Mark Kaplan, 40, is a self-made, one-man real estate conglomerate who is juggling $421 million in new development.
Clustered under the umbrella of The MARC Group, an Inverness-based holding company founded by Kaplan in 1977, the new projects include the firm`s largest and most ambitious project to date.
Construction will begin next year on Pleasant Prairie, a 433-acre, $200 million project near Kenosha, Wis., that will be the largest new mixed-use development in southeast Wisconsin.
It will encompass a 168-acre golf course surrounded by 391 single-family homes as well as 168 townhouses, 120 apartments, a 150,000-square-foot shopping center, hotel and 300,000 square feet of offices.
Two other MARC Group projects break ground Sunday: Regency Plaza in Palatine, a $16 million, 15-acre shopping center whose 133,000 square feet of retail space is 80 percent pre-leased; and LakeView in Barrington, a $35 million, 38-acre development of 79 semicustom luxury homes which attracted more than 100 buyer inquiries even before sales opened last weekend.
Under construction are:
– Silver Glen Estates in St. Charles, a $50 million, 274-acre residential community of 153 single-family homes priced from $500,000;
– Williamsburg Village in Inverness, a colonial-style office park launched in 1981 whose $20 million second phase will bring the project`s total development to 500,000 square feet in 68 buildings on 32 acres; and
– Bald Eagle Club at Deer Valley, Utah, a $100 million mountaintop country club-ski community with townhouses, single-family homes and a 23,000- square-foot lodge.
The Mark Kaplan empire has been forged in 13 years by this son of a New York City cab driver who initially thought of becoming a veterinarian but switched to pre-med while working his way through Ohio State University.
Kaplan`s first exposure to real estate came after earning his bachelor`s degree in biochemistry.
”I was in debt from college and needed some money,” he recalled. ”I took a part-time job selling tract houses in a Long Island subdivision. After one week I gave up on medicine. At age 22 I was making $1,000 a week without the time, money and struggle involved with medical school, internship and residency.
”I`ve not once regretted the decision. I love this business.”
His week-long part-time stint became full-time selling land tracts, homes and commercial properties for City Investing Corp. of New York.
Kaplan married his college sweetheart, Judith, and rose to sales manager and trainer before being transferred to Chicago in 1974.
”City Investing planned to develop a large subdivision here and sent me to be sales manager,” he said. ”My wife and I built a house in Palatine, and nine months later, just as we were ready to move in, the company told me I was being transferred. The subdivision never materialized.”
Kaplan elected to stay in Chicago rather than be transferred, a decision that enabled his real estate career to flourish in earnest.
He served as regional vice president in charge of sales for Realtor G. Grant Dixon Gallery of Homes in west suburban Naperville until 1977, when he decided to form his own ”quality” brokerage.
M.A.R.C. (Marketing Advanced Realty Concepts) Realty & Investment Group Inc. was a residential and commercial brokerage, investment syndicator and rehabber of homes for resale.
”The realty business was not as sophisticated then as it is today,”
Kaplan said. ”We were innovators in 1977.”
His innovations enabled M.A.R.C. to be among the first Realtors to computerize, to utilize buyer/seller research, to use visuals as sales aids, to establish corporate relocation programs and to shun the traditional store- front image in favor of a professional office environment.
In 1982 he affiliated with Red Carpet to create Red Carpet MARC Realty, also headquartered in Inverness.
His residential mortgage company was formed in 1987 as an adjunct to the realty business.
That year he created The MARC (dropping the periods) Group, which today embraces MARC Realty & Investment Corp. (Red Carpet MARC Realty), MARC Development Corp., MARC Construction Corp. and MARC Mortgage Affiliates.
MARC Development and MARC Construction were established in 1981 to develop and build Williamsburg Village, whose $27 million first phase involved 38 residential-style office buildings of 2,000 to 10,000 square feet each.
The combination of building ownership, colonial architecture and Inverness location proved successful despite the recession of 1981-82.
The initial development at Euclid Avenue and Roselle Road was sold out by 1987.
”The idea for a development offering a residential look with commercial application was borrowed from a small commercial project I saw in Chico, Calif.,” Kaplan said.
”It was five colonial-style office buildings that could be purchased rather than rented. I thought the concept ideal for an Inverness site, and the village agreed. They were excited by it.”
Today the colonial Williamsburg architecture set in a parklike environment is a model for such commercial projects, and has encouraged Kaplan to prepare for a second phase of 30 more buildings on 12 acres to the west of the original development.
”The office market has been very weak, but this type of property, with its economic benefit of ownership, has its own niche,” he said. ”There really is no competition for Williamsburg Village.”
Another niche discovered by Kaplan spawned the new Regency Plaza Shopping Center being built at Quenten Road and Euclid Avenue in Palatine.
”There`s nothing else serving south Palatine and Inverness,” he said.
”Retail in some areas is overbuilt, but in this case there`s a need and demand. That`s important to me as a builder-developer who uses his own money!”
The center will be anchored by a Piggly Wiggly store of 41,650 square feet, a 13,500-square-foot Walgreens drugstore and a True Value Hardware with 12,500 square feet.
The grocery and drugstore are to be ready by November with the entire center open by January 1991.
Upscale housing-homes selling for $500,000 or more-has been a specialty of the MARC companies.
”My background as a Realtor has helped me as a builder-developer because I know what the buyer wants, including careful attention to detail,” Kaplan said.
That knowledge has helped to make Silver Glen Estates a success.
The 274-acre community of 153 homes at Silver Glen and Randall Roads in west suburban St. Charles opened last summer.
Kaplan is building 100 of the homes; the balance of homesites are being sold to individuals or other builders.
MARC Construction`s homes, designed by architect Dwight DeLattre of New Horisons, range from 2,800 to 6,000 square feet and are priced from $500,000. Kaplan`s newest residential project, LakeView, is on 38 acres at Hillside Avenue, Eastern Avenue and Northwest Highway in Barrington.
Purchased in 1986, the site was planned for a shopping center buffered by townhouses, a concept rejected by the village.
It now will be developed for 79 luxury semicustom homes designed by architects Balsamo/Olson Group. All homes will be two-story with four bedrooms, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 baths and two-car garages. Prices will start at $350,000.
His most ambitious project to date is Pleasant Prairie in Kenosha County, Wisconsin.
The 433-acre mixed-use development plan is in the preliminary design, and approval stage with actual construction is scheduled for next year.
”This will be the finest mixed-use development in southeast Wisconsin and offer the most expensive homes,” Kaplan said.
The site is on Wisconsin Highway 50 one mile east of Interstate Highway 94, across from a 900-home subdivision to be built by The Zale Group, another Illinois-based home builder.
Simultaneous developments of such scope keep Kaplan busy enough that any free time is devoted to his family, wife Judith and their children, a daughter, 11, and son, 7, and their home in Inverness.
Family recreation commands a high priority and resulted in a condominium on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, for summer water sports and a house in Deer Valley, Utah, for winter skiing.
Skiing is a family passion, Kaplan said. ”Both children have been skiing since they were in diapers.”
It was on the slopes at Deer Valley that skier Kaplan met the owner of 126 acres atop Bald Eagle Mountain, a site the builder-developer thought ideal for what could be ”the finest ski community in the country.”
The property owner came to Chicago, liked the houses that Kaplan built and his plans for the Bald Eagle Club.
The sale was made, and now Kaplan is building what he says is ”the most exciting project I`ve ever done.”
A total 25 townhouses will be priced from $1 million. Fifty-three single- family homes will cost $1.5 million and up.
Building sites, one-third of them sold even before roads were built, start at $500,000.
The private gatehouse community is designed as ”a country club in the sky, literally surrounded by ski lifts and trails.”
Among the new residents: the Kaplan family, whose new 7,000-square-foot
”second” home is being designed by architects Rick Otto and Mark Walker & Associates.
Whether in suburban Chicago, Wisconsin or the mountains of Utah, Kaplan is confident of his market for luxury homes.
Despite the view of many builders of a softer market for upscale housing, Kaplan insists ”there is a huge demand for moveup housing.”
”I see it through both the brokerage and construction companies,” he said.
”But it also is a discriminating market. This level of buyer won`t buy unless his quality and design demands are met.
”A home has become the way for these people to compensate themselves. The market is not driven by price speculation but by a desire for a quality lifestyle.”
Ever the entrepreneur, Kaplan regards his heavy work schedule as ”fun.” ”This business is like walking through a forest creating your own path because there`s none to follow and you never know what`s going to spring out a you,” he said.
”And there`s a special reward and satisfaction in seeing your product accepted and the consumer enjoying it so much.”
