John Burns, RPA

John Burns is a commercial real estate consultant serving clients in the Chicago metropolitan area. He is an executive with over 20 years experience developing solutions in the commercial real estate community. Clients include: AECOM Consult (national transit consultants), University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Perritt Capital Management, Schafer–Condon–Carter Advertising, U.S.–China Investment and Trade Development Associates, University of Chicago Medical Center/Comer Children’s Hospital, Horvath Reich CDC, the National Association of Realtor’s National Center for Real Estate Research, and GO Consulting in affiliation with Transit Realty Advisors and Jones Lang LaSalle.

Prior to establishing his consultancy, John served as the Executive Vice President of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago (BOMA/Chicago), the premiere trade association for the office building industry.

While at BOMA/Chicago he represented the commercial real estate profession and industry to various governmental and regulatory offices, lobbied on behalf of BOMA’s membership and served on city task forces and advisory groups including the Task Force for office buildings for the Chicago Central Area Plan.

Before joining BOMA/Chicago, John served as a commercial real estate executive with Frain Camins & Swartchild (FC&S) as Senior Vice President/Portfolio Manager for the management division with responsibilities for a portfolio of commercial property investments for institutional clients. While at FC&S he directed multiple property management teams, served as court appointed receiver, created a seminar with a prominent law firm on receivership practices for real estate owners and investors, and established strategic links with real estate, civic and municipal groups on taxation, energy deregulation and other industry related issues.

John lives in LaGrange, Illinois where he served for several years as Chairman of its Economic Development Commission. He has been actively involved in a number of professional and community organizations as both a member and officer. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and serves as an Advisory Board Member of UIC’s Center for Urban Real Estate program in the School of Business Administration. John is a guest instructor for the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign’s School of Architecture in its graduate course for the Integrated Design and Construction of Buildings where he developed and co–teaches its Management, Leasing and Operations class. He is a member of Lambda Alpha International, the Chicago Committee on High Rise Buildings, The Chicago Architecture Foundation, the City Club of Chicago and serves on the board of directors of the Northern Illinois Commercial Association of Realtors (NICAR). He earned the RPA (Real Property Administrator) designation through the Building Owners and Managers Institute. John is an Illinois licensed real estate broker.