Phillip Aiello
President & COO
Mandel Group
Phil Aiello has been with Mandel Group since 2002. Recently promoted to Chief Operating Officer and subsequently President, Phil will continue to act as a lead development manager. As a lead development manager, Phil’s achievements include the completion of University Club Tower, a 36-story, 53-unit luxury tower in downtown Milwaukee; Cambridge Commons, a 700-bed residence hall for University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ; North End Phases I through V, totaling 650 apartments near downtown Milwaukee; Echelon Apartments at Innovation Campus, a 188-unit luxury apartment community in Wauwatosa, WI; BridgeWalk, a 116-unit apartment community in Waukesha, WI; and Caroline Heights in Elm Grove, WI, a 237-unit apartment community geared towards empty nesters.
During his oversight of University Club Tower, Phil managed a $110 million budget, coordinating consultants, architects, designers and contractors from the proposal, zoning and permitting processes through the construction of the building, custom improvement of individual units and completion of expansive common areas and amenity spaces. Phil managed the design and construction process for the North End which was developed on one of Milwaukee’s largest and most complex brownfield sites and former home of the US Leather Tannery. Phil coordinated conceptualization, entitlement, turnkey development agreement and execution of Cambridge Commons, a 700-bed student residence hall completed as a build-to-suit-for-sale facility for the UW-Milwaukee Real Estate Foundation.
Phil led a difficult and lengthy entitlements process for Caroline Heights Apartments, a $113 million development. Phil managed the entitlements, design, and construction oversight of Echelon, which required an elongated four-year approvals process to satisfy extensive local interests including adaptive use of historic buildings on the property and preservation of adjoining Monarch butterfly habitats.
Phil received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin- Madison in 1994. After working for Exxon, building and managing the development of corporate-owned gas stations, he returned to the University of Wisconsin to obtain an MBA in real estate in 2001, where he finished at the top of his class.