Executive Team
Conrad
Cafritz
Chairman
Conrad Cafritz is the chairman and chief executive officer of Cafritz Interests and Potomac Hospitality Services, Inc. He has been a leader in the Washington metropolitan real estate community for more than 40 years, and oversees a development and management practice that now encompasses office, hotel, retail, residential, and industrial properties throughout the United States.
Mr. Cafritz is the son of Morris Cafritz, who began developing real estate in Washington, DC in 1919 and became the city's most prolific developer during the mid-20th century. Conrad Cafritz joined his father's firm, The Cafritz Company, after graduating from Yale University in 1960. He soon established his own company, known today as Cafritz Interests, as well as the affiliated Potomac Hospitality Services.
Under Mr. Cafritz' leadership, Cafritz Interests has grown steadily into a diverse, full-service real estate development company, owning as many as 120 properties at one time, representing a value of over $1.2 billion. He has overseen the development of numerous commercial office buildings and thousands of residential properties. A pioneer in modern hotel management concepts, Mr. Cafritz was a pioneer in the development of the all-suite concept in Washington, DC and converted several traditional apartment buildings into full-service, extended-stay facilities. These operations include The River Inn, One Washington Circle Hotel, The George Washington University Inn, The Virginian Suites, as well as the Windsor Hotel in Philadelphia and 320 North Michigan in Chicago. In 2006 he purchased and converted The Quincy Suites into a boutique hotel.
Milestone projects also under Mr. Cafritz' direction include the 850,000 square foot Security West campus in Baltimore, Maryland. The complex, substantially renovated during the late 1990s, is leased entirely to the US General Services Administration for use by the Social Security Administration. Security West continues to be owned and operated by Cafritz Interests. The repositioning of Washington Harbour in Georgetown in 1988 and the first major commercial office development in Washington on a speculative basis after the real estate crash of 1990, 1775 Eye Street, in 1995 were initiatives directed by Mr. Cafritz.
Mr. Cafritz is also active in numerous professional, civic, and charitable organizations throughout the Washington region. He serves on the governing board of Management Leadership for Tomorrow, an organization that promotes applications by minorities in the major MBA programs, as long-term board member of PEN Faulkner Foundation that awards a major prize for fiction, on the advisory committee of the Democratic Leadership Council, and on the Photographic Acquisition Committee of the Guggenheim Museum. He is a past co-Chairman of the Black Student Fund. Mr. Cafritz is also a member of the Sterling Fellows at Yale University.