Hilco Real Estate (HRE) is proud to announce that Dan O’Brien, Executive Vice President and Partner at Hilco Real Estate, has been named one of Crain’s Chicago Business 2024 Notable Commercial Real Estate Leaders. This honor recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation and commitment to excellence in the commercial real estate industry.

Mr. O’Brien recently led the Hilco team in their large-scale restructuring of approximately 500 leases across 20 countries for WeWork, as part of one of the most significant real estate bankruptcy cases in history, helping the client improve annual profitability by more than $800M, and diminishing future liabilities by more than $10B. Prior to WeWork, Mr. O’Brien led the restructuring of 600+ leases in the U.S. and Europe as part of the Cineworld/Regal Cinemas bankruptcy, as Hilco represented the lenders who converted billions of dollars of debt to equity, where lease renegotiations achieved more than 200% of the originally budgeted profit improvement, creating more than $1B of enterprise value.

Mr. O’Brien has been with Hilco Real Estate since 2008 and provides clients with nearly 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate sector. Mr. O’Brien focuses on broad market analysis to then develop strategies to hone tactical planning, assess asset optimization, and maximize brick & mortar positioning within varying marketplaces. As a team leader with Hilco Real Estate, Mr. O’Brien has worked complex cases for clients, inside and outside bankruptcy, across the U.S. and Canada, as well as the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia, assessing, managing and repositioning real estate portfolios in order to mitigate risk and enhance sustainable growth potential.  Mr. O’Brien has assisted 100+ tenants in his role at Hilco Real Estate, restructuring thousands of leases and procuring billions of dollars in value for clients such as WeWork, Cineworld/Regal, J.Crew, Cyxtera, Cinemark, Godiva, Claire’s, L’Occitane, Gymboree, as well as a host of restauranteurs including Applebee’s, Boston Market, Nando’s, Logan’s Roadhouse, Ovation Brands, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Landry’s, Claim Jumper, Mimi’s Café, Sbarro and Sarku Japan. Mr. O’Brien received his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University’s School of Law in Chicago. He is an active member of several professional organizations, including ICSC, TMA, and ABI.

“I am honored to be recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of the Notable Commercial Real Estate Leaders,” said O’Brien. “At Hilco Real Estate, we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional transactional negotiating services and strategic guidance to help our clients minimize risk and achieve their business objectives.”

From landlords to brokers, dealmakers to CEOs, Mr. O’Brien and the experts at Hilco Real Estate excel across all asset types at managing critical relationships while delivering marked results. Their dedication to providing in-depth analysis and strategic guidance has consistently helped clients navigate the ever-challenging commercial real estate marketplace.

About Hilco Real Estate: Hilco Real Estate (www.hilcorealestate.com) is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois (USA). Hilco Real Estate is a national provider of strategic real estate repositioning and disposition services. Acting as an agent or principal, Hilco Real Estate advises and executes strategies to assist clients in deriving the maximum value from their real estate portfolio. Whether it is by implementing thoughtful lease restructuring techniques, creative asset management services or leveraging multi-faceted sales strategies via a vast and motivated network of buyers and sellers, Hilco Real Estate exceeds expectations even in the most complex transactions.

Hilco Real Estate is part of Northbrook, Illinois based Hilco Global (www.hilcoglobal.com), the world’s leading authority on maximizing the value of business assets by delivering valuation, monetization, advisory, and capital solutions to an international marketplace. Hilco Global operates more than twenty specialized business units offering services that include asset valuation and appraisal, retail and industrial inventory acquisition and disposition, real estate and strategic capital equity investments.