Chicago, Midwest | Weekly People & Companies for April 19, 2024

The Chicago Bears have added two high-profile two legal hires amid the team’s push for a new stadium. Andrea Zopp will be the team’s senior adviser for legal and business affairs. Zopp was most recently a managing partner at venture capital firm Cleveland Avenue and she served as Chief Executive Officer and President of World Business Chicago. Krista Whitaker also joined the Bears from the Miami Heat as the new executive vice president of legal and business affairs and chief legal officer.

Cleveland-based The NRP Group has hired Bill Zunamon as Vice President of Development. This strategic hire marks NRP’s expansion beyond market-rate developments in Florida to include affordable and workforce housing projects. Zunamon will report to Aaron Pechota, Executive Vice President of Development at The NRP Group. Zunamon will play a role in establishing NRP’s affordable project portfolio in the state.

Ben Salomone has been promoted to Senior Asset Manager at ML Realty Partners, a real estate investor focused on the acquisition and development of industrial real estate headquartered in Itasca, Illinois. Salomone will oversee all day-to-day asset operations and third-party property management for ML Realty Partners in both Chicagoland and Dallas-Fort Worth markets.

Mosaic Construction, a full-service commercial and multifamily design-build firm, welcomed KC Downer back to its growing team. In his role as a sales executive at Mosaic and its two additional verticals, Design Construction Concepts and Cannabis Facility Construction, Downer will build business relationships with developers and owners to identify new project opportunities. Based in Northbrook, Downer brings more than 18 years of experience in facility management, design-build, general contracting and sales.

Chicago-based Bridge Industrial has appointed Charles Baigler to lead its pan-European operations. Baigler joins from Pictet Alternative Advisers, where he worked for five years as head of direct real estate, managing the firm’s pan-European private equity real estate funds. Prior to that, he founded CBRE Investment Management’s flagship, value add fund series – Europe Value Partners – establishing, raising, and deploying two pan-European real estate funds.

Friedman Real Estate’s Zach Cumming recently completed the sale of a 12,952-square-foot industrial building at 1700 E 14 Mile Road in Madison Heights, Michigan. This sale, structured as a lease-back agreement, involved the firm representing both the seller and the tenant. Additionally, Friedman’s Josh Miller closed the sale of a 13,553-square-foot single-tenant industrial building located at 1130 Livernois Road in Troy, Michigan. Friedman represented the purchaser in the transaction.