Danny Wirtz

Chairman, CEO, Wirtz Corporation

Wirtz’s family-owned Chicago holding company has major interests in real estate, banking and professional sports. After his father, Rocky Wirtz, died in 2023, Danny stepped into the top role, becoming the fourth generation to run the business, whose best-known asset is Chicago’s hockey team, the NHL’s Blackhawks.

The Wirtz Corporation oversees a portfolio of more than 80 residential properties, as well as several commercial holdings through Wirtz Realty.

Wirtz has helped advance two massive development bets. In the city, one is a roughly $7 billion mixed-use district around the United Center, home of the Blackhawks and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, whose owner Jerry Reinsdorf and his son Michael Reinsdorf are collaborating on the project.

In the suburbs, the Wirtzes are pursuing the Ivanhoe Village project, an 800-acre transformation of family-owned land in Mundelein. Both megaprojects face lengthy timelines and political hurdles.

Wirtz’s other early moves include sales of multifamily assets. With some new liquidity, and long-term, big-swing projects in the pipeline, the early stages have been active as Wirtz settles into his reign over one of Chicago’s most prominent real estate dynasties.