Milton Podolsky enjoyed an enviably committed career that spanned a half-century of development and property management. He has died at 94 years old of natural causes in Boca Raton, FL, where he split his time between that sunny paradise and Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood.
One of his best known developments is the Westbrook Corporate Center, a series of five Y-shaped, 10-story buildings in Westchester. It had the country's first speculative day care center in an office complex.
In 1965, Podolsky teamed up with brokers Dick Pain and Steve Nardi to form a new industrial and commercial real estate firm, known first as Nardi, Pain & Podolsky and later as Nardi & Podolsky. In 1971, Podolsky went off on his own, forming Podolsky & Associates.
Podolsky had an aversion to excessive debt and would develop projects with low debt loads as a way to avoid the risk of ever losing a building to a lender in lean times or while searching for tenants.
Born in Chicago, Podolsky grew up on the West Side and graduated from Waller High School.
·Milton Podolsky, commercial real estate developer, dies at 94 [Chicago Tribune]