A prominent Baltimore-based real estate developer and longtime friend of the Trump family will serve as an assistant to the president, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team announced Tuesday.

Reed S. Cordish, a partner at the Cordish Companies, has been involved in some of the region's largest developments, including Power Plant Live and the Maryland Live Casino. The company has developed casinos, hotels and shopping centers across the country.

Cordish will serve as an assistant to the president for intragovernmental and technology initiatives, the transition team announced.

“I am humbled by the role and excited to work with the incredible people within the West Wing and the Agencies to effect change,” Cordish said in a statement released by the transition team.

The Cordish family has long been close to Trump, and it helped to orchestrate the New York businessman's visit to Maryland in 2015, when he spoke at a party fundraiser at the BWI Marriott.

The transition team said Cordish will be responsible for “presidential initiatives that require multi-agency collaboration.”

Cordish, whose appointment was first reported by Jewish Insider, will also focus on technological innovation and modernization.

Reed Cordish contributed $250,000 to the Trump Victory committee on June 30. Federal Election Commission records show he and other members of the Cordish family have given to both parties.

During his visit to Maryland in 2015, Trump said he met the patriarch of the Cordish family, David Cordish, through a lawsuit.

“I sued David, for hundreds of millions of dollars. I didn't know him but I just said 'I'm going to get this guy, whoever the hell he is,'?” Trump said.

“The court ordered us to meet, and it was mandatory. I said, ‘I don't want to meet this guy,'?” Trump continued. “I walked in and I fell in love in about two minutes. We worked out our problems in, what, 12 seconds?”

Trump added that whenever he needs “a contractor in this area, who do I call? David Cordish.”

The relationship also became more personal. During that same fundraiser, David Cordish described how he was talking with Ivanka Trump years ago about his son Reed, saying he wanted to set him up with someone like her. Ivanka Trump helped facilitate Reed Cordish's first date with her best friend. The two eventually married.

Reed Cordish, formerly a world-ranked professional tennis player, graduated from Princeton University and lives in Baltimore, according to the biography on the company's website.

Neither Reed Cordish nor a spokesperson for the Cordish Companies responded to a request for comment.

jfritze@baltsun.com