McLaurin Development Partners
We develop and enhance value from previously underutilized and devalued assets
Our mission is our mantra for the day to day professional activities of McLaurin Development Partners. Via integrity, service, performance, and old-fashioned hard work McLaurin Development Partners has developed a national reputation for successfully completing challenging projects. Innovation and the relentless pursuit of clients' interest has facilitated an unparalleled esteem and continued opportunities for our firm.
We are entrepreneurs at heart, a dynamic and pioneering organization guided by our mission to help transform communities where we work, serve, and reside. Consistency with our approach to deliver successful projects on schedule and within budget has enabled McLaurin Development Partners to earn the status as a valued resource and strategic partner to many national Fortune 500 retailers, commercial and institutional clients, and public and private entities.
Focus on community vitality and the promotion of human well being within those communities has resulted in hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars in new investment.
McLaurin Development Partners
Zeb McLaurin
of McLaurin Development Partners
For over fifteen years, Zeb McLaurin has been a trailblazer in real estate development, being the Principal owner of McLaurin Development Partners, Zeman Interests and the Harvey Howard Land Company—subsidiaries of parent entity Kinbez Holdings Corporation. At McLaurin Development Partners, it’s more than bricks and mortar. McLaurin Development Partners is a full service commercial real estate property acquisition, development, disposition, brokerage, and management company. His reputation within the real estate industry is a reflection of McLaurin Development Partners’ mission: developing and enhancing value from previously underutilized and devalued assets. It was recently announced that McLaurin Development Partners will develop the new Cabrini Green Target Store in Chicago.
McLaurin's commitment means he’s not just building structures -- he is building community. McLaurin has successfully developed small neighborhood and large “big box” shopping centers, which include anchor tenants such as Starbucks, Staples, Home Depot, and Target. However, he is most proud of those projects that create residual value for investors, clients, and the communities they serve; most notably developing many “first” outlets for national retail stores in traditionally minority neighborhoods.
Integrity, service, performance and old-fashioned hard work are cornerstones of McLaurin Development Partners. Innovation and relentless pursuit of clients’ interests has facilitated an unparalleled esteem and continued opportunities for McLaurin and his businesses. Each member of the McLaurin team is challenged to be entrepreneurial at heart; a dynamic and pioneering organization guided by the mission to help transform communities where they work, serve and live. At McLaurin Development Partners, delivering projects on schedule and within budget has enabled them to earn the status as a valued resource and strategic partner to many national Fortune 500 retailers, commercial and institutional clients, and public and private entities. Focusing on community vitality and redeveloped land sites is paramount—bringing over one million square feet of new commercial retail space; thousands of new jobs; and new investment resources measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
An entrepreneur at heart, in 1993, McLaurin, along with two partners, initiated his first business endeavor, MTM Limited Partnerships, a discretionary investment fund whose assets included traditional and non-regulated securities and real estate. He quickly realized opportunities within a local niche market, as Chicago and other large metropolitan cities enacted legislation that created incentives to redevelop urban cores, a new asset class emerged, urban real estate development.
Prior to pursuing his entrepreneurial career, McLaurin spent his initial professional years on Wall Street, working at Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs throughout his college years, summer internships, and upon graduation. McLaurin achieved his Series Seven designation, bestowed by the NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers), at the age of twenty, just before the start of his junior year in college. Upon graduation, he continued his financial services career and was the first person hired without an MBA within the prestigious Private Client Group at Goldman Sachs and Co.
McLaurin was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, his adolescent years within the Altgeld Gardens housing projects and later, the Chatham community. He currently resides in the Beverly neighborhood with his wife Joy, and their three children. He is a graduate of Hales Franciscan High School (1986), and completed his undergraduate work with a B.A. in Finance from Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA (1990).
McLaurin devotes an extraordinary amount of time with philanthropic endeavors that directly impact his values of education, particularly for African American young men, and the arts, including but not limited to: Hales Franciscan High School Board of Trustees, Chairman (2008 through 2010), Morehouse College Alumni Association and Urban Arts Council.
Zeb McLaurin's Development Projects
Mr. McLaurin’s principal businesses include McLaurin Development Partners Ltd., Zemen Interests, and The Harvey Howard Land Company – subsidiaries of the parent entity Kinbez Holdings Corporation – each owned by Zeb McLaurin and McLaurin Family interests. Mr. McLaurin and/or his affiliated companies performed as developer, broker, or consultant on the following most recent real estate development projects:
- SEQ 95th/Cottage Grove: 40 acre Master Planned Community comprising educational, residential, retail, institutional, and public uses.
- NWC Chicago Avenue & Indianapolis Blvd., East Chicago, IN: Grocer anchored retail shopping center, catalyst for redevelopment of East Chicago’s Central Business District.
- NEC 76th/Ashland: 50K square foot community shopping center.
- NWC 119th/I-57: Target anchored 38 acre/400K square foot shopping center.
- NWC 76th/Stony Island: Staples Office Supply, K&G Fashion Superstore, and Walgreen’s anchored 65,000 square foot retail center.
- SEC 95th/Jeffery: Walgreen’s and Ace Hardware anchored 50,000 square foot retail center.
- NEC 111/Kedzie: Walgreen’s and Starbucks anchored 20,000 square foot retail center.
- SEC 21st/Wabash Avenue: L’Oreal Corporation redevelopment of former storage facility into first Research and Development campus in nation.
- SEC Armitage/Cicero: outlot broker of Home Depot anchored center.
- SEC 103rd/Western: Walgreen’s anchored retail center.
- SEC McCormick Blvd./Lincoln Avenue - Lincoln Village Shopping Center: redevelopment of first shopping center built in Chicago, over 130K square feet of retail center space anchored by Border’s Books, Office Depot, and Fifth Third Bank.
- SEC Van Buren/Morgan: Shurgard Storage Centers build-to-suit re-development of 100 year old multi-story building.
- SEC 71st/Stony Island: Starbucks and LaSalle Bank retail center.
- Metropolis Park - a new community of 50+ market rate homes located in the North Washington Park/Grand Boulevard community.
Sample Development Projects
McLaurin Development Partners
McLaurin Development Partners
Development Services
Conceptual Development Plan
'Make no small plans' is a noted and frequently referenced quote in Chicago; and it is a guiding principle we adhere to when embarking on new plans, ideas, and visions. Every project can not be an award winning design or development, however, our enthusiasm and resources expended towards every project reflects an award winning effort. From concept to design detail through occupancy McLaurin Development Partners remains a partner with its clients and an invaluable team member.
Site Selection
McLaurin Development Partners is first and foremost a real estate development firm considered specialists and experts in identifying the best real estate on behalf of national/regional/ & local retail and institutional clients. We have amassed a proven track record of developing retail and commercial centers that consistently rank amongst the highest in our clients' markets as determined by volume and profitability.
Assemblage
From single land owners to very difficult and cumbersome multi parcel assemblages, keen timing and coordination is one of our strongest attributes and a necessary requirement for a successful development program. Our expertise in urban markets, strategic planning, and a skilled and proven approach, are creative skills we possess to navigate large tract assemblages in environments where others might feel intimidated.
Approvals
McLaurin Development Partners has been extremely successful at marketing non-traditional and untargeted sites to national retailers and institutions to achieve better market penetration and increased shareholder value. Through education and unique demographic analysis potential real estate development sites previously overlooked have become stable profit centers for our retail and institutional clients.
Entitlements
Not every community boasts a simple approach to large scale planned developments, the merging of sometimes conflicting and different public and private interests to facilitate a common development goal requires dramatic attention to detail and foresight to conquer potential obstacles. This arena is where we are most competent and differentiate ourselves from the development landscape, and are often sought after to consult even on projects where we are not owners.
Program/Project/Construction Management
As part of McLaurin Development Partners turn-key solutions to our client endeavors we typically deploy our in-house professional team of program/project/and construction managers to help manage daily activities of the development process, with emphasis on construction. To date, we have managed millions of square feet of new construction and rehabilitated space comprised of retail, institutional, and residential projects.
Occupancy and Revenue
We thoroughly understand the internal corporate and institutional approval process and how schedules impact bottom line performance and evaluation. When mercantile stores or institutions are unable to open on pre-determined milestone dates its impact has a domino affect throughout the corporation/institution and the communities it serves. We steadfastly hold schedules and budgets as our template to the development process, realizing our clients' successful on-time opening and consistent positive revenue bodes well for future relationships.
McLaurin Development Partners our work link text and ajax pop up
McLaurin Development Partners
Sample Projects
Divisionth & Larrabee NWC, Chicago, IL.
This site is a portion of the former Cabrini Green Housing projects of the CHA. Under the HUD/CHA Plan for Transformation the high-rise residential buildings were demolished to facilitate new ‘mixed-income’ communities, however, the current state of the economy was not favorable for new residential development. McLaurin had been working with Target for several years to develop a new store in the area, when the CHA new residential development plans stalled MDP initiated an historic deal structure whereby HUD/CHA would enter into a land swap transaction to facilitate this new retail development. The site location is one of the most ideal in the trade area and other developers anxiously await its start to help rejuvenate other proposed projects.
Developer: McLaurin Development Partners
76th & Ashland NEC, Chicago, IL.
A once thriving industrial land use that housed several independent manufacturing businesses, most of which had gone dark over the past several years, the multi-parcel land assemblage started years prior to consummating a deal with Wal-Mart stores. Street and alley vacation, lot and plat subdivision, environmental remediation, rezoning, and significant infrastructure improvements are also part of this Planned Development. The site is immediately adjacent to an active rail line which creates construction adjustments and ‘no-build’ zones. The new Wal-Mart anchored shopping center is the first new development in the area in decades and will certainly spark other desired new investment.
Developer: McLaurin Development Partners
111th & Kedzie NWC, Chicago, IL.
This two (2) acre site is in the midst of a dense urban Chicago community with a long and rich history, downtown Mount Greenwood. The property was home to an old prototypical Walgreen’s drug store with smaller neighborhood retail adjacent to it. To facilitate a more efficient and urban design we acquired the original Walgreen’s, an additional full city block of other dilapidated commercial property and residential parcels to assemble the necessary footprint. The project involved street and alley dedication, lot and plat subdivision, rezoning, as well as significant utility infrastructure improvements. The result is 20K sq. ft. of new retail including Walgreen’s, Dunkin Donuts, and restaurants that will become a pedestrian friendly destination point and act as a gathering place for the entire community.
Developer: McLaurin Development Partners
95th & Cottage Grove SEQ, Chicago, IL.
A forty (40) acre multi parcel assemblage comprised of mostly vacant industrial/light manufacturing property. Two existing businesses will be relocated within the city of Chicago in more modern and efficient space, saving 50 manufacturing jobs. A large portion of the property has never been developed and requires significant environmental remediation and rail spur vacation. Street and alley vacation and dedication, lot and plat subdivision, rezoning, and significant infrastructure improvements are all necessary to facilitate the project which consists of:
Kwame Nkrumah Academy (CPS charter school)
- 75K SF +/- retail
- 100+/- senior housing units
- 25K+/- SF medical office and outpatient care facilities
- 100+/- multi-family/student family housing units
- 200K+/- SF indoor athletic facilities
- LEED certified mixed use planned community
Developer: McLaurin Development Partners
76th & Stony Island NWC, Chicago, IL.
Vacant for several years, this three and one half (3.5) acre site with a fifty thousand (50K) square foot retail space was the home of the former Goldblatt’s Department store. The site required zoning amendment, significant site improvements and building subdivision to facilitate our redevelopment efforts. Now, this site has 65K sq. ft. of new retail space including a Walgreen’s, the first Staples office supply store on Chicago’s south side, and the only K&G Fashion Superstore, (Men’s Warehouse Subsidiary in Chicago)
Developer: McLaurin Development Partners
71st & Stony Island SEC, Chicago, IL.
71st and Stony Island created a buzz in the community. This one (1) acre site was assembled from two owners, one out of bankruptcy from a former fast food chain operator and the other from a national retailer who was unsuccessful in its attempt to rezone the property for its intended use. Starbucks and Bank of America now occupy this site which has become front page headlines. The Starbucks store consistently outperforms its projections and estimates and has become ‘the’ gathering place for the community.Developer: McLaurin Development Partners
McLaurin Development Partners
McLaurin Development Partners in the news
McLaurin Development Partners Cabrini Green Development Project
Vision for Cabrini Target unveiled
BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter/mihejirika@suntimes.com
A 150,000-square-foot, three-story Target bringing 200 jobs — 75 reserved for public housing residents — would sprout on 3.6 acres at the corner of Division and Larrabee in July 2013, sharing with new condos and town homes the land on which once stood the Cabrini-Green development’s William Green Homes. But that’s only if it can withstand a cacophony of competing concerns. “This is a potential benefit to the community, a potential start of an economic boom in Cabrini,” said Ald. Walter Burnett (27th). “But that’s just my opinion. It’s not my approval. All of this is pending on if the community likes it and accepts it. I’m not going to disregard the community’s concerns. And there are concerns.” The innovative land swap deal that would bring Target to the Cabrini site, where the agency on March 30 began tearing down the last of the infamous high-rises, represents a first not only for the taxpayer-funded agency but for the retail giant as well. “A retail development project of this magnitude and scale with a government agency as land owner has never been done,” said the developer, Zeb McLaurin of McLaurin Development Partners. “It’s an unprecedented transaction, so there was no template.” It first had to clear hurdles at the Chicago Housing Authority, which tabled the project — estimated with a pricetag of $40 million to $60 million — while pushing its demand for jobs.
Target found the request of 75 jobs for the community’s poor reasonable. It will provide a job training program and job fair to help prepare residents for the available hourly, part-time and full-time positions. But the publicly traded, Minneapolis-based company drew the line at CHA’s request for management jobs for its residents. “It was a discussion point as we negotiated the deal,” said Kellie O’Connell-Miller, CHA’s vice president of strategic planning and public affairs. “One of the biggest successes of CHA’s Plan for Transformation is moving residents to self-sufficiency.” Others said Target argued such a guarantee would discriminate against Target employees who had worked their way up, and could be interpreted to mean regardless of qualifications. The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce entered negotiations. “We have the potential here to create what will probably be just in construction alone, 125 jobs, and $40- to $60 million being invested in the community,” chamber president Jerry Roper said. “That ultimately creates the types of jobs where people can enter and move up from there. I had to do the Henry Kissinger thing.”
But now the big-box retailer must scale resistance from Cabrini residents who feel proprietary over what’s built on the land. Not just the poor living in the remaining row houses and in public housing units within Cabrini’s mixed-income condo and town home developments, but also their middle-class neighbors. For their part, the public housing residents remain leery of anything that does not resemble replacement housing. Their reasoning: Redevelopment of Cabrini under the historic transformation plan initiated in 1999 calls for 1,200 new public housing units to replace those lost in the demolished Cabrini Extensions and Green Homes. Only 395 to date have been built. But Burnett and CHA officials stress there will be no net land loss for development of the new housing. “We are aggressively pursuing properties with Target to make sure we are able to bring back the number of units we committed under the plan,” said O’Connell-Miller. In exchange for the Cabrini site, Target will purchase from private owners within the boundaries of the city’s Near North Redevelopment Initiative several parcels equaling the site in size and value, turning them over to CHA. The CHA residents’ homeowner neighbors, on the other hand, are worried about the impact of potential noise, traffic and trucking on the neighborhood. The new store’s design is Target’s typical urban format, with 150,000 square feet of sales space built atop a ground-floor parking lot with 360 parking spaces. It would have four truck docks. The third floor would be reserved for stock.
The store would offer its traditional cheap chic, one-stop shopping for clothing, electronics, home goods, etc., with a small grocery section, a clinic and a Starbucks. Target, however, has responded with a traffic analysis showing a large share of its potential customers would visit the store either on foot or public transportation, and it has promised to address concerns over potential noise from overnight deliveries. It will be a challenge to meld all the concerns, but the company has shown itself resilient thus far, said Burnett, describing Target as willing to help meet some of the community needs of its new proposed Near North Side home. “Target is one of the top corporate community sponsors in the country,” Burnett said. “They’ve been open to discussions about adopting our schools, tutoring, after-school programs, and other things. The thing about transforming communities is that you get new bricks and mortar, but the social issues don’t go away.” On Monday, the company came out to Cabrini to begin its community outreach. Executives outlined the plans at a community meeting. Said Target spokeswoman Molly Synder, “We pride ourselves on being a company that listens to our guests and develops stores in areas that will be embraced by the community.”
Click here to read the Fox News Segment about McLaurin Development Partners
Fox News in the Morning Show Classic Chicago Segment aired Thursday, March 3, 2011.
For better viewing of these articles
McLaurin Development Partners
McLaurin Development Partners
Please Contact us at:
McLaurin Development Partners
A Kinbez Holdings Corporation134 North LaSalle Street
Suite 2150
Chicago, Illinois 60602
312 263-4660 office
312 263-6455 fax
contact.us@kinbez.com
www.kinbez.com