The Ilitch family's Olympia Development of Michigan is hiring, attempting to poach talent from other real estate companies in the region.

This comes in the two months following the company quietly bringing into the fray a former Walt Disney Co. executive to oversee the family's District Detroit project as its senior vice president of operations and development.

Keith Bradford had been vice president of the rebranded and expanded Downtown Disney, where his LinkedIn profile says he added more than a dozen restaurants and 70 retail locations as the entertainment and theme park juggernaut broadened the area to allow not only Disney-related but also third-party retail and restaurants.

He comes to Detroit, 1,200 miles to the north, following what a source said was the departure of Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., the national developer and arena district specialist, from its work on The District Detroit earlier this year. Cordish had been working with Olympia since at least 2016 on the effort, although there had been tension between the two companies in recent months, another source said. An email seeking comment was sent to the Baltimore-based firm last week.

Two sources said Bradford, who was not made available for an interview with Crain's last week, started in June.

A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Bradford will "be a good salesman for Detroit," said Robert Gibbs, an urban planner who is principal of Birmingham-based Gibbs Planning Group. He worked with Bradford seven or eight years ago providing market research on the Disney Springs project, he said.

"He's good with commercial (properties) and most aspects of the development, and he's a great visionary," Gibbs said. "It says a lot that they are bringing in somebody of that standard.

"He really brings a worldwide understanding. He understands more than just the national trends, but internationally understands the trends in real estate development, from the types of businesses that go in and how they interrelate to one another."

Sources said the Detroit-based Olympia has been targeting development professionals from other companies and attempting to lure them to work on its District Detroit project with pay 30 percent or greater than what they were making at previous positions. Some were offered pay increases of 50 to 100 percent, and others were also offered things like car allowances and other perks.

One longtime real estate professional who spoke with Crain's was interviewed in June for a director of development position that had a $200,000 salary ceiling, but no other pay bonuses so he didn't pursue the job. Another person Crain's spoke with who was interviewed for a vice president position was offered substantially higher pay than their current rate, but ultimately turned down the job because of stability and work-life balance concerns.

"They are way above market price, which is a little scary because it's almost a little too good to be true," that person said.

While Olympia has not wooed some of the people it has targeted, it successfully lured Angela Fortino away from the Royal Oak office of JLL. There, she had been project and development services manager; she started at Olympia this month as project manager, according to .

The hiring effort comes after ODM lost other key partners in addition to Cordish since the beginning of the year: George Jackson's Detroit-based Ventra LLC real estate consulting company, which had been advising Olympia on multifamily development projects; and Detroit-based American Community Developers, which had been developing housing in the 45- to 50-block area surrounding Little Caesars Arena.

CBRE Inc., a Los Angeles-based real estate brokerage with an office in Southfield, has been handling retail leasing for the district since 2014. Southfield-based Plante Moran CRESA has been providing office and retail space advising, as well. White Plains, N.Y.-based Street-Works is the planning consultant on the District Detroit project.