot, underutilized, not cared for, and then again once it’s a finished community of homes is the best feeling in my job.
I also have been rewarded by our community outreach and partnerships, including Structured’s joint venture with Fain’s Development, a local minority developer based in East Garfield Park. Fain’s Principals Kevin Brinson and Quentin Addison, with whom we’ve been working on Harrison Row, have been great partners. Engaging the community, sharing the dreams and hard realities of the development process with Fain’s, and partnering with local neighborhood contractors for construction, landscaping and other services, makes me proud to be a part of a tangible real-world example of the power of privately funded economic development.
Looking to the future, what do you hope to achieve/work on that you haven’t already?
I’ve always wanted to contribute to the city’s skyline. Getting to work on a high-rise that forever alters one of the greatest skylines in the world is a goal.
Helping build affordable housing with Structured Development has been both rewarding and challenging. It is not easy to pencil out affordable units, and demand only continues to grow. I’d like to continue to help the city of Chicago and broader Great Lakes region prepare for the coming influx of climate change refugees. We aren’t doing enough to build new housing and need more driven, young, creative professionals finding new ways to address current and future housing needs.
How do you spend your time away from the office?
I spend three evenings a week bartending at Monti’s Cheesesteaks, the best Philly cheesesteak joint in Chicago. It’s a small neighborhood bar on my block in Lincoln Square, and working there has been a great way to meet neighbors, chat up friendly strangers and watch my sports teams, because unfortunately, I’m an avid Chicago sports fan. I’m also a big craft beer fan and love finding new breweries, or just sampling everything at District Brew Yards, a Structured venture on which I worked. I also enjoy golfing, biking and partaking in a variety of “nerdy” pursuits. I built my first PC during the pandemic in 2021 and am a big gamer, be it board games, puzzles or video games.
What is your favorite place that you have traveled to? Where do you hope to go next?
Cape Town, South Africa, is the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to, with some of the best first-world property abutting some of the harshest third-world conditions, both nestled together against Table Mountain and hugged by the South Atlantic ocean. South Africa taught me about restorative justice. Heroes like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu pursuing justice through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is something you can feel in the fabric of the country.
I was an avid snowboarder throughout college, and New York is the furthest I’ve been in the Northeast, so I’d love to ski in Vermont. Or maybe do a road trip through the Northeast in the summer and catch some Cape Cod summer league baseball, eventually getting up to the coast in Maine.
