Eisenopoly Returns for 11th Year, With Some New Features

Known as “the best party of the winter” in Chicago real estate circles, Eisenopoly is set for its 11th annual iteration this Friday, Jan. 31 at Revel Fulton Market. Beyond providing an evening of fun and mingling for about 600 attendees, the fundraising event of the Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation (HEEF) furthers the organization’s mission of funding research into gastrointestinal cancer, which claimed the life of its namesake.

Tickets will be available up until the event itself. Click here for more information.

“As the event has grown and we continue to find new and fun ways to improve the event, we’re excited about a couple of key differences” this year, Hanna Oimoen, Eisenopoly co-chair, told Connect Media.

The Jail ‘n Bail feature, in which attendees throw fellow guests in “jail” and then bail them out by donating to the fundraiser, has been reconfigured as “cash cubes.” An associate with Pritzker Realty Group amd member of HEEF’s associate board, Oimoen explained, “If you’ve seen these game shows with money flying around in a glass cube, that’s what we’re going for.”

She added that the VIP lounge, previously intended mainly as an area for event VIPs to play Monopoly-themed board games, has been revamped as a lounge for attendees to mingle and to partake in tastings, both alcohol and food, the latter from some of the city’s prominent chefs.

Oimoen’s co-chair, Dentons Associate Attorney Samuel Harmelech, noted that the annual silent auction is part of the mix. “We’re really trying to focus on auctioning experiences, as opposed to items,” he said.

Although the 2020 event marks Harmelech’s first year as Eisenopoly co-chair, he has been on the HEEF associate board for the past few years. He gravitated to the foundation after meeting Peter Eisenberg—president of the foundation and son of Harold E. Eisenberg—and learning of HEEF’s dual mission of fundraising cancer research, and providing real estate scholarships and mentoring for younger members of the industry. The two men had something in common: the father of Harmelech’s fiancee had succumbed to another form of “this horrible disease” of cancer.

Oimoen came to the organization as a student; she was a HEEF scholarship recipient in her junior year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “I can attest first-hand how the education aspect is impactful” and how her career has been aided by knowing the foundation’s board as well as board members’ colleagues,” she said.

“It’s a family organization that truly wants to help students and young professionals find their way in this industry,” said Oimoen. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of this organization, so it’s very near and dear to my heart.”

Connect Industrial Midwest is coming to Rosemont, IL on March 4. For more information, or to register, click here.

Pictured, at top: Eisenopoly 2019. Below left: Hanna Oimoen. Below right: Samuel Harmelech.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny