Cover story

Craig Henig
CB Richard Ellis

Craig Henig’s real estate career is a storied tale that started taking shape when he was growing up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. As a youngster he tagged along with his father, Ralph Henig, a commercial real estate mogul, visiting the commercial buildings he owned and the projects he was developing. They also attended zoning meetings together and discussed real estate business around the dinner table — all which helped him understand the real estate market, tenant occupancy and how buildings are constructed from the ground up. 

 When Henig was a junior in high school he worked for his father’s company as a laborer on construction projects. He worked inside cleaning up during the cold New Jersey winters, and in the hot, humid summers he worked alongside other laborers digging ditches with a shovel and carrying sheet rock up flights of stairs. A project he never forgot was digging a two-feet-deep-by-three-feet-wide trench around the perimeter of a six story building so it could be water proofed.

“My dad’s company could have used a backhoe to dig that trench, but my dad wanted me to learn about hard work the hard way,” said Henig, senior managing director CB Richard Ellis. “I considered that job a special opportunity, and did it willingly, because I didn’t want to embarrass my dad, his partners or myself while I worked for their company. They were the largest developer and investor in the state of New Jersey at the time and they still are.”

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