Not long after serving in World War II, Eugene “Gene” Glick founded a home building company in 1947 in Indianapolis. He built the Gene B. Glick Co. into the largest single-family home builder in Indiana by the early 1960s, the same year the firm built its first apartment community. By 1974, multifamily housing had become Glick’s sole focus, and now, 70 years after it began, the company is one of the largest privately held real estate management and development firms in the country, with more than 20,000 units in 12 states.
Its current portfolio consists of roughly 40% conventional and 60% affordable units. David Barrett, the company's president and CEO, says Glick is a long-term holder of its properties but will sell when a good deal pops up. Because of its diverse portfolio, Barrett adds, Glick fared decently well during the downturn and only sold a “handful” of properties in the past two years when the market was “white hot.”
Most of its properties are in secondary or tertiary markets, and, Barrett notes, most properties in the conventional portfolio are about 25 to 35 years old and could be described as “B.”
Glick doesn’t develop many properties anymore, but it is working on a 196-unit luxury building on the north side of Indianapolis. its first units were delivered in April, and the rest will be rolled out by the end of September.
Though its development appetite might be modest, Glick has been buying properties this cycle. Barrett, whose wife is the grandchild of company founders Gene and Marilyn Glick, joined the firm in 2007. At the time, the company had about 17,000 units in 10 states.
On the affordable side, most of Glick’s portfolio is Sec. 8. But no matter whether the units are market rate or affordable, Barrett says, Glick operates them the same way. “Just because people don’t have means doesn’t mean they’re not entitled to quality affordable housing,” he says of the founders’ philosophy.
Those founders, Gene and Marilyn, who died in 2012 and 2013, respectively, still have a profound impact on the company, especially through its various philanthropic entities.
Philanthropic Focus
In 1982, Gene and Marilyn Glick established their philanthropic arm, now known as the Glick Philanthropies. Today, it holds more than $600 million in charitable assets in the various entities under its umbrella, each with a specific focus, such as the Glick Family Foundation, which makes grants, and Glick Gives, which matches qualified charitable contributions from Glick employees to not-for-profit organizations. A third entity, the Gene B. Glick Family Housing Foundation, owns a number of the affordable properties managed by the Gene B. Glick Co. and works to acquire, develop, and preserve quality affordable housing throughout the U.S.
And this year, to mark the company’s 70th anniversary, the Glick Family Foundation selected 70 employees at random and gave them $1,000 each to designate to the charity of their choice in an extension of the Glick Gives program. As a whole, Glick has more than 750 employees.
The bulk of Gene and Marilyn’s wealth went to the Glick Family Foundation, which, in turn, has been the primary funder of the entities and initiatives of the Glick Philanthropies. “We’ve had such a successful for-profit business that our founders could do this,” says Barrett, who also oversees the company’s philanthropic arm. “Gene and Marilyn had the foresight and values that really drive the company to say, ‘Hey, we really want to give back to the community.’ ”
As a whole, Barrett says, the company has donated about $150 million in its history. These days, though, it’s more strategic in doing so.
For the past two years, Glick Philanthropies has homed in on Indianapolis' Far Eastside, which Barrett describes as one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city. Rather than making more one-off grants, the organization “wanted to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to really lift up the Far Eastside,” he says.
Glick, in conjunction with the Central Indiana Community Foundation, has been working on a collective impact plan that looks at societal problems, including housing, education, and intergenerational poverty in the area.
The Far Eastside Success Initiative has special meaning for the company because its original headquarters was based there.
“In order to make an impact and be successful, we wanted to be thoughtful and deliberate about it; we wanted to not impose our plan on that community, but involve the community,” Barrett says, adding that local input has been sought throughout the process.
“So many charitable efforts are well-meaning, but many times they’re trying to serve such a broad population that the support they provide is diffused a bit,” said Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett, in a statement. “That’s why I commend the Glick Philanthropies for its focus on the Far Eastside of our city. It’s an area that’s in desperate need of the type of public–private partnership investment the Glick Philanthropies is so good at doing. With that laser focus, we can see the dial move, not over 10 to 20 years, but in one to two years.”
The Glick Philanthropies has invested more than $6.4 million in the Far Eastside, and by the end of 2017, the company’s philanthropic entities will have invested $8 million. Glick is also the lead organization coordinating multiple community partners, including the local United Way, the city’s largest school district, Goodwill Industries, and other neighborhood-serving groups, as they work to implement the comprehensive redevelopment plan. Glick has invested in three full-time social workers at its Far Eastside property to help residents climb the economic ladder.
That property, Carriage House East (CHE), has more than 600 units and is used by Glick as a conduit to bring services and programs into the community.
Overall, the initiative is still in the planning stages, but Glick is invested in the project for the long haul.
“If we can be the catalyst and we can get other interested stakeholders involved, Barrett says, “we think we can really gain traction there and take a really hard-hit area of town and give it the lift up it needs.
“Philanthropy is just part of who we are.”
