CRG, the real estate development and investment arm of Chicago-based Clayco, announced that Jeff Schroeder has joined the firm as vice president of investment and asset management.
This key addition expands CRG’s ability to offer end-to-end residential development and investment services, particularly as its residential group eyes $1 billion in multifamily developments over the next two to three years.
“Bringing Jeff on board as an integral part of our team is a foundational piece for our residential strategy,” said J.J. Smith, CRG managing partner and leader for its residential group. “Having worked together for many years, I can confidently say that Jeff will enhance our ability to attract and retain capital partners through his hands-on investment and asset management expertise.
Schroeder joins CRG from CA Ventures, where he managed a $2 billion portfolio comprised of 21 residential assets and more than 20,000 beds across the student housing portfolio with Canadian pension investor, Quadreal. He previously spent 13 years with Heitman, where he managed the finance, accounting and reporting for over $2 billion of domestic and international assets across all major sectors.
In his new role, Schroeder will assist in procuring and managing capital, hire and oversee third-party property managers and report asset and portfolio performance to capital partners. Additionally, he will implement lease-up strategies for CRG multifamily developments, with an immediate focus on CRG’s two Chicago-based assets: A.M. 1980, a 132-unit building in the Logan Square neighborhood, and Upshore Chapter, a 149-unit building in the Uptown neighborhood. Jeff will also focus on the 252-unit Broadway Chapter, CRG’s first “Essential” apartment community, slated to open next summer in Fort Worth, Texas.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something special,” Schroeder said. “I’m rejoining a group of people I know very well, and who I’ve seen first-hand scale a residential business. You combine that with a sophisticated, proven company like CRG and their integrated platform with Clayco, a nationally renowned design-build firm, and you have a model environment in which to execute forward-thinking, strategic plans across the multifamily and student housing markets.”
Schroeder joins two former CA Ventures alumni—Smith, who has sourced and developed more than $6 billion in residential communities across 100 cities since 2007, and Struan Robertson, senior vice president of investments and acquisitions—to drive the firm’s residential developments. With the multifamily market still evolving due to the pandemic, Schroeder sees a unique opportunity for CRG’s vision.
“The firm’s residential strategy enables me to leverage my experience in multifamily and student housing, and to present ideas to help grow the business in those sectors,” Schroeder said. “Despite any headlines to the contrary, the off-campus student housing market proved its resilience during the pandemic with healthy occupancies, stable rental rates and strong rent collections, and we’ll look at Tier 1, Power 5 university markets, given our team’s collective background in the industry. Our experience in scaling student housing developments nationally parlays nicely into our middle-income multifamily expansion as well.”
Schroeder graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in accounting. He will be based in CRG’s Chicago office.
