AECOM Consult/ Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

AECOM Consult and John Burns Consulting Company advise Chicago Transit Authority’s Board of Directors to consolidate its internal real estate function and examine maximizing outsourcing of real estate services to increase efficiency/effectiveness and identify opportunities to increase revenues from its real estate portfolio.

View John Burns' interview in the video news feature on the CTA's naming rights deal with Apple as reported by Chicago Business Today, powered by Crain's. (10/26/09)

The CTA owns and leases a diverse portfolio of real estate assets including: right-of-ways, subway and elevated train stations, maintenance, repair and training facilities, bus turn-a-rounds, parking lots, retail facilities and office/administrative buildings for its headquarters, control center and data center.

In 2005, CTA retained AECOM Consult (an affiliate of DMJM Harris) to conduct a Transformation Study of CTA’s operating components—one of which was real estate. John Burns Consulting Company was hired as a sub-consultant to AECOM Consult to provide a review, analysis and recommendations for increased effectiveness, cost reductions and increased revenue opportunities which could be derived from CTA’s real estate assets. John Burns Consulting Company contracted with Rutledge Company, LLC, an independent real estate consulting firm with institutional expertise in trust and asset management. John Burns and John Rutledge formed the real estate Transformation Study team.

In addition to recommendations on internal CTA consolidation of real estate services and maximizing outsourcing of those services where appropriate, JBCC advised AECOM and CTA of opportunities designed for increasing real estate revenue via advertising possibilities at CTA properties; increasing the number of ATM’s and associated fees at CTA properties; and the potential for significant revenue from corporate naming rights to CTA’s seven existing commuter train lines.

JBCC was awarded a second subcontract in 2006 from AECOM Consult to provide services for several tasks related to optimizing CTA’s real estate management structure, its pursuit of potential outsourcing, subsequent performance tracking and evaluation and to identify state of the art information technology resources for consideration and implementation.