Real Estate Chicago Style Podcast

About Real Estate Chicago Style Podcast

Host Joe Smazal interviews the most prominent real estate developers and players in the ever-changing Chicago Real Estate Cityscape.

Publisher

Joe Smazal

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Mar 2025

Latest episode

18 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

27 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   18 Sept 2026

   From Neighborhood Impact to Downtown Transformation | Leon Walker from DL3 Realty

   Leon Walker, Founder & CEO of DL3 Realty, joins host Joe Smazal to break down 25 years of development work on Chicago's South Side — and the framework behind it. Leon went from a junior partnership at LaSalle Partners/JLL, with a Singapore assignment on the table, to coming home after his father's death to build in the neighborhoods he grew up in. Since then DL3 has created 3,000+ jobs with another 10,000 in the pipeline, delivered the first new family housing Englewood, Woodlawn, and South Shore had seen in 40-50 years, and brought back national retail, banking, and primary care to communities that had gone decades without. We get into his venture development model and the five factors every deal has to clear: historically successful location, nearby anchor institution investment, readily available land or buildings, early green shoots, and deliberate local leadership. Plus why "cost per unit" is the wrong way to judge affordable housing, how housing functions as an economic development platform, and why a weekly in-person team meeting still beats anything on a screen. Chapters 00:00 Intro & rapid fire 02:00 Integrity, creativity, professionalism 04:39 AI tools vs. the weekly deal task force 10:25 Growing up on 71st & Stony Island 15:44 Leaving corporate to start DL3 20:03 The first deal: 21% prime and a national bank in Roseland 25:00 Being a Black-owned firm in a 2% industry 26:30 What DL3 actually stands for 28:17 Balancing profit and impact 32:26 The five factors of venture development 38:26 The Thrive brand: Woodlawn, Englewood, South Shore 47:42 The cost-per-unit critique, answered Part 2 coming soon.

2. 

   27 Jul 2026

   Building $200M Worth of Luxury Chicago Homes - Barrett Homes

   Host Joe Smazal interviews Mike Barrett, co-founder of Barrett Homes, about building over $200 million in luxury Chicago real estate and their strategies for success.

3. 

   24 Jun 2026

   From $500 Receivership to 850 Units: How the Motew Brothers Built MO2 Properties

   Host Joe Smazal interviews brothers Kenny and Michael Motew of MO2 Properties about their journey from small-scale rehabs to building an 850-unit multifamily empire in Chicago.

Who has been a guest on Real Estate Chicago Style Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Mike Barrett
• Kenny Motew
• Michael Motew
• Barry Misner
• Larry Goldwasser

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

10,369

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

19 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

11 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 55 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

60

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

51

Contact Real Estate Chicago Style Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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• 

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• 

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• 

  All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

Questions about Real Estate Chicago Style Podcast