Mark J. Erickson, Manager, is an attorney with over twenty five years of experience in real estate development and management in both corporate and private practice. His experience spans project work including site acquisition, marketing and disposition of the completed projects, sale or lease as well as rezoning, site plan and other regulatory approval and construction management. In these capacities, Mr. Erickson’s expertise extends to working with government regulators at the State, regional and local levels, as well as with architects, engineers, builders, developers and lenders.
Mr. Erickson recently left private practice where his clients included several large residential builders as well as commercial and residential developers. During this time, he also served on both the real property tax review board and zoning board of appeals for Oakland Township, MI and the development process review advisory board of the City of Rochester Hills. Earlier, Mr. Erickson was in-house counsel for nationally recognized developer Sam Frankel, in Oakland County, Michigan. There he was responsible for the legal aspects of the real estate development and management and the business aspects of constructing and marketing of commercial and residential projects. Prior corporate experience includes managing the real property assets of Frank’s Nursery & Crafts, a retail chain with over 150 stores in 13 states. As Associate General Counsel for Real Estate, he also provided legal support in the acquisition of new retail locations and disposition of excess property assets for that company.
In his career, Mr. Erickson has had occasion to draft a wide variety of real estate documents for site acquisition or disposition, land use control, development agreements, leasing (whether office, commercial or residential) and financing instruments of all types. Mr. Erickson’s experience in these areas has been further put to use on the faculty of Michigan’s Institute for Continuing Legal Education teaching classes on real estate documentation. In addition to real estate law, his legal experience encompasses the various business entities used in the real estate business such as joint ventures, partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations.
Most recently, Mr. Erickson served as Vice President and General Counsel of C.H. Johnson Consulting in Chicago, IL, where he now resides. In addition to handling general legal matters, he also conducted an economic impact study for a new minor league ballpark and completed a study of the Event Center and Bowling Stadium both in Reno, NV. Other projects he handled for Johnson Consulting included a labor analysis for the Atlantic City Convention Center, oversight of developer proposals for a convention center headquarters hotel in Tucson, AZ and a feasibility and market study of the Innovation Village concept—a mixed residential, retail and football stadium project—for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. Mr. Erickson also consulted on projects such as a market and financing study for the Wheaton, IL Theater renovation, a performing arts center feasibility study in Federal Way, WA, a hotel market study in El Paso, TX and a mixed use development market analysis in College Station, TX.
Mr. Erickson holds a Bachelor of Science in History and Economics from Central Michigan University and a Juris Doctor degree from Thomas Cooley Law School in Lansing, MI. He is licensed by the State Bar of Michigan and has been an active member of its Real Property Section for nearly 20 years. Through his involvement with the State Bar, Mr. Erickson became active with a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. During his many years of involvement with Habitat in Oakland County, MI, he has served as a board member, Chairman and President of the affiliate and was instrumental in the successful merger of two Habitat Oakland County affiliates (a Habitat for Humanity first) into one of the largest Habitat affiliates in the country.