Nathan VonGunten is a senior vice president at GRS Group. He can be reached at 330.242.1991 or via email at [email protected]
Besides his tremendous basketball talents, LeBron James is also known for his passion about giving back to his hometown, Akron, Ohio. The LeBron James Family Foundation is the NBA star’s outlet to assist children in that city, through it’s I PROMISE program, which works with 1,400 kids in the Akron area to help them obtain four-year college scholarships, and other efforts.
GRS Group was fortunate to work on one of the foundation’s new programs, the I PROMISE Village, which is a multifamily temporary housing facility for displaced families. Says the foundation: “The Village is intended to provide immediate shelter, safety and support so that students are still able to attend school as we assist the family with a long-term plan for their future success.”
Graduate Hotels, a firm we have worked with before on some of their hospitality assets, is renovating the village, which is a Tudor-style building with eight units that was built in the 1920s. We were connected with them through our client, the Chicago office of law firm Perkins Coie.
GRS provided the ALTA Land Survey on the project, which is a regular service our firm provides to commercial real estate clients.
One aspect of the project that expanded our capabilities was conducting the interior survey on the village. Due to the age of the Tudor-style facility this aspect of the project, the fieldwork posed a bigger challenge than a more traditional commercial real estate asset. We were tasked with coordinating access to each unit, and the interior surveying work is more time consuming in such structure, as is the drafting process. GRS was able to complete the ALTA work and then transition straight into the interior surveying tasks.
Meanwhile, GRS Group has been very active with Perkins Coie, and we have partnered with them on several commercial real estate projects. Other work we have done with Graduate Hotels through the firm includes providing ALTA surveys and zoning reports on a 12-site portfolio in 2018 for Graduate ordered by Perkins Coie as well as three single sites this year.
GRS Group is always ready to tackle ALTA surveys and zoning reports for multifamily, hospitality and other types of commercial real estate projects. For this development, our team was fortunate enough to use our talents to help the LeBron James Family Foundation continue to make a positive difference for Akron residents.
About GRS Group
GRS Group is a leading provider of commercial real estate (“CRE”) services worldwide. With offices across the United States, Europe, and affiliates around the globe, GRS Group provides local market knowledge with a global perspective for institutional real estate investors, occupiers and lenders worldwide. The GRS Group team has evaluated and advised on over $1 trillion in CRE transactions.
Through the company’s proprietary management process, Global Services Connection, GRS Group delivers an integrated suite of services including Financial Advisory, Transaction Management, Assessment and Title Insurance. We provide a single point of contact, capable of leveraging the GRS Group portfolio of companies and delivering customized solutions to assist our clients in achieving their investment goals.