Evergreen Real Estate Group announced that John Kennedy has joined the company as executive vice president of operations. In his newly created position, Kennedy will oversee Evergreen’s national property management portfolio, which comprises more than 8,000 units.
“As Evergreen continues to expand, we decided to create this role and bring on an industry veteran like John so we can more efficiently and effectively manage our rapidly growing portfolio across the U.S.,” said Steve Rappin, president of Evergreen Real Estate Group. “John has more than 25 years of experience in multifamily property management, with a particular emphasis on affordable housing, so he was a natural choice as someone who can truly hit the ground running and make this position his own.”
Prior to joining Evergreen, Kennedy was senior vice president at Related Management, with responsibility for the firm’s 7,000-unit Midwest affordable housing portfolio. Prior to that, he worked for Metroplex Inc., a Chicago-based property management firm specializing in affordable housing communities. Kennedy originally joined Metroplex in 1993 and served in various roles before being appointed president of the company in 2013. Two years later, Metroplex was acquired by Related Management, and Kennedy continued to lead the portfolio’s operations.
As a licensed attorney, Kennedy also acted as in-house legal counsel for Metroplex, representing the firm on a variety of issues pertaining to fair housing and regulatory compliance, landlord-tenant disputes, employment matters and contract agreements. Before joining Metroplex, Kennedy served as a staff attorney for Sheldon Baskin, Henry Hyatt and Daniel Epstein, an affiliated real estate development group whose business was concentrated in conventional market-rate and government-assisted multifamily housing.
Kennedy received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Marquette University and a juris doctor from the DePaul University School of Law in Chicago. He is licensed to practice law in Illinois and holds an Illinois real estate broker’s license.
