CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Advisory Services practice of The Scion Group, North America’s leading consultants for higher-education student housing projects, today announced that it has opened a new regional office in Washington, D.C. and appointed a new senior project executive to support the growing number of colleges and universities it serves on the East Coast.
“This new office is reflective of our growth and enables us to be closer to the many institutions we advise on the Eastern seaboard,” said Jay Pearlman, senior vice president of Scion Advisory Services. “The Washington, D.C. office is an ideal complement to our other offices in Chicago, Dallas, Irvine and Toronto, providing us with a coast-to-coast presence in strategic locations across North America.”
Scion’s Advisory Services practice is The Scion Group’s original core offering, serving clients since 1999, and today is the sector’s only consulting practice focused exclusively on campus housing projects. Scion has served more than 200 higher education institutions and advised on more than $5 billion of new or renovated campus housing projects, including numerous public-private partnerships (P3). The Advisory Services team collaborates with clients in all aspects of campus housing: housing feasibility; master planning; residential life programming; operations; program management; and asset management.
To head up Scion’s new Washington, D.C. office and lead the firm’s P3 practice in the region, the company named industry veteran Ted Risher as senior project executive.
“Ted has more than 20 years of experience advising public sector and mission-driven institutions on their real estate development projects,” said Pearlman. “His expertise with a combination of financial and feasibility analysis, project structuring and financing, and negotiations of public-private partnerships makes him the ideal person to lead our practice from the new Washington office.”
Risher has advised on P3 and other real estate projects for institutions such as the University of Illinois, Howard University, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Navy and the city of Washington, D.C. He has been a guest lecturer at events sponsored by the National Council for Public Private Partnerships, Academic Impressions and P3 Higher Education. Risher earned a master of science in real estate development from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor of science in biology from Bridgewater College.
The opening of a new East Coast office comes on the heels of a series of recent investments The Scion Group has made in its growing Advisory Services practice. Last month, Scion Advisory Services launched the Student Housing Knowledge Center, an online portal providing free educational resources that has quickly become a popular source for higher-education student housing professionals.
About The Scion Group
The Scion Group is the largest privately-held owner/operator of student housing communities in the United States, with a current portfolio including 86 properties comprised of approximately 58,200 beds, mostly off-campus, and also including the management of two on-campus portfolios. Scion’s Advisory Services practice was founded in 1999 and is the sector’s most trusted consulting team, advising higher-education institutions on market demand, feasibility analysis, first-time housing, public-private partnerships (P3), and new or renovated campus housing projects. For more information, please visit www.scionadvisory.com.