Reviving History and Building Community: Aaron Harris (MBA/MS '06) Is on a Green Housing Mission

This story is part of Erb’s 30th Anniversary series, celebrating three decades of impact at the intersection of business and sustainability.

Nestled in a vibrant Chicago neighborhood are green housing developments created specifically for medical students and other grad students. They’re the creation of Aaron Harris (MBA/MS ’06), founder and CEO of the real estate development company Harris Point Chicago.

“We transform historic older buildings that have sound structure and classic external features, and then renovate the building and apartments inside into beautiful, modern, energy-efficient living environments. It’s historic preservation on the outside, new and modern on the inside,” Aaron said.

More than 250 residents call Harris Point Chicago buildings home, and they’re mostly medical students at the University of Illinois Chicago and Rush University. “This population wants to live in sustainable, green, energy-efficient housing, and we have seen that over the past 10 to 15 years, the demand for energy-efficient housing has skyrocketed,” Aaron said. 

The company sees its energy-efficient improvements as both lowering costs and boosting residents’ quality of life. A design decision like adding windows to increase natural light can do both, for example.   

“Globally, our built environment is one of the world’s largest energy consumers, and the real estate sector accounts for nearly 40 percent of global carbon emissions,” Aaron explained. Harris Point Chicago tackles this global problem at a local level—providing green housing for early-career professionals who are hungry for it—but the company’s strategy also goes beyond energy.

“We are redefining what graduate student housing should look and feel like,” Aaron said. This includes bringing together students from different medical schools and professional specialties to build community, such as through resident events. “It’s a very holistic way of thinking. We provide not solely a place to live, but also a healthy and community-based environment where fellow residents can network, create friendships, and develop long-term partnerships with one another. Community is vital in housing.” 

Harris Point Chicago combines several areas of interest for Aaron: entrepreneurship, green building, neighborhood revitalization, architecture, and interior design. He grew up in Chicago and has always appreciated the city’s architecture, natural beauty on the shore of Lake Michigan, and vibrant cultural diversity. 

While an Erb Institute student, Aaron published Building Green for the Future, a comprehensive green development guidebook for real estate developers and policymakers across Michigan. Aaron and his master’s project team earned several grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the American Society of Landscape Architects’ National Student Collaboration Award. 

He launched Harris Point Chicago before joining Erb, with aspirations to grow the company. After earning his MBA/MS, he had the opportunity to work on larger-scale global real estate projects. He moved into global roles at General Electric and Wells Fargo, staying involved with his company as a side project.

While in General Electric’s real estate business, Aaron spearheaded the first-of-its-kind global sustainability group, an international team responsible for making all of GE’s global real estate assets more energy efficient and sustainable. He leaned on his Erb education to launch that project.

Aaron is thankful for his Michigan education and the support he received from the Erb family to finish his dual degree, and he wanted to give back to support the next generation. He and his wife, Jaime (Ross School of Business BBA ’03), have endowed two scholarships at Ross: one for BBA undergrad students, and another for international Ross students pursuing an MBA. In the coming years, they plan to endow another scholarship for Erb students. 

In 2020, Aaron returned to Harris Point Chicago full-time to grow and elevate the company. “Being an entrepreneur, dreaming big, and turning a vision into reality is incredibly rewarding,” he said.  

“Erb students have a deep curiosity and strong willingness to pursue paths outside of the norm,” he said, noting that he encourages this quality. “I love mentoring Ross and Erb students and alumni to help them achieve their goals and aspirations.”

Throughout his career, Aaron has taken an approach that he observed is common among Erbers: “How do you think bigger? How do you think beyond just business and the bottom line? How do you create something that’s really special, really unique, really memorable?” 

Meaningful solutions to global challenges—as enormous as the built environment’s energy consumption—demand this big thinking.