Alan Razak

Alan Razak is co-founder and co-owner of AR Spruce LLC, a Philadelphia-based company that plans, creates, and manages real estate. With more than 45 years of commercial real estate experience, Alan’s expertise encompasses development and project management, finance, architecture, urban design and advisory services. His diverse real estate background includes managing the development process, both as owner and as owner’s representative, and project types including residential, office and commercial, as well as data centers and other highly technical facilities. In 2023 Alan retired as a principal and is now Senior Advisor to the firm.

After years of principal positions in regional development and consulting firms, Alan started Razak Company in 2003, which in 2011 merged into AthenianRazak and in 2020 became part of the creation of AR Spruce. The combined firm has been responsible for the development of a large variety of projects in the Philadelphia region, ranging from innovative LEED-certified multifamily residential to the benchmark-setting professional sports training and headquarters complex for the Philadelphia 76ers. In its other two service arenas, the company has provided sophisticated and varied real estate advisory and analysis services for many of the region’s most important businesses, institutions, nonprofits and governments, and its property management operations focus on ushering distressed assets from failure to restoration, something AR Spruce has done through four market cycles for lenders, investors, owners, special servicers and the courts.

Alan’s professional pursuits, starting with his work as an architect in 1975, have always followed his eclectic mix of interests in the industry, from the minutiae of failed deal forensics to the big concepts of how to build better cities. He is deeply knowledgeable about the real estate development process, an expert in design and construction services procurement and contracts, a champion of responsible property investment and a vocal proponent of triple-bottom-line investment approach to real estate. As part of the ULI Learning faculty for over 20 years he instructed thousands of real estate practitioners on these topics in locations around the world. His work and the work of AR Spruce have won multiple awards for excellence in design, construction and sustainability.

Course Taught at the Weitzman School:
Design and Development (CPLN6430/ARCH7620)

Selected Affiliations:
− Registered Architect, Pennsylvania
− Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre: Chairman of the Board
− Urban Land Institute, national: Global Governing Trustee, past Chair Responsible Property Investment Council, Chair of multiple Advisory Services Panels, DEI Council working group chair, ULI Learning faculty
− Urban Land Institute, local: Philadelphia District Council past Governance Chair, past District Council Chair, past Chair of Mission Advancement

Education:
MBA, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Master of Architecture, University of Washington
SB Arts and Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology