He has developed an edifice complex.

• Author: Richter, Chris
• Position: Empire Properties LLC's Greg Hatem - Brief article

From his sixth-floor office in the Masonic Temple Building, Greg Hatem has a front-row seat for downtown Raleigh's makeover. It's a change that Hatem, 46, helped start 11 years ago when his Empire Properties LLC bought and renovated an empty warehouse nearby. Empire now owns 36 buildings, with about 600,000 square feet of floor space, and is among downtown's largest landlords. By year-end, it will have invested more than $50 million. Hatem's only title is manager, but he's the guiding force behind the 120-employee company.

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He grew up in Roanoke Rapids and got a bachelor's in chemical engineering from N.C. State in 1985. Afterward, he went to China to visit his uncle, George Hatem, who had been Mao Zedong's personal physician and had become a public-health official. Once back in the U.S., Hatem spent a year helping close his family's clothing store before becoming a financial adviser at American Express. Back in China after his uncle died in 1988, he set up a foundation to continue the public-health work, then...