Terra Firma Co
- December 2008Neighborhoods are dynamic places. From day to day, month to month, year to year—the ways people experience neighborhoods constantly evolve. Residents and businesses come and go, leaving their impressions on the surroundings. Events enliven the days and mark changes in seasons. Some neighborhoods lose what once made them attractive, while others thrive and become hot spots. Landmarks disappear with new ones rising in their place. Structures built for one reason are repurposed for a new future. In the most successful communities, careful planning behind the scenes plays a critical role in keeping a neighborhood alive, welcoming, and relevant to the people who interact with it. Good planning acknowledges how every part affects the whole.
Located in a warehouse building on Ravenswood Avenue bordered by the Brown Line and Metra tracks, Terra Firma Co. is a real estate development firm dedicated to projects that enhance communities by remaining respectful of their natural assets. Key to the firm's process is the idea of sustainability. This not only relates to the environmentally sensitive practices that the firm supports, it also describes the results the firm always aims for and the principles behind what they do. Terra Firma Co. takes on projects that fit well into their surroundings and improve the areas where they're located through long-term thinking and planning.
The Terra Firma Co. office is an open, loft-like space filled with shelves of books on urban planning, as well as samples of cabinets and countertops for its Fountain View project in Lincoln Square. The firm's founders, Brad Leibov and G. Benjamin Ranney both work in the space, along with their co-worker, Jason Kraus. Each brings his own varied background to the firm, but they are united by their common philosophies and goals. "We have a great partnership," explains Ben. "Our complementary skill sets and personalities help us balance our goals and ambitions to meet the daily challenges of running a small business." Brad echoes these sentiments. "Our skill sets overlap in some ways," says Brad," but we both take on different aspects of the business to manage our day-to-day work."
Ben brings a combination of scholarship and hands-on experience at all levels to his position at Terra Firma Co. Before graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in English literature and international studies, Ben traveled to Oxford, England to study literature. He also completed an internship with an environmental nonprofit in Boston and studied architecture while working in real estate in Santiago, Chile. When he was still at Northwestern, Ben worked for a contractor who specialized in restoring and reconstructing historic barns. "I was a general laborer for his crew," explains Ben. "Some barns we restored on-site and others we dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere."
After graduating, Ben was hired by The Shaw Company, a Chicago-area real estate developer. "I started in the construction division, working on an affordable housing project in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the site of the former Sears Catalog headquarters," recalls Ben. "It was my first experience with master planning for a community." Ben continued to expand his interest in development when he returned to Evanston to work for Arthur Hill & Co., the master developer behind the rebuilding of a seven-acre site in downtown Evanston into the Century Theatres, shops, and restaurants. "I came in during the discussion phase of the project, when it was about two years from breaking ground," recalls Ben. He contributed to the zoning and municipal relations for the project, as well as on the construction and tenant relations side. "It was a good experience," says Ben. "Evanston is a great microcosm representing the types of issues you find in larger urban areas. There's a lot of civic involvement there, and I encountered a number of people who were engaged with what we were doing. Deals had to be arranged with the city, the university, existing businesses, and the local transit organizations. I gained a lot of experience in government and community relations."
Ben's next step brought him greater involvement with sustainable development. Prior to founding Terra Firma Co., Ben was Director of Development for Prairie Holdings Corporation, creator of the Prairie Crossing conservation community in Grayslake, Illinois. Prairie Crossing is a project that Ben has been close to on multiple levels. "My family has been involved with this project for many years," he explains. "It's a development on property near the farm that my father grew up on in Lake County. I remember my parents unrolling the plans for Prairie Crossing on our kitchen table in Hyde Park when I was a teenager." Ben's father, George A. Ranney, is an attorney who became involved with issues of regional planning from a legal and economic perspective. His mother, Victoria Ranney, is a historian and editor whose interest in planning issues grew from her work on a book of letters from Frederick Law Olmstead, the influential landscape designer who created Central Park. "My mother was a great student of social planning from the perspective of art and nature," explains Ben. "I was exposed to both my mother's and my father's ideas as a kid." Prairie Crossing was built to counteract the disadvantages of what had become the typical suburban landscape. "My parents recognized that the existing suburban model wasn't working, from the traffic patterns it caused, to environmental issues, and the lack of cultural and social interaction," says Ben. "They identified an appropriate plan based on ten guiding principles and then found the right developers to execute the plan."
On his own path of study in urban development, Brad studied political science and economics at DePaul University. "I was always interested in social inequality and urban development," he recalls. "I was lucky to have some great professors who guided me as I studied the social and economic reasons why communities developed for the better and the worse." Like Ben, Brad lived in Hyde Park for a time, which is where he began his career. "I was at a lecture at the University of Chicago and saw a job posting for The Woodlawn Organization. I applied and was hired to design and manage a program to identify and train public-aid recipients for employment." During his time there, Brad helped build a nationally recognized program that provided training and employment opportunities for more than 1,400 people. "Many of our clients had been out of work for five to 10 years, and some for 10 to 20," recalls Brad. "We were trying to help them improve their circumstances in life and indirectly improve the communities where they lived."
Although his time there was rewarding, Brad left the Woodlawn Organization to take a position as the executive director of the Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce. "I was searching for a position where I could have a direct impact on the development of the community," says Brad. "I jumped at the chance to come to Lincoln Square and work on community issues." While at the chamber, Brad began building a more robust organization to meet the growing demand of the neighbors and to attract more businesses as members. His work inspired him to enroll in the graduate program at UIC in urban planning and economic development. "As executive director of the chamber, I was asked to comment and advise on plans for the neighborhood," recalls Brad. "I felt that I had to rely on developers too much to answer my questions. I wanted to have my own tools to be able to examine critically what is being done in the community and the city." He received his master's degree in Urban Planning and Policy in only two years.
As he was studying and running the chamber, Brad became involved with the Urban Land Institute, an organization that studies land use practices. "I was one of only several dozen people under the age of 40 at the organization," recalls Brad. "I approached the leaders and proposed forming a committee to attract members who were under 35 and active in real estate, but were not aware of the organization. I wanted to help create a network in the city where young professionals could develop relationships with established members of the community." He put together a business plan for the committee and started asking other members if they knew anyone who would be interested in participating. "Ben's name kept coming up," says Brad. "We started meeting to discuss our ideas for not only this committee, but also for the region at large." At the same time, Ben bounced many of his ideas off of Brad. "Brad became my sounding board," recalls Ben. "I could always go to him to discuss issues from the development point of view." Brad left the chamber in 2004 to found his own consultancy, New Chicago Fund, to apply his knowledge and experience to help improve retail districts around the city.
In 2005, Ben and Brad began discussing a development project in Lincoln Square now known as Fountain View. Through their discussions, the two decided to create their own company to manage the project. So Terra Firma Co. was incorporated in January 2006. They recognized that the time was right to combine their knowledge and experience to create better developments that were assets to the community. "We realized that between our skill sets, there was an opportunity to make places more special and improve the fabric of urban areas," Brad explains. "As people who care about cities, we were intensely frustrated with the quality of the developments we saw," says Ben. "We both felt it was our responsibility to do things differently rather than sit back and critique others' work." From the firm's start, Brad and Ben were determined to take on projects that make a difference, incorporating elements like green building and high quality construction that make neighborhoods better.
Both Ben and Brad acknowledge the important role the Kraus family has played in the Fountain View project. As the owners of the Martin's Big and Tall property, it was their vision to create a new building that would bring a positive change to the neighborhood. "Fountain View couldn't have happened without the Kraus family," says Ben. "They really have seen the redevelopment through to a higher standard. Their goals fit incredibly well with what Brad and I wanted to do." Jason Kraus, the family's son who worked in the men's clothing store while growing up, now works for Terra Firma Co. "Jason is a true jack-of-all-trades and a savvy real estate professional," explains Ben. "He's our key point of interaction with the members of the community and with our buyers. He's the person they've gotten to know as Terra Firma." Fountain View's first closing took place in November, with a buyer who worked with Jason for more than a year.
Fountain View is the type of project that exemplifies what Terra Firma Co. wants to bring a neighborhood. Its location in the center of Lincoln Square's shopping district makes it a perfect building to incorporate desirable retail space. "We designed the building to offer quality retail space with minimal columns, open space, and high ceilings," explains Brad. The building's architecture doesn't mimic the surrounding structures, yet it complements them. "We made it of good, quality materials and so that it's slightly contemporary in design," says Ben. "It's a solid building that will last, and that turns out to be the most environmentally conscious thing you can do." Countless features make the building not only more green, but more efficient for those who live there. "We chose elements to make the building work better," explains Ben. "For example, the floors are high-quality bamboo, but they look gorgeous too."
During the entire construction process, Terra Firma Co. has had a LEED accredited person working on site every day. "All our contractors agreed to work on a building that would be LEED certified," explains Ben. LEED certification involves fulfilling a list of criteria that ranges from the materials used, to how they're put together, to how energy-efficient the building is. Terra Firma Co. has been checking everything throughout the building process. Tests have shown that Fountain View's residences are 58% more energy-efficient than the average home of comparable size. "Fountain View is expected to receive LEED Silver Certification. As of today, no other condo building in the city of Chicago has received this level of certification," says Ben.
About half of the residences have been sold so far. The first resident arrived in November. Interested people can visit Fountain View's five model residences, as well as the unfinished units that are still available. On the retail side, sixty percent of the space has already been leased and there's been strong interest in the remaining spaces.
Today, a hand-painted Martin's Big and Tall sign hangs on the wall of the Terra Firma Co. office. Local insurance agent Michael Maher rescued the sign prior to the demolition of the Martin's Big and Tall building and brought it to the original painter for restoration. He then gave it to Terra Firma Co. The sign hangs as a reminder of how neighborhoods may change, but their roots will always remain as a strong part of where they're headed next. "It may have been our youth and naivete that inspired this," says Ben, "But we have a great partnership now, as well as a couple great buildings we've built already—and more great things are to come."
Terra Firma Co.
1802 West Berteau Avenue
Suite 207
Chicago, IL 60613
>773.388.2600
www.terrafirma-co.com
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