George W. Gager
Prior to joining Griffon Group, LLC as the Managing Director for the northeast region, Mr. Gager spent two years as a Community Renaissance Fellow at the Yale School of Management. During that time he also provided private sector development expertise to the Detroit Housing Commission in its development of three HOPE VI sites with an overall development budget in excess of $250 million. He has worked and lectured on every aspect of the HOPE VI program and currently focuses on management improvements for PHA’s. Mr. Gager is a specialist on coordinating and managing every aspect of the real estate development and construction from market and proforma analysis, through design, estimating, demolition, construction, leasing and property management.
Prior to his work in Detroit Mr. Gager worked for three years as a legislative liaison for U.S. Congressman Sam Gejdenson with responsibilities that included HOPE VI grants and other HUD initiatives. Mr. Gager has also served as CEO of several companies. As a Managing Director of Cambium Partners, he created an investment company that used capital from Wall Street to securitize real estate mortgages held by the insurance and pension industries. As the CEO of the related Chester Group he created an organization to purchase companies with undervalued assets and excess real estate. He has managed hostile construction contracts, completed award winning historic rehabs and arranged the syndication of historic tax credits.
As CEO of The E&F Development Company and the related Trefoil Development Company he created and led two divisions of a building and development company with $145 million in total 1986 sales. This was the largest company in its market and had a legendary commitment to quality construction and corporate integrity. He successfully managed a period of change as sales and profits increased over four-fold in ten years. He was responsible for the development and construction process from concept through completion in both union and open shop environments. Projects included hospitals, apartments, subsidized housing, large-scale urban renewal projects, industrial parks, small-business incubators, shopping centers and office buildings.
Mr. Gager began his career with the nation’s seventh largest apartment builder. Eventually, he had responsibility for all new development from market analysis through feasibility studies, land acquisition, design, financing and syndication, on projects as large as 3,300 units. This company managed over 5,000 market rate and subsidized units and built over 150 FHA subsidized homes per year.
Mr. Gager received his Bachelor of Arts at Connecticut College and attended the University of Oregon, Graduate School of Architecture.
Mr. Gager was added to HUDs list of HOPE VI expediters in the spring of 2000 and is designated as an expediter under Griffon’s current contract with HUD.