Bill Struever

Bill Struever is one of the most prominent real estate developers in Baltimore's modern history. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Anthropology from Brown University and moved to Baltimore in 1974, working early on as a master electrician. That same year he co-founded the firm that became Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse (SBER) — alongside his brother Fred, his college roommate C. William "Cobber" Eccles, and Ted Rouse, son of legendary developer James Rouse.

Over roughly three-and-a-half decades, SBER grew into one of the largest developers in the country, specializing in historic preservation and urban revitalization and completing more than 17 million square feet of development. The firm became a national leader in using historic-preservation tax credits to adapt and reuse economically obsolete industrial buildings and reclaim urban brownfields. Struever's hand is behind many of Baltimore's signature reuse projects, including the Can Company and Canton Cove in Canton, Tide Point (Under Armour's headquarters), Tindeco and Bond Street wharfs, Clipper Mill, Stieff Silver in Hampden, Belvedere Square, and Cross Street Market.

SBER collapsed into bankruptcy in 2009 amid the 2008 financial crisis. Struever regrouped and launched Cross Street Partners in 2010, re-forming much of the SBER team into an integrated development firm focused on neighborhood-scale redevelopment and community transformation. As founding partner and CEO, he leads the company's master planning, real estate development, sustainable-development practices, and public/private partnership work. He is also the founder of the American Communities Trust, a nonprofit community development partner focused on bringing infrastructure, amenities, and services to low-income urban communities.

In 2017, the Baltimore District Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) named Struever its Lifetime Achievement Award winner at ULI's ninth annual WaveMaker Awards.

• Invests in and develops real estate — not startups — with an emphasis on adaptive reuse of historic and industrial buildings and revitalization of underused urban districts.
• Targets "economically obsolete industrial buildings" and "underproductive urban brownfields," a hallmark strategy since SBER, frequently financed with historic-preservation tax credits.
• Pursues inclusive economic development: his stated aim is "minimal displacement and maximum shared prosperity," and through the American Communities Trust he explicitly focuses on low-income urban communities.
• Favors large, catalytic, mixed-use campus and neighborhood projects that pair private development with public/private partnerships and community institutions (universities, CDCs, nonprofits, healthcare).
• Geographically concentrated in Baltimore and mid-sized Mid-Atlantic/Midwest cities (Cambridge MD, Winston-Salem, Durham, Dayton).