Prior to joining Avison Young, Mr. Waites was the Senior Managing Director and Midwest Regional Lead of Investor Services with Cushman & Wakefield. Mr. Waites grew property management and agency leasing from 4.5 million square feet to over 45 million square feet of office, industrial and retail properties for key institutional investors and owners. Prior to Cushman & Wakefield, Mr. Waites served as Chief Operating Officer of John Buck International where he helped establish a property and asset management division based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Mr. Waites built a property management and consulting portfolio of approximately 10 million square feet of office, retail, mixed use and university facilities. Prior to his role with John Buck, he held an Executive Vice President, Asset Management position with Riverway formerly, Prime Group Realty Trust, a self-managed and administered publicly traded REIT, where he managed approximately 8 million square feet of class A and B Chicago and Suburban office buildings,  structured in excess of 5 million square feet of leasing and participated in the disposition of approximately 4 million square feet of office assets as well as the sale of the REIT’s controlling ownership to the Lightstone Group.  Mr. Waites also acted as asset manager for approximately 38 facilities totaling approximately 4 million square feet of industrial and mixed use properties acquired from Sealy in the South, South East and Puerto Rico on behalf of Prime Group Realty Trust’s parent, The Lightstone Group

Credentials

Certified Public Accountant
Illinois Real Estate Broker
Board member of the Marshall Bennett Real Estate Institute Advisory Board
The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) and has participated in the Labor Negotiation and Taxation Committees; The Commercial Real Estate Network (CREN); Friends of the Chicago River; Delta Institute; National Association of Office and Industrial Properties (NAOIP)  
 

MBA, Thunderbird School of Global Management, AZ,
Bachelor of Arts- Economics, Illinois State University, IL