Professional Credentials
John J. Hentschel CRE, MAI, FRICS
John J. Hentschel is founder and president of Hentschel Real Estate Services, a Maryland based Real Estate Valuation, Advisory & Consulting firm. Since 1973, he has served national, state, and local government agencies, as well as legal, business, and financial services firms in the United States and abroad. Leaders in business, government, finance, and law have benefited from his unique blend of interdisciplinary experience garnered from both public and private sector perspectives and relied on his astute skills as a counselor and advisor to make difficult decisions, solve intractable problems, and seize strategic opportunities.
From 1982 to 1992, as Real Estate Officer of the City of Baltimore, he headed the city’s Department of Real Estate supervising a staff of real estate professionals who performed property acquisition, disposition, leasing and management services on behalf of the City. As the City's chief Real Estate Executive, he made significant contributions to Baltimore's redevelopment renaissance as a key figure in many of the City's most complex real estate development and financing transactions. As a trusted advisor to three mayoral administrations, he was responsible for determining the viability of proposed economic and community development ventures (housing, office buildings, parking garages, hotels, entertainment venues, sports facilities, marinas, industrial and business parks, mixed use projects); the prudence of committing City funds to them; and the means to attain consensus among City leaders for their realization. He negotiated some of the City’s most complex real estate financing and development transactions including the City's largest pubic-private joint venture with CSX and the Times Mirror Corporation, a $300 million waterfront mixed use redevelopment of a former rail yard at Port Covington; the acquisition of the Hawkins Point Landfill from WR Grace; and the sale of City Hospitals to Johns Hopkins Medical Institution. In addition to devising and instituting the City's first comprehensive asset management plan, he evaluated, formulated and negotiated a variety of economic and community development initiatives on behalf of the City; successfully recovered millions of taxpayer dollars through workout and resolution of defaulted loans owed to the City's development bank; and played a key role as landlord negotiating stadium and training facility lease agreements with the City's professional sports teams, the former Baltimore Colts and the Baltimore Orioles.
As an appraiser, expert witness, and litigation strategist, his expertise has often been sought for large scale, unusual or especially complex assignments. His valuation experience includes properties of virtually every type, size and complexity for use in support of litigation, financing, bankruptcy, taxation, and business and government decision making. For instance, he recently served as an appraiser and expert witness on behalf of the property owner for the valuation of a historic port terminal located in Havana Cuba's historic district in seminal litigation filed under the Helms Burton Act.
A contributing author to the Urban Institute Press’ seminal book Managing Government Property Assets- International Experiences he has advised leaders in business and government concerning economic development, real estate valuation, and asset and portfolio management strategies in the United States, Poland, Moldova, Croatia, Serbia, and Egypt on assignments for clients such as The Urban Institute, The World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Eastern European Real Property Foundation. He was a member of the Maryland Department of Transportation Real Estate Advisory Group (REAG) which devised a strategic asset management program and recommended to Maryland's Governor the establishment of the MDOT Office of Real Estate. He also chaired a panel of experts who advised the U.S. General Services Administration on improving its valuation, asset and portfolio management practices subsequently presenting testimony about the recommendations to Congress.
A former member of the University of Baltimore’s real estate faculty, he has published numerous articles on real estate and valuation topics, and has been a member of the editorial boards of the professional journals Modus America and Real Estate Issues. During his tenure as Executive Editor and Publisher of Real Estate Issues, he expanded circulation tenfold while attaining recognition as one of the top ten essential real estate publications in the USA. He is a licensed Maryland Real Estate Broker and Certified General Real Estate Appraiser who holds the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute, the CRE designation from the Counselors of Real Estate, and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London. Since 1997 he has served on the Appraisal Foundation Advisory Council the group which provides advice and recommendations to the Appraisal Foundation, the organization mandated by Congress to establish professional standards and qualifications for the appraisal profession. He advised the London based International Valuation Standards Council on the development of Standards for the valuation of government properties worldwide and is an international associate of Canada's National Executive Forum on Public Property.
The 2011 recipient of the prestigious James Felt Creative Counseling Award for his work advising the Republic of Serbia on the valuation and conversion of surplus military properties for commercial uses to foster economic development, he also assisted Serbia’s Central Bank devise policies to facilitate the formulation of professional standards for the oversight of appraisers; the organization of data bases to better serve and organize the evolving Serbian real estate market: and development of accurate and transparent collateral valuation systems for use by financial institutions under jurisdiction of Serbia's Central Bank.
He is the current Vice Chairman of the Board, and the 2025 Global Chair of the Board-elect of the Counselors of Real Estate, an international consortium of 1,000 commercial property advisors who are considered to be the world's foremost thought leaders, and most prominent problem solvers.
He has qualified as an expert and presented expert testimony before numerous state courts, the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the Maryland Tax Court, as well as various other regulatory and property tax appeals boards.