When pressed to discuss his own achievements, John E. “Chip” Akridge, III often replies, “I’m just a country boy.”

After receiving a degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1968 and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Real Estate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business in 1970, this country boy served in the United States Army as a Lieutenant in South Vietnam. Attracted by the robust and relatively steady Washington, DC real estate market, the Knoxville, Tennessee native settled in the nation’s capital after his tour of duty, briefly working for newly formed Quadrangle Development Corporation and then launching The John Akridge Company in early 1974.

Chip admits that his favorite deal was his first, a building at 1627 K Street that critics derided as too small. The country boy saw potential. Roughly three decades later, Akridge has acquired or developed over 10 million square feet in the Washington region, primarily in high-end office and mixed-use product, and has an equal amount of space currently in its pipeline.

A rigid commitment to top-quality service and construction has kept Akridge Clients loyal and more than satisfied. The office portfolio has been 99% leased since 1977, and the company has earned the prestigious national Building Owner and Manager/CEL Customer Service Award six out of the last seven years. Among Akridge’s best known projects are Gallery Place, The Homer Building, 900 Seventh Street, The Victor Building, The Hartford in Clarendon, 1225 Eye Street, and 1201 Eye Street (which last year received the coveted “TOBY” award from the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metro Washington).

The country boy tends his crop with due care, personally visiting each property in the portfolio on a weekly basis. Nuisances as small as gum on the sidewalk and burned-out lights are treated as intolerable pests. Most importantly, Chip has led by example in creating a family of employees that see themselves “in the service business, not the space business.” Now Chairman of the company he founded, Chip has greeted all new employees since day one to explain the five pillars of doing business the Akridge way. “We act in ways that are legal, moral, ethical, first-class and hopefully profitable – in that order.” A committed member of Christ Episcopal Church and a Lay Eucharistic Minister, faith directs Chip’s steadfast moral compass, as do the values this Eagle Scout embraces in the Scout Oath and Law.

Though Chip proudly subscribes to “old-fashioned” values, he is neither stuck in his ways nor behind the times. In-building wireless will be operational in the Homer Building this summer, making Akridge the first company in North America to implement this technology in a multi-Client building. Under Chip’s leadership, Akridge was the first firm to use the "Woodies Act," enabling a developer to lease the air rights above and below a public area for the purpose of joining properties. In addition, Chip worked with the DC Government to develop legislation for the first DC business improvement district to secure and beautify District streetscapes. Chip also championed tax increment financing to the DC Council and to Congress. The District adopted these TIF measures in time to fund some of the city’s most successful redevelopment projects. Furthermore, the housing linkage program that Chip spearheaded in partnership with Jubilee Housing and Manna Inc. produced 150 low-income housing units in the Adams Morgan and Shaw neighborhoods.

The following awards commemorate Chip’s extraordinary contributions to the real estate community and the city of Washington, DC: Ernst & Young’s Greater Washington Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Real Estate Category; the District of Columbia Building Industry Association Builder of the Year Award in 1992 and Developer of the Year Award in and 1999; the National Capitol Council of the Boy Scouts of America Good Scout Award; the Delta Associates/Transwestern Trendsetter of the Year Award; the Washington, DC Economic Partnership Lifetime Achievement Award for Office Development; the Apartment and Office Building Association's Sidney Glassman Award for outstanding career contributions to the real estate industry; and the Institute of Real Estate Management’s Hughes Award for achievement in the field of property management.

The country boy doesn’t have room to display these accolades in his office; his desk instead boasts photographs of Sally, his wife of thirty-eight years, and of his three children and three grandchildren. Visitors can also glimpse a few snapshots from Chip’s treks in such destinations as the South Pole and Mount Everest as well as his marathon on parts of China’s Great Wall.

Though Chip strives to make his name recognizable in Washington (“You can never have too many signs,” he says), he prefers to make his home in the country. Chip has always viewed the two as symbiotic. Akridge’s track-record of quality in-fill projects in dense urban areas lends physical support to the ideal of smart growth development, leaving for preservation precious acreage in areas such as Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In fact, three Akridge properties have received SmartGrowth awards; no other company has more. In appreciation of his efforts to delineate and preserve many acres of wildlife habitat, the Oxford, Maryland Museum recently presented to Chip the Douglas Hanks Preservation Award.

Chip’s civic engagement demonstrates his balanced commitment to the vitality of urban and rural areas. His affiliations include the President’s Advocacy Board of the Georgia Institute of Technology, as Chairman, the Economic Development Committee and the Executive Committee of the Federal City Council, the Board of Trustees for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Nature Conservancy of Maryland/District of Columbia, the Board of Directors of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Emergency Preparedness Task Force of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, as Chairman.

Imbued with zeal and probity, Chip Akridge has formed a renowned company culture and a host of world-class properties that are a credit to Washington, DC – but don’t forget - he’s just a country boy.