Maureen Grove

Maureen Grove is a CPA, MBA, Commercial and Residential Real Estate broker with 40 years of hard-won and unique experiences as a detail-oriented, accountability-driven forensic accountant and confidante of real estate developers and owners.

Over the course of her career, Maureen has been a key player in the acquisition, disposition and refinancing of commerical real estate transactions totaling over $3.5 billion, including some of the largest, record-breaking transactions in Chicago, [...]

Maureen Grove is a CPA, MBA, Commercial and Residential Real Estate broker with 40 years of hard-won and unique experiences as a detail-oriented, accountability-driven forensic accountant and confidante of real estate developers and owners.

Over the course of her career, Maureen has been a key player in the acquisition, disposition and refinancing of commerical real estate transactions totaling over $3.5 billion, including some of the largest, record-breaking transactions in Chicago, Illinois including Citigroup Center/Ogilvie Transportation Center 500 West Madison, Hyatt Hotel historic tax renovation and repositioning of class C office into hotel 100 West Monroe, Northern Trust Headquarters 181 West Madison (three sales, two within nine months in 2001), the sale, bifurcation and horizontal condo of 200 and 230 Monroe, the sale and real estate tax exemption for Northwestern Hospital at 541 Fairbanks, and sale and repositioning of the Chicago Motor Club 68 East Wacker.

A native Chicagoan, Maureen grew up on the city’s South Side, attending an all-girl’s Catholic school. With a strong interest and propensity for math and science, she attended Southern Illinois University full time working three jobs to obtain her BS in Accounting and then her MBA. She co-founded the SIU Accounting Society. 

Maureen has worked with numerous lenders and counsel to assess economic damage from stalled real estate projects, insolvencies, and bankruptcies. As the forensic consultant on numerous residential and commercial projects, she uncovered malfeasance through verifications and substantiation of labor costs, detected inflated subcontractor billing, and produced evidence of developer performance issues resulting in significant project savings.

Maureen has exposed such situations as funds being drawn without vendors getting paid, developer fees getting paid out without lender authorization, over billing on HVAC contracts, utility over billing from master meters, over billing of corporate jet and other erroneously booked related-party transactions. Her judicious approach to accounting has improved internal controls over the draw process, instilled a sense of “surveillance” and restrictions on cash, and ultimately greater accountability. It earned her the industry nickname, “Moe Money.”

As a female accountant in the late ‘80s, Maureen was frequently the only female executive in a room full of men. Inspired but never intimidated by gender, nor the challenge, she held her own. She established Grove Masonry Maintenance in 1984 which continues to provide Tuckpointing Services to the Chicago Market. In 2014, Maureen founded Real Estate Shared Services LLC (https://realestatesharedservices.com), a boutique accounting firm drawing on her nonpareil professional accomplishments to empower, educate and promote her clients. She continues to commit to mentoring by working with all her past staff members and Chicago Youth Programs, among other organizations. She is the past President of the Board of Directors for Chicago Youth Programs and continues as a board member.

Maureen is a licensed real estate broker in the State of Illinois and Florida. She belongs to the American Institute of CPAs and Commercial Real Estate Executive Women (CREW).