Episode description

In this episode we speak with Ben Hilliker, the founder and CEO of Hilliker Corp., a commercial real estate firm in St. Louis. Ben graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and was President of an engineering firm with offices in five cities, prior to entering the commercial real estate field. In 1973, Ben sold the engineering firm and went to work in commercial real estate. In 1985 he established Hilliker Corporation, which has grown to 18 full-time agents today.

Hilliker Corp. is known for its focus on challenging, and largely urban, properties. In the podcast Ben talks about the changing math of historic St. Louis warehouses where residential conversions led to a massive jump in prices and the preservation of dozens of threatened buildings. Other dynamics in the St. Louis commercial real estate are touch on as well, including the impact of the 1993 flood and the then depressed market.

nextSTL began as the St. Louis Urban Workshop in 2009. Since then, the site has continued to incorporate more voices across more platforms to tell the story, past, present, & future, of St. Louis. Now it’s time to launch the Future Great City podcast.