Commercial Investment Real Estate March/April 2019 | Page 14

CCIM
Q& A
Historic Pullman
neighborhood, Chicago.
Seizing Opportunity
by Catherine Simpson Olson
CIRE: What did you do before joining CCLF?
Williams: I ran my consulting firm MW & Associates
full time. There, I consulted with nonprofit organiza-
tions, for-prof it developers, and councils of govern-
ments to plan and execute real estate projects throughout
metropolitan Chicago.
CIRE: Why did you join CCLF?
Williams: CCLF was planning to elevate its lending opportuni-
ties in commercial real estate and was looking for an executive
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March | April 2019
staff person to lead the new department. I had a long-standing
business relationship with CCLF and admired its work, so the
timing was right for me to join the team.
CIRE: What accomplishments make you most proud?
Williams: Earning my MBA in 1996 and my CCIM
designation in 2017, and participating, since 2003, in the
planning, construction, and development work at Pullman
Park. This project includes the rebuilding of a South Side
Chicago community called Pullman/Roseland, where I grew
up. To date, we have completed over $125 million in projects
and created over 750 new full-time jobs. I still use this as a
working case study during my teaching and lectures. Also,
our son never gets tired of the weekend car tours and points
of interest from Dad’s stories about his economic development
upbringing. (smiles)
CIRE: What are the greatest obstacles to community
economic development?
Williams: I believe the greatest obstacles are a lack of public-
private-partnership interest and available capital resources.
Not that these two are inextricably linked, but many com-
munity economic development challenges are large in scale,
needing either multiple tracks of land assemblage or many
facets of the community pulling together to create necessary
changes. To succeed, either requires larger, more flexible and
patient capital.
COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE
A
s principal at MW & Associates in Chicago, Maurice
Williams, CCIM, has planned, developed, financed,
and constructed more than $220 million and
1.9 million square feet of big-box commercial retail
and industrial space in the area, including
Whole Foods Midwest Distribution Cen-
ter, Walmart Supercenter, Planet Fitness,
and Meijer Supercenter. Completed projects
range from affordable housing, to brownfield
redevelopment, to hospitals and institutional
facilities. In 2015, he joined Chicago Com-
munity Loan Fund, which provides afford-
able financing and technical assistance for
community stabilization and development
efforts to benefit low- to moderate-income
Maurice Williams, CCIM neighborhoods in metropolitan Chicago.