Donal Smith

Donald A. Smith is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jupiter Realty Company, a Chicago-based real estate development, investment and management firm. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA in finance from Emory University in Atlanta. Before entering the real estate industry, he worked as a Senior Lending Officer at Continental Illinois National Bank (Continental Bank), where he financed real estate projects.

Smith joined the Jupiter enterprise in 1981 and has led the firm for decades. The Jupiter organization traces its real estate activity to roughly 1960, with Jupiter Realty Company formally incorporated in 1985 as a privately held, vertically integrated platform. Under Smith, the firm acquires, develops, finances, renovates, repositions, manages and ultimately sells a broad range of property types — high- and mid-rise office buildings, office parks, hotels, apartments and residential communities, regional and neighborhood shopping centers, free-standing retail, industrial buildings, mixed-use properties and land — timing its moves to real estate market cycles.

Over the last decade the firm has focused primarily on multifamily and hotel development, largely in and around Chicago. Smith is also associated with the affiliated multifamily entity Jupiter Communities, Inc. He is listed in real estate deal networks (such as Revere) as an executive focused on acquisitions and dispositions, ground leases, loan purchases, opportunity zones, partner buyouts, pre-development, recapitalizations, refinancing and rehabilitation.

• Invests directly in real estate assets across a full range of property types, taking projects through the entire lifecycle — acquire, develop, finance, renovate, reposition, manage and sell — rather than backing operating companies.
• "Vertically integrated" strategy: the firm controls development, investment and management in-house, allowing it to add value at each stage.
• Explicitly cyclical/opportunistic: acquires and develops "in response to the ebb and flow of demand and market cycles."
• Current concentration on multifamily and hotel development, especially in the Chicago metro and affluent western suburbs.
• Deal types of interest include acquisitions, development, ground leases, loan purchases, opportunity-zone investments, partner buyouts, pre-development, recapitalizations, refinancing and rehabilitation.
• Willing to buck local market trends — e.g., pursuing luxury for-sale condos when the market favored rental — and to target specific demographics (affluent empty-nesters downsizing from single-family homes).