Our Team
Lipe Property Company is anchored by two Principals: Steve Lipe, who manages all aspects of the development including design, marketing, sales and leasing and program management and Susan Lipe, who manages all of the company and project financing. As a boutique developer, Lipe Property Company is opportunistic in the types of projects it pursues. Lipe’s focus has been on the development of urban residential and urban retail. The Principals of the company have a particularly strong background in adaptive reuse.
Steve Lipe
Steve Lipe has been developing real estate in Chicago since 1994. In the mid-1990’s he helped found Chicago Urban Properties, one of Chicago’s largest loft and condominium developers in the latter part of the 1990’s. They developed over 600 lofts, condominiums and townhouses in a four year span.
From Chicago Urban he joined Centrum Properties as a partner in 1998. Centrum completed a wide variety of large-scale commercial and residential projects in Chicago and other Midwestern cities during Lipe’s tenure. The projects include two notable Chicago properties: 1) the redevelopment of the Montgomery Ward’s headquarters campus in River North into 2,500 dwellings units and over two million square feet of commercial space and, 2) the construction of the mixed use North Avenue Collection at North Avenue and Sheffield Street in Lincoln Park.
Lipe Property Company was founded in 2001. This boutique real estate development firm has allowed Lipe to combine the sophistication and quality architectural design evident in his earlier work with the personal touch and community sensitivity only available with a smaller, more narrowly focused company.
Susan and Steve live in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood where they are active in the community. Mr. Lipe has been involved with the Bucktown Community Organization since 1994, is a past President and Chairman of the Zoning & Planning Committee. Additionally, Mr. Lipe was on the Board of Directors of Namaste Charter School in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood.
Susan Lipe
Susan Lipe has been active in Chicago’s real estate finance community since the mid 1990’s originally with the Bank of Montreal. She joined Cohen Financial’s real estate investment bank in Chicago in 1998 and participated in the integration of Cohen’s acquisition of San Francisco-based E.S. Merriman and Sons as well as closing over $1 billion in real estate debt and equity transactions. Ms. Lipe returned to Chicago in 2001 as Director of Real Estate for Divine InterVentures and then joined Chicago-based investment bank Incapital as Managing Director of Capital Markets. She returned to traditional real estate lending in 2005 with LaSalle Bank as Senior Vice President Division Head in commercial real estate.
