Bill Alter's is a classic American success story -- that of a self-made man who prospered thanks to luck, intelligence, and a true entrepreneurial spirit. His business acumen made him one of the most influential people of the 20th century, according to National Real Estate Investor magazine, and earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Industrial & Office Parks and the Urban Land Institute. Over a half century, Bill’s company developed more than $1 billion of space in markets stretching from Phoenix and California to Chicago to Georgia and Florida to Washington, D.C.

The defining moment of Bill’s early career as a homebuilder came in south suburban Markham, IL, where he developed Kingston Green, the first residential community for middle-income minority buyers. With Olympian Jesse Owens as his national spokesman, Bill brought the American dream to families who previously had been excluded from home ownership.

As a leading urban-planning expert, Bill pioneered seminal concepts in real estate, such as the early use of planned-unit developments (PUDs); the design/build construction delivery method; the development of suburban office/service-center campuses; the introduction of the ReadiDesign™ concept of pre-designed, pre-specified office buildings; and the creation of an entire healthcare real estate affiliate. He was also a nationally renowned expert on real estate issues, testifying on Capital Hill and advising Governor William Stratton of Illinois on metropolitan planning with the Alter Plan for Illinois.

During the 1970s, The Alter Group began focusing on the advantages of providing single-source, turnkey development to corporate clients and became the Midwest’s foremost build-to-suit developer. During the next two decades, its national build-to-suit program led to industry-leading facilities for a Who’s Who of Corporate America.

The Alter Group entered the Atlanta market in the 1980s, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. in the 1990s, and Southern California in the 2000s, expanding its national reach to every part of the United States.

A shrewd businessman, Bill assembled a core group of executives – comprised of Mort Borkan, Sam Gould, Randy Thomas, Ron Siegel and Richard Gatto – who have been together for 25 years and led the company to its position as one of the industry’s top 10 developers.

Bill Alter lived by a simple creed of optimism. When he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Urban Land Institute at age 74, he told the audience "I never look at the past. I always look to the future. Even at my age."