Universities do that. I have lived in Washington, DC, for many years, and have seen all of the local universities sprawl. I'm not sure American University had reached to the west side of Massachusetts Avenue yet: now it has a building or two on Connecticut Avenue. Catholic has expanded up along the train tracks. Howard briefly had a dorm on 16th St. Georgetown is trapped in an expensive neighborhood, and has publicly considered what it might do to put some facilities in Maryland.
If you want to meet a real estate behemoth have a look at Harvard...
Interesting ... they heavily recruited my daughter who's a senior in high school and looking to go to business school in supply-chain-management. She applied to GW but it was her last choice and she was accepted everywhere she applied.
But GW isn't really an academic institution. It's a real estate developer that uses rich kids from Long Island to fill it's square footage.