Earlier this year, Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Astate presented Skip Sacks with the 2026 F. Craig Read Service Award in recognition of “his exceptional service and long-standing commitment to the organization and the commercial real estate community.”
The F. Craig Read Service Award honors individuals who have demonstrated sustained leadership, volunteerism, and dedication to HRACRE’s mission. Sacks exemplifies those values through decades of involvement and impact.
Sacks became involved with HRACRE in the mid to late 1990s, first serving on the Programs Committee and later chairing the committee for many years. In 2006, he and Scott Adams established the HRACRE Internship Program, which Sacks chaired for many years and helped shape into one of the organization’s most impactful initiatives.
In 2008, Sacks participated in HRACRE’s Strategic Planning Process, contributing to key initiatives that strengthened the organization’s role in the region, including enhanced legislative efforts, the revitalization of the HRACRE Presidents Council, and some of the earliest joint meetings among regional economic development offices.
Sacks served on the HRACRE board and executive committee for many years and was president in 2013. In 2013 and 2014, he taught “Legal Aspects of Commercial Real Estate” at Old Dominion University as part of HRACRE’s outreach efforts. His class, which frequently featured HRACRE members as guest lecturers, became the model for the expanded Internship Program. He says he is especially proud of the positive feedback he received from students, noting with humor that he never earned a single “chili pepper” on Rate My Professor.
In 2019, Sacks received the Robert M. Stanton Real Estate Teacher of the Year Award from ODU’s Strome College of Business.
In addition, Sacks served on the HRACRE REACH Foundation Board for several years and was president in 2024. During his tenure, he led the effort to create a permanent endowment for the HRACRE Internship Program. This endowment secures the program’s future, ensuring that students will continue to have access to meaningful commercial real estate internships for generations to come. The Internship Program endowment stands as one of Skip’s most significant and lasting contributions to HRACRE.
Along with all these volunteer efforts for HRACRE, Sacks finds time to occasionally write book reviews for Jewish News and assume the chair of Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s Gift Acceptance Committee. And, of course, he and is wife, Ellen, are the proud parents of Sam, Nate, and Hannah.
HRACRE is a commercial real estate organization serving Hampton Roads, focused on networking, education, and industry engagement. The organization brings together professionals across the commercial real estate sector to support collaboration and growth.