Phillips says the position "gives me the opportunity to leverage what I was doing on a much broader scale." While with Seefried, he developed more than one million sf of industrial with a market value of more than $100 million.

HSA has three million sf of development projects planned for the year. Two of the projects the firm is working on are the one-million-sf industrial and retail International Commerce Center in Mount Pleasant, WI and the Baton Rouge West Distribution Center in Port Allen, LA, which will have two buildings totaling about 500,000 sf, Phillips says.

As for future developments, Phillips says, "for this year, we will have to carefully navigate the current markets." New development starts are expected to be down for HSA, like many developers, he says. "It is going to be my job, at least in the first six to 12 months, to look for growth markets to do new developments," he says. The firm will be looking for places that they can "add value and unlock value," such as brownfield sites and redevelopment sites in the Chicago area, as well as growth markets in the southeast and southwest parts of the country, Phillips says.