Commercial real estate 'Woman of the Year' named

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 6, 1996

Arlene Wysong, senior managing director of Newmark Real Estate and president of CREW-NY, said "Leanne has very unassumingly been a quiet force for years. She has been on the Board of CREW for eight years, and has helped individual members and the organization enormously. The Board agreed that it is time to honor her as she deserves. She has an outstanding intellect and is propelled by a determination to see forward movement: of individuals, companies, the real estate industry, organizations, and society. She shares her expertise without asking for anything back. We are very fortunate that we have the opportunity to honor her and bring attention to one of the most unusual and positive forces in the real estate industry."

She continued, "Leanne Lachman, with her extensive writing and speaking, has made people think in broader and deeper ways about real estate and investment. Her grasp and perception of economics and demographics as they relate to real estate are tremendous."

Lachman moved to New York in early 1987 to join Schroder Real Estate Associates, which specializes in real estate asset management for institutional investors. Her responsibilities include overall strategic planning and client relations. In the aggregate, Schroder manages over $1 billion in real estate, primarily shopping centers and office buildings across the country. She is also Managing Director of Schroder Mortgage Associates, which makes commercial mortgages and buys commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) on behalf of institutional investors.

Prior to joining Schroder, Lachman spent 26 years with Real Estate Research Corporation (RERC), a Chicago-based national investment advisory and appraisal firm. As a consultant, she performed market analyses and provided acquisition and disposition advice for Fortune 500 companies, pension funds, real estate organizations, and government agencies. When she became president of RERC in 1979, she was 36 and was the youngest female chief executive officer of any major corporation in Chicago.

Lachman is a frequent speaker at nationwide forums and has a reputation as a remarkably accurate forecaster of real estate industry trends. She observes, though, that her predictions are not always positive. "In 1985, when I began predicting serious overbuilding across the country, people did not want to hear it," she recalled. "Like Cassandra, fewer and fewer people wanted to listen to dire predictions."

Times have changed, though. "Now we're in the up phase of the real estate cycle and it's wonderful to be able to be enthusiastic," she said.

Lachman is an expert in the application of demographics to real estate investment and management. Among her recent publications are: Immigration's Impact on Real Estate, Real Estate's Demographic Puzzle and Retail Trends: Consumers, Goods, and Real Estate.

Long a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute, the respected 14,000-member international research and education organization, Lachman currently chairs the Research Committee, which oversees a $1.5 million annual research budget. She recently led a ULI study tour to Southeast Asia, and has participated in conferences and study trips throughout the world, including Eastern Europe and South America.

In addition, Lachman serves on three corporate boards: Lincoln National Corporation and Liberty Property Trust, which are both members of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as Chicago Title and Trust Company.

Lachman has been a founding member of several women's professional organizations, including CREW New York. As she says, "Professional networking is important for everyone, but women generally have to look beyond their own firms to find female peers, so networking organizations can be enormously supportive."

Lachman received her B.A. in 1964 from the University of Southern California and was awarded her M.A. in 1966 from Claremont Graduate School. She is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in the Midwest, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, and The World Who's Who of Women.