Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ryan graduated from Northeast High School and Temple University with a degree in Political Science and American Studies. He also completed course work at Drexel’s Lebow College for Construction Management.
Ryan has a passion for Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, their history and its real estate. This passion, coupled with fifteen years of entrepreneurial experience in building maintenance, construction and real estate development ignited his firm belief that no distressed property should ever remain in an inhabitable, unsafe condition.
This was the basis for Project Rehab, a program Ryan developed and spearheads for University City District to help property owners remediate distressed properties. Since its inception in 2011, Project Rehab has positively affected development in over 57 buildings in University City creating approximately $28 million in additional real estate value. More information on this program can be found here: http://www.universitycity.org/project-rehab.
Ryan is also proud Board Member of Federation Housing, a Mentor / Speaker for 2019 Best of Philly Winner, JumpStart Germantown and JumpStart West, a former Board Member of Cedar Park Neighbors, a Board Member of UC Green, a member of the Building Committee for Parent Infant Center, a former radio host for the Community Development Hour broadcasted on WPEB 88.1 FM and 96.1 FM every two weeks and was honored to serve the City of Philadelphia and PIDC as its Moderator for its “Resources for Neighborhood Development” seminars in 2017.
Because of his community development efforts, Ryan was a guest speaker at the New Gravity Housing Conference for Green Building, the National Vacancy Land Conference in Philadelphia, the National Code Enforcement Conference in Dallas, TX, and the Philadelphia Poverty Conference. His work has also been featured in publications such as Philadelphia Daily News, Grid Magazine and on FlyingKite.com as can be found here: (link to press).
As a result of his creative solutions to resolving distressed property, Ryan won the University City Historical Society’s “Outstanding Preservation Award” three times for his work on developing Project Rehab (2012), for his integral part in saving St. Peter’s Church (2013) and as a member of the Spak Group Team for its renovation of Larchwood Flats at 501 S. 52nd Street (2016). Spak Group’s Larchwood Flats property has also won the 2016 Extreme Makeover Award presented by the Design Collaborative / Commerce Department; and the Preservation Alliance Grand Jury Award for 2017.
Within Spak Group, Ryan focuses on property acquisition, joint venture partnerships, construction management, tax strategies and financing for Spak Group. Over the past four years, Spak Group has organically tripled in size with 100+ residential units under management and another 104 units under construction, in development or planning.
Ryan loves being a resident of West Philadelphia, but even more, he loves being married to his wife, Jessica and being a father to his daughter, Charlotte. When not engrossed in matters of brick, Ryan is a fanatical basketball enthusiast, bleeds “Flyers” orange, loves saving animals from a cold Philly night, and is quite nuts over ‘80’s memorabilia – especially movies and television shows!