2020 Year in Review: Edward Zuker, Chestnut Hill Realty

What was the most difficult part of working during the pandemic of 2020? Lack of face to face collaboration in the decision-making process. 

What was your greatest professional accomplishment or most notable project, deal, or transaction in 2020? Starting construction at Hancock Village. We are adding over 400 units, bringing the total of units to nearly 1,200 and varying between townhomes for families and flats for empty nesters and millennials, with a mix of affordable housing. Also including a new 25,000 s/f community center. The permitting began in 2006. Who says real estate takes patience?

What is the best advice you have received and who was it from? Location first, quality of property second, but location always – from Irving Stone, my surrogate grandfather, who took me under his wing and helped me finance my first purchases of rental property during the oil embargo recession in the 1970’s.

What are your predictions for commercial real estate in 2021? A year of survival of the fittest, filled with opportunity and loss.

What aspects of working from home have you enjoyed the most? Short commute; lack of traffic.