When John O’Donnell retired as an executive of the John Buck Co. in 2010 with more than 30 years and 40 million sq ft of investment, development and redevelopment experience under his belt, he didn’t envision starting another real estate company that would create iconic buildings, mostly along the Chicago River. And now that company, Riverside Investment and Development, has been named ENR Midwest’s Owner of the Year.

“I retired and I meant to retire,” O’Donnell says. “I was not planning on starting a company. What I was going to do was much of what I did at the Buck Co.—buy and sell property. What came up first was these two parcels of land that I was knowledgeable about. We had pursued them awhile at Buck. This was 2010, and if it wasn’t at the very bottom of the recession, it was just when the market was starting to come back up.”