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Joe AlexanderBy Amanda Wegner
Joe Alexander, 30, is president of The Alexander Co. He sits on the advisory board of the Salvation Army of Dane County.
Q: How long have you been working in the family business? A: A long time. Officially, I got a child work permit when I was 14 and worked as a bike courier for the summer. The Alexander Company started as a small family business in 1982. The first job we did was restoring the two-flat that we lived in; I was on the job site, working, even then. We've really built from there. Q: What brought you back to the family business? A: It's been an important part of my life since I was 3 or 4 years old. We spent a lot of time on our own jobs, and the people here are part of my extended family. I have a lot of experience through my political work, civic involvement, past work and education, but I think what we do here is noble. Not only is it part of my life, but the work we do is good, and it's worth doing. We've grown — and continue to expand — beyond doing two-flats, so there's a lot of opportunity … and Randy, my dad, is not going to live forever. Q: You were recently promoted to president. What new job duties does this promotion entail?It's not a huge change from what I was doing before. It's more a clarification of roles between my dad and me in terms of succession efforts; the transition we are making now is our succession plan. The general operations of the company are my job, whereas he looks at bigger-picture issues and continues to be involved in projects. We are a one-stop shop for real estate. We do all our own development and financing work. We also do in-house design, construction management and real estate sales, both residential and commercial, and property management. I have the task of managing all that, as well as community outreach and business development. That's a lot of areas of expertise, so this is a chance to bring those areas together and get each person to bring their expertise to bear.Are there other family members involved in the business or is it just you and your dad?My younger brother, Nic, is here and does our marketing. He married one of our architects, Abby, last September. So we have plenty of Alexanders running around. You spent 18 months working in Washington, D.C., after college. What attracted you to political work vs. jumping right into the family business? I felt I had to go out and get as much experience as I could. I was very politically active from the time I was in high school until I came back from Washington. When I was a freshman in college, I ran for the Dane County Board, unsuccessfully; in retrospect, I'm glad I lost as those people have to sit through very long, tedious meetings.
Q: A: It's affected everybody. It's harder to get a loan, and that's a major part of what we do. But what makes us a strong company is that our work is diverse, geographically; at least half of our work is outside the state of Wisconsin. We are in several major markets, including, for instance, Kansas City, Mo., Washington, D.C. Plus, what we do is unique enough that our product is almost always in demand in one way or another. I mentioned that I think our work is noble. We do urban development. We do master developments that frequently include both adaptive reuse and historic preservation as well as new construction, which is an important part of financing the higher cost of adaptive reuse. We also do a fair amount of work that involves providing workforce housing. When you work in urban centers, diversity is something you encounter, and we really embrace that. Q: A: Probably 60 percent to 70 percent involves adaptive reuse. All of it, regardless of where it is, involves property that is not at its highest and best use, such as vacated buildings, and we do a lot of work on brownfield sites; in fact, Novation Campus, our office, sits on a former flyash landfill. We really do a lot of work that's difficult and that many other developers won't take on. There's plenty of work that's easier to do, but that's not us. Q: A: It's what we built on. All our original work in Madison and throughout Wisconsin was adaptive reuse and we grew into larger projects which gave us the opportunity to do more reuse and infill. Basically, we walked ourselves into it; we liked the work and we built our niche around it. It's far more interesting to all of us here than working on a subdivision and building a cookie-cutter product. Anyone can do that. Not many can do what we do. Q: A: I think if you look at almost any urban area across the country — we generally work east of the Mississippi River — you find over the last century, either through government or significant industry shifts, these communities have changed. So there are a lot of facilities and buildings that are such important parts of the built landscape and urban environment that need to find a new use; that's the adaptive reuse side. Plus, the responsible thing to do is to work through the challenges to create something new in the old, which is more interesting to the people who live and work there. And there's a lot of spillover; it's a better use of economic development dollars because you support transit, support opportunities to walk and bike, impact new retail and attract new residents. I don't think we are running out of things to do. Joe Alexander President of The Alexander Co. He sits on the advisory board of the Salvation Army of Dane County. Age: 30 Hometown: Madison Family: Single Education: BA in political science and history, law degree, both from UW-Madison Experience: He spent 18 months working in Washington, D.C., as special assistant to the assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Served on the UW System Board of Regents and Wisconsin National and Community Service Board The Alexander Company Nationally recognized for its achievements in urban development and historic preservation over the last 25 years, The Alexander Company has undertaken the development, finance, design, restoration, construction and management of over 250 projects, new and historic. Specializing in urban infill, new construction, brownfield revitalization and historic preservation, The Alexander Company's work gives new life to historically significant buildings and urban developments. Year founded: 1982 Address: 145 E. Badger Road, Suite 200, Madison Web site: www.alexandercompany.com Total employees: 60. A:
Q: A: I did serve on the UW System Board of Regents, as well as Wisconsin's National and Community Service Board, which is the board that administers AmeriCorp for Wisconsin. When I was in Washington, my work was in administration. If you've ever seen the movie Office Space, the best way to describe it was I was one of the Bobs; I'd look at ways we could operate more efficiently. That involved everything from how we awarded grants — which, at HHS, is hundreds of billions of dollars — to how we managed facilities, operations and human resources. I was given a lot of freedom in my job. Tommy Thompson and the assistant secretary, Ed Sontag, had enough faith in me that I was able to operate pretty independently. madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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