Daniel E Levin

Daniel Levin died Jan. 11. He was 94.Levin began his career as a lawyer before shifting to real estate development as the founder and chairman of The Habitat Company, one of the largest development and property management firms in the Midwest. In 1980, he became the founder and CEO of the expansive East Bank Club. And in 1987, Levin and his company became the court-appointed receiver of the Chicago Housing Authority’s scattered site development program, a role they served in for more than two decades. The founder and chairman of The Habitat Company, Daniel Levin has been a real estate developer since 1957. He has directed the financing, structuring and equity syndication of a variety of more than 20,000 rental and condominium units in 80 locations and six states and more than $2.0 billion in assets under management. Under his leadership, the company has become one of the Midwest's largest and most respected development and property management companies with operations in Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Oklahoma. In 1987, Mr. Levin and The Habitat Company were appointed receiver of the Chicago Housing Authority Scattered Site housing development program by the U.S. District Court in Chicago. In that capacity, Habitat has overseen the citywide public housing revitalization program. He is a member of the visiting committee of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. He serves as a Trustee of WTTW Public Television as well as the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and is Vice Chairman of the Board of Environmental Law and Policy Center. Levin has a Bachelors of Arts degree and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Chicago Law School. Levin is survived by his wife, Fay Hartog-Levin, a former United States ambassador to the Netherlands, three children, two stepchildren, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.