Industry to Academia: Reagan Pratt Brings Real Estate Innovation to DePaul
As Director of DePaul University’s Real Estate Center, Reagan Pratt draws on over three decades of institutional real estate experience to shape the next generation of industry leaders. His own path into real estate, however, wasn’t exactly planned. Instead, he describes it as “a series of accidental adventures” that began with an undergraduate degree in geography and a fascination with how cities work.
This curiosity led him to pursue a master’s in urban land economics at the University of British Columbia, though at the time, he didn’t even connect the program with a career in real estate. That path would eventually lead Pratt to help pioneer institutional investment in industrial real estate. After being recruited to Chicago in 1994 as the lead expert on industrial real estate at JMB Institutional, he helped establish warehouses as a legitimate institutional asset class at a time when pension funds were focused primarily on retail, office, and multifamily properties.
“Nobody knew what a warehouse was, how it worked, or why it would fit in their portfolio,” Pratt recalls. “I kind of feel like I helped position industrial real estate as an important institutional asset class.”
This early innovation in industrial real estate set the stage for Pratt’s distinguished twenty-year career in the public REIT space, where he managed pension capital investments and ran his own investment platform. His experience spans fund formation, capital markets, and institutional investment strategy, touching nearly every aspect of the industry except ground-up development.
In 2023, Pratt made the transition to academia, taking the helm at DePaul’s Real Estate Center. The move was partly motivated by a desire to pay it forward, building upon the foundation laid by the center’s founder, Susanne Cannon, whom Pratt had known for nearly 30 years.
Under Pratt’s leadership, the center serves as a crucial bridge between academia and industry. While other Midwestern universities offer real estate programs, DePaul stands apart in Chicago’s urban environment with its comprehensive offerings across undergraduate, graduate, and MBA levels. The program provides students with both broad theoretical understanding and specific technical skills, from urban planning and development law to financial modeling and Argus software proficiency.
“What I want when our students come out of the master’s program in particular, is to be able to go to a firm, or decide where they want to go and say, look, I can go underwrite acquisitions for Blackstone, or I can go develop affordable housing for the city of Chicago,” Pratt explains. With approximately 100 undergraduates and 50 graduate students enrolled, the program has become a significant pipeline for Chicago’s real estate talent.
The center’s approach to education reflects the evolving nature of the industry. Pratt often shares wisdom from Doug Crocker, former CEO of Equity Residential Properties and endower of Pratt’s chair. As Pratt recalls it, “Whatever we teach you in real estate, something’s going to happen that makes that seem irrelevant, and we have to teach you how to think and adapt to change, not what to think.”
Transformation in Chicago
Looking ahead, Pratt sees Chicago’s real estate market at a fascinating inflection point. He emphasizes Chicago’s unique position as one of the most affordable major cities in America, combined with its strong attraction for young talent, particularly from Big Ten universities. The city’s demographics tell an interesting story: while overall population growth may be modest, the under-35 population continues to grow as new talent flows into the city.
Chicago’s future, Pratt believes, lies in reimagining its spaces. He sees parallels between the current office market situation and the retail transformation of two decades ago. “The regional mall is dead. Nobody’s ever going to shop. It’s a dinosaur… And of course, we had 1,500, we probably need 250, so the truth is somewhere in the middle. That’s kind of what’s going on with Office.”
The Loop, Chicago’s central business district, exemplifies this evolution. Recent announcements of Google’s move into the Thompson Center and JP Morgan’s commitment to staying downtown demonstrate continued corporate confidence in the area. But Pratt envisions a broader transformation: “In a perfect world, we’ll get policy and economics right, and Chicago Loop will be a neighborhood much more than it’s ever been. It will be a business center as it has been, and it’ll be a retail entertainment destination.”
On the investment side, Pratt identifies significant shifts that will reshape the industry’s future. “The number one input into the production of real estate is capital,” he explains. “If you look at the fundraising from private real estate equity in the last ten years, it’s probably the top 10 managers are getting 75% of the capital.” This concentration presents both challenges and opportunities, particularly for smaller, entrepreneurial firms developing differentiated strategies.
Technology will play a crucial role in addressing these challenges. Pratt sees potential in platforms that can connect smaller managers with institutional capital, though he emphasizes the need for proper oversight and fiduciary responsibility. He points to the increasing sophistication of data analytics in real estate, from CMBS data mining to smart building technology, while maintaining that the industry will always require human interaction and judgment.
Bringing it Back to Campus
As DePaul’s Real Estate Center moves forward with its five-year strategic plan, Pratt is focused on deepening the program’s integration with industry. Plans under consideration include expanding the existing mentorship program, developing new internship opportunities, and launching a Co-Op program that would give students hands-on industry experience. By combining his institutional investment expertise with forward-thinking education initiatives, Pratt is helping ensure DePaul graduates are prepared for whatever the future of real estate might hold.
