User:Jennifer Kahnweiler/sandbox



Louis S. KahnweilerBold text (Oct.14, 1919 - Feb. 26, 2017) was a real estate pioneer who in 1947, with Marshall Bennett founded one of the first major industrial real estate firms in Chicago, IL called Bennett & Kahnweiler. He is known for the development of industrial parks including the  2,300-acre Centex Industrial Park in Elk Grove Village, IL west of O'Hare airport. One of the first things Kahnweiler did after forming the company was to break a rule of the real estate profession that prohibited a broker from developing and owning property. In so doing, he set Bennett & Kahnweiler`s successful course over the next three decades. Kahnweiler amassed a portfolio of 26 industrial parks around the country. In 1985, he added investment counseling, property management, office brokerage and development to a company better known as a broker of factories and developer of industrial parks.

Among Kahnweiler's adages was, "Don't ever become a prisoner of your financial lifestyle," said David Kahnweiler, his nephew and CEO of the firm today. It is now known as Colliers International, after investments by a Toronto-based commercial real estate servicer. A Chicago native who served in the U.S. Navy, Kahnweiler was only 5-foot-4 but came across as imposing, especially over the phone. "He would negotiate for every last cent," said his nephew David Kahnweiler.

He was active in the community and a philanthropist who never asked for recognition for his contributions. Kahnweiler served as President of District 108 School Board in Highland Park, was on the board of directors of Highland Park Hospital, Exchange National Bank of Chicago and Roosevelt University. He funded the college educations of several aspiring young people both in the US and abroad.

Kahnweiler was very proud of being a cousin of the famous art dealers Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Gustave Kahnweiler, ardent champions of Picasso, George Braque and Cubism. He personally met with Gustave Kahnweiler on a visit to London in the 1980's. The painting, Portrait of "Kahnweiler" (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler) hangs in the Chicago Art Institute.

Kahnweiler also possessed a keen sense of humor. Hyatt Hotels executive John Pritzker told David Kahnweiler he recalled booking comedian Henny Youngman for two nights at the Hyatt Lincolnwood, one of the properties with which Kahnweiler was involved. "Every time thereafter Lou would lay a Henny line on me as though he'd been touched by the one-liner muse."

Inline citations add… http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-10-13/business/8503110117_1_industrial-parks-real--estate-brokerage-firm https://www.bisnow.com/chicago/news/commercial-real-estate/My-Story-Marshall-Bennett