CHICAGO, IL - CA Ventures, a U.S. real estate investment holding company, today announced the firm was named one of Chicago’s “Best Places to Work,” an annual list compiled by Crain’s Chicago Business. Rankings were revealed April 11 at an awards luncheon for the top 100 finalists that was held at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. The ranking marks the first time CA has been featured on the annual list.
“With our rapid growth from a startup focused on student housing to an international conglomerate with a $8.6 billion portfolio across virtually every major property sector, we’ve taken great care to build and maintain a vibrant corporate culture in which people look forward to coming to work each day,” said Tom Scott, CEO of CA Ventures. “This means that we offer comprehensive benefits tailored to reward the hard work of our employees, who we recognize have been the catalyst for our meteoric growth over the past five years.”
As one of only two firms to meet every categorical measurement in the “Best Places to Work” survey, CA offers a benefits package that includes unlimited paid time off, tuition reimbursement, 100% cost of healthcare benefits for employees and dependents, up to 12 weeks paid maternity and up to six weeks paid paternity leaves, a generous 401k plan and public transportation reimbursement.
Employee wellness is encouraged through a paid membership to CA’s on-site fitness center, as well as sponsored runs and athletic leagues.
“Continued education and professional development are critical for employee engagement and, as a result, top priorities for our company,” added Scott. “We’ve made an ongoing commitment to employee leadership training, offering promotional opportunities across verticals and functions, as well as supplementary group activities.”
Employees are encouraged to participate in three company affinity groups – Women of CA, Social Impact and Wellness – all of which offer educational and leadership opportunities for employees with similar interests. The company also offers quarterly town hall meetings where senior executives share objectives to unify teams across all verticals.
2018 was a pivotal year for the firm. CA delivered 4,200 units of student, senior and market-rate rental housing, adding to its existing total of 26,000 housing units, across all sectors, since the firm’s inception. CA also launched four new business lines: CA Industrial plans to invest $500 million in the logistics and distribution space over the next five years; CA Europe, the firm’s overseas division, plans to invest $500 million in European housing over next five years; CA Management Services oversees property management operations across CA’s entire student and residential portfolio; and CA Design Build is a general contractor arm for CA’s new market-rate apartments and industrial buildings within a 300-mile radius of Chicago. In 2018, CA also expanded in five international markets and increased corporate headcount growth by 33 percent.
Crain’s “Best Places to Work” is open to all publicly or privately held organizations, either for-profit or not-for-profit. To be eligible for consideration, organizations must have at least 25 employees working in the seven-county area of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will in Illinois and Lake in Indiana. Rankings for the competitive list are determined through employee surveys.