About David Dibo

A seasoned real estate professional and development consultant, Dibo brings more than three decades of experience to the table.

Dibo

A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics, his breadth of economic development success spans New York to Washington D.C., to Chicago.

Dibo worked for VMS Realty Group, which was the second-largest hotel owner in the United States at the time, with a portfolio of Four Seasons, Hyatt and Holiday Inn Hotels as well as major office, residential, retail, industrial and land holdings. There, he purchased and sold the company’s most profitable assets. He also led the restructuring and sale of a hotel portfolio for a Xerox affiliate that soon transitioned to Morgan Stanley.

Most recently, Dibo made his Aurora connections during his tenure as senior vice president at Centrue Bank, a recently-sold $1 billion publicly traded bank based in Illinois. Recruited by the executives of the bank to help turn the bank back to profitability, Dibo used a proactive entrepreneurial approach to negotiate, re-position, sell assets and help finance creative transactions, such as the transformation of the Comfort Suites to the Holiday Inn & Suites on Broadway in Aurora.

Dibo has been a guest lecturer on the industry at the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and Northwestern University.

“What I’ve learned about doing real estate throughout the world is that people have different perspectives,” Dibo said. “You have unique insight from those who grew up in an area.  On the other hand, sometimes it’s good to have someone from an outside perspective. I have the latter and look forward to working collaboratively with those who have the former.”

Hughes also brings a fresh perspective, but he is very familiar with Aurora through his work with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Hughes

After working for more than two years to help develop the Downtown Master Plan for Aurora, which won the Kane County 2017 Plan of the Year Award, Donald Hughes transitioned from his position at CMAP to join the city of Aurora as downtown development coordinator.

“I fell in love the first time I drove through downtown Aurora,” Hughes said. “Broadway is one of the most amazing views. So many communities have lost those good bones in their downtown. Aurora still has it. It has so much greatness and potential.”

A native of Peoria, Hughes earned his Bachelor in Sociology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and his Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Illinois, where he focused on community development for social justice.

He developed neighborhood revitalization strategies and collaborated with neighborhood organizations on community revitalization efforts in Peoria. His desire to implement change in communities took him throughout the country where he served as market research analyst in Dallas, TX, and the senior planner in Garland, TX.

Hughes returned to the Midwest, where he continued his real estate, market analysis and economic development work at CMAP. Hughes is a member of the International Economic Development Council, the Urban Land Institute, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The Mayor’s Office of Economic Development will collaborate with Invest Aurora and the Aurora Economic Development Commission, which will be relaunched this year, to focus on new development opportunities in Aurora.

Learn more about David Dibo and Donald Hughes by watching Mayor Irvin’s Facebook Live conversation: