Farzin Parang

Executive director, BOMA Chicago

Parang is leading one of the city’s most influential commercial real estate trade groups during a period when the office sector is under sustained financial and political pressure.

He stepped into the role in 2020, bringing a résumé shaped less by ownership or brokerage than by years inside City Hall, where he worked under both Mayor Richard M. Daley and Mayor Rahm Emanuel on legislation, zoning and economic development.

That public-sector background has defined Parang’s approach at BOMA. As Chicago landlords confronted plunging office values, rising vacancies and lender stress, Parang became a central figure in fights over property taxes, helping organize the lobbying push that ultimately derailed a proposed graduated transfer tax that would have drilled commercial owners.

He has also been an outspoken critic of Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s assessment methodology, arguing that it accelerates value erosion and shifts the tax burden onto a weakening commercial base.

Parang spends much of his time translating office economics to elected officials who have sparse high-rise buildings in their wards. “We spend a lot of time trying to educate them about how big office buildings downtown are still very relevant to them and their constituents,” he said, emphasizing Cook County’s zero-sum property tax system that loads more burden onto homeowners when commercial property drops.

His tenure has delivered few easy wins — the market downturn limits quick recoveries — but it has elevated BOMA’s role from growth advocacy to crisis management. Parang’s influence now lies in shaping how Chicago stabilizes its downtown, without selling a narrative of rapid rebound but rather one of incremental repair, tax reform and economic realism.