COO & Managing Director
Derek Hrzek
Derek Hrzek serves as COO & Managing Director at Chase Merritt, helping lead operations, acquisitions, development execution, asset management, and organizational strategy with more than two decades of real estate and capital markets experience.
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Before Chase Merritt, Derek spent over a decade with Hines in Asia Pacific, where he helped lead the firm’s expansion into Southern China, opened Hines’ Shenzhen office as its first employee, and worked across acquisitions, development, logistics, hospitality, and mixed-use opportunities while reporting directly to Hines’ China CEO.
A significant portion of Derek’s time at Hines was spent helping lead the development and execution of One Museum Place in Shanghai, a landmark 1.4 million-square-foot, 60-story mixed-use high-rise development delivered in partnership with ADIA atop an active subway station in Shanghai’s CBD. Over approximately seven years, his responsibilities spanned virtually the full lifecycle of the project, including design and construction management, financial and legal matters, budgeting, investor relations and reporting, leasing and marketing, sustainability initiatives, operations, and ongoing asset management.
Earlier in his career, Derek worked in institutional real estate brokerage and capital markets with Eastdil Secured and Colliers International, including work on the Blackstone acquisition of Equity Office Properties and subsequent portfolio disposition efforts.
