About
We’re a mission-driven, team building machine.
We’re able to stake out opportunities years ahead of the curve because our horizon centered investment strategy is dictated by data and animated by our values, vision and experience.
Our Mission
To develop exceptional environments for the people who live, work and move through them.
We prioritize aligning the following human aspects of a project to facilitate smooth risk-mitigated progress though it’s lifespan. With this multi-faceted approach, we create the most market-responsive and location-appropriate plan and lead each team to deliver a product that maximizes both possibility and returns.
Development & Operation Teams
Neighborhood & Community Leads
Government Partners
Our Values
01Impact
We craft environments for the passionate citizens who bring them to life, that they might discover the space to build the communities which reflect their own values.
02Relationships
The capital that matters most. We only go as far as the earned trust, good will and shared vision that unites our global lattice of our relationships.
03Commitment
Our commitment to the lasting impact built environments can have on their communities is integral to the value we build. Deeply crafted placemaking, driven by data and human design, is a rising tide for investor interests as well as civic pride.
04Trust
Everything we do emerges first from the trust that binds our relationships. We seek to deepen, defend and steward that trust every day with every decision we make. This is who we are..
Our culture
We are an inclusive, mission-driven, team building, place making partnership that thrives on integrity, passion and data.
We are taught by the past, engaged in the present, and inspired by the future.
Diversity & Inclusion
We haven’t recently acquired a ‘commitment to diversity’ - inclusion is simply a natural law in our worldview. Too much value and too many great ideas have been lost by too few people having a seat at the table. In our business there is no excuse for that kind of wastefulness. Aggressive accountability structures around minority and women owned business participation at every level of our projects is a principle we are compelled by.
Giving & Service
Developing great real estate and investment opportunities is not enough. We need our work to do more. We listen to our employees, our partners and our communities about where the gaps are and how we can best serve the efforts of those on the ground making a difference. Then we commit the resources it takes to make the differences that matter.
Integrated Wellness
In the same way that healthy, balanced communities drive long term value for our partners, we know that the health and wellbeing of our people directly correlate to the productivity, efficiency and creative capital of our operations.
Sustainability
Better thinking powers better developments.
Sustainability is about so much more than slapping a few solar panels on the roof.
Urban environments are facing pressures that will only intensify in the decades to come. For us sustainability is about baking in an aggressive, innovative and dynamic approach to placemaking that lasts. Our developments and investments must be a rising tide in the communities we are privileged to partner with. So together we craft projects that can respond to immediate needs and evolve with the times.
CEO and Chairman of CB Richard Ellis Memphis, LLC for 20 years. Sold the company to CBRE, Inc. at the close of 2015.
Board of Directors, Magna Bank (1999-2015)
Board of Directors, Cotton Carnival of Memphis (2009-2012)
Board of Directors and Board of Governors, New Memphis Institute (formerly Leadership Academy of Memphis) (2004-2011)
Board of Directors, Diversity Institute of Memphis (2003-2006)
Board of Trustees, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (2000-2008); Chairman (2004-2006)
Board of Directors, Orpheum Theatre (2000-2008); Chairman (2006-2007)
Board of Directors, Make-a-Wish Foundation (1990-1998); Chairman (1995-1997)
Co-Chair and Co-President, LEDIC Property Management (2003-2006)
Kevin Adams
Managing Partner
Thirty-five years ago Kevin crossed the river for the first time and became a Memphian. Just a few years out from lettering with SMU’s Pony Express, the young Texan came to Memphis to develop and help run the first sign of Downtown Memphis’ resurgence, the new Morgan Keegan (now Raymond James) tower.
In the half a Memphis lifetime since, he has built buildings, companies, and a family here; he has crafted partnerships all over the country that have employed hundreds. And he’s been blessed with the chance to make a difference in the places that have shaped him most.
Few of the flagship buildings in the city have not been managed, leased, owned, bought, or sold by Kevin and his teams over the years. He carries with him decades of experience shepherding iconic Memphis buildings like One Commerce Square, Brinkley Plaza and One Memphis Place. Some 30 years ago Kevin and then partner Earl Blankenship formed a company to fill the 3rd party commercial real estate gap they found in Memphis. That firm would evolve into the regional CBRE affiliate where hundreds of Memphians have built careers.
Kevin has capitalized on this leadership experience outside the Bluff City, from Sun Valley to Florida’s Gulf Coast and points between. As the managing partner here at Big River, Kevin is the lead Developer entity for Union Row. He is grateful for the chance to serve the team that is seizing this opportunity to remake our downtown core for the Memphis yet to come.