Viktor Jakovljevic
Viktor Jakovljevic has been in the construction and development business for the last thirty-two years and is the owner of Vivify Construction LLC. Vivify Construction is the successor to various other development companies owned by Viktor and has been a general contractor operating in the West Loop of Chicago for the past fifteen years.
Viktor and his family immigrated to the United States from Serbia for his freshman year of high school. He and his teammates had a successful high school career with their team advancing far into the state playoffs. After graduation, he followed his childhood passion and played professional soccer. His professional career spanned 10 years and was a part of several championship teams. Viktor played in the Major Indoor Soccer League, Premier Arena Soccer League, A-League, and spent two years in the Hungarian Premier League.
Once he decided to retire from professional soccer, Viktor followed his father’s footsteps and began his working career by becoming a tile setter. After several years of watching his developer client’s being successful, he began building single family homes and three flats in emerging neighborhoods of Chicago. He made a name for himself in developing enough housing units, block by block, to change the trajectory of the neighborhood.
Viktor was an early visionary in understanding the benefits of building in the West Loop in the early 2010’s by going under contract on several large sites (1247-49 W. Madison, 1050 W. Monroe etc.). Vivify Construction was the general contractor for these buildings (193 total units) and the buildings have been recognized by neighborhood organizations for their architectural design in fitting into the neighborhood.
At the time the West Loop was mostly single-story factories with a scattering of smaller apartment buildings. Since then, the neighborhood has been home to several Fortune 500 corporate headquarters and high end high-rise apartment/ condominium towers. The area attracts young professionals due to its proximity to the high paying jobs and the restaurant/entertainment district.
Through his years of experience, he has been a visionary in working with architects to design buildings that meet the city building code constraints and at the same time maximizing land values regarding density. Viktor considers lot size, surrounding buildings, and neighborhood characteristics to develop the highest quality projects. To date, Viktor has a solid portfolio of midrise apartment buildings he has built in the West Loop that will withstand the test of time in terms of design, construction quality and streetscape.
David Nick
David Nick graduated from the University of Iowa with a dual degree in Finance and Management Information Systems in 1985. He went on to earn a Master's degree in business administration from Benedictine University.
David began his career in banking as a financial assistant in the treasury management department of a mid-size Chicago area bank. In this role he balanced accounts to manage the daily cash flow and liquidity requirements of the Bank and analyzed the lending activities that impacted cash flow requirements.
In 1990, David took a different path in his career and became a commercial real estate lender which was and continues to be his passion. He financed mixed use commercial properties, owner occupied and investment commercial business properties, tract housing developments and multifamily construction developments.
One of the key factors to his success was his deep knowledge of construction and scheduling requirements to keep the project on time and within budget. David would work in tandem with the inspecting architect and developer to expand his knowledge of industry trends. During this period, David financed many of Viktor’s projects in the Chicago area and developed a lasting friendship.
In 2015, David had the opportunity to join Vivify Construction as a project manager working on the South Wells site. After the successful completion of the project, David assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer and had the responsibility of running the daily office activities of Vivify Construction while Viktor uses his talents in overseeing the day-to-day construction activity and interfacing with the architect in designing the building.
David and his talented staff perform the project budgeting, monthly contractor’s statements, interfacing with the construction lender/ title representative and subcontractors on construction progress and scheduling.