Jamestown LP, a global real estate investment firm, is best known as the owner of office buildings and several large mixed-use developments across the U.S. The company is also known as a real estate company that stays ahead of some of the industry's most important trends, including increased sustainability and the growing popularity of mixed-use properties. Jamestown's latest initiative is to expand its use of technology in its properties across the U.S.
Jamestown was founded in 1983 by German investor Christoph Kahl with just 10 employees. Over the past 40 years, the company has expanded around the world and has been involved in projects such as One Times Square and Chelsea Market in Manhattan, which it still owns. Headquartered in Cologne, Germany and Atlanta, Georgia, the company also owns large mixed-use developments such as Industry City in Brooklyn, Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, and the Innovation & Design Building in Boston and Lisbon, Portugal. As of March 31 this year, the company managed $11.6 billion in assets in the United States, Europe and Latin America.
Jamestown invests in real estate across multiple asset types, including office, retail, and residential. The company has six investment vehicles, including the Premier Property Fund, its primary investment vehicle for institutional investors. This open-end fund focuses on office, retail, and mixed-use assets in major U.S. markets. Jamestown also sponsors a fund for German private investors that invests in U.S. real estate assets, which was a cornerstone of its strategy when it was first established in Germany. In 2020, the company launched JamestownInvest, a crowdfunding platform for U.S. private investors. Michael Phillips, Jamestown's executive chairman and president, told Propmod at the time that the platform was a natural next step for the company, and that it used feedback from its large social media following to get a sense of what investors were looking for in an investment platform.
The company's ownership structure underwent a major change in fall 2022 when Jamestown and Simon Property Group, one of the world's largest shopping mall owners, announced that Simon would acquire a 50% stake in Jamestown. The two companies said the partnership was formed to help create new opportunities and build a platform for future growth in the investment management sector. Since then, the company has acquired more shopping centers and has had several landmark moments, including the completion of construction on the One Times Square redevelopment project and the debut of Scout Living, a new residential short-term stay concept. Most recently, Jamestown opened a mass timber building at its Ponce City Market property and is in the midst of renovating and updating its Manhattan trophy property, One Times Square.
The four-story 619 Ponce is Atlanta's first all-local wood office building, constructed entirely from timber harvested from Jamestown-owned forests. (Illustration: Handel Architects)
Jamestown is not that different from other investment management companies in the national real estate sector, but it has taken a number of initiatives to differentiate itself from competitors, including a crowdfunding platform and a partnership with Simon Property Group. The latest initiative is Jamestown adding new revenue streams through technology partnerships at its properties. Technology has been a key part of the company's strategy for years. In 2019, the company's leaders launched an internal program, Innovation Ideas, encouraging all Jamestown employees to submit cutting-edge technology ideas that could be used in their work. The ideas range from implementing ChatGPT to using foot traffic analysis tools, and they have been successful. “At this point, we've implemented quite a few of the ideas,” says Carrie Denning Jackson, director of technology and innovation at Jamestown. Of course, not all of the ideas are a hit, but the company receives hundreds of submissions each year, which helps leaders stay on top of the latest technology and innovations.
Since joining the company two and a half years ago, Denning Jackson has been constantly looking for new and innovative products to deploy across the company's many assets, from parking to access control. The team has tried many pilot projects over the years, and while not all have been successful, others have made great progress. One project the company is excited about is adding automated disinfecting changing stations to some of its facilities. In another project, Jamestown, through Metropolis, piloted parking platforms at its facilities in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Seattle, Washington. Over the course of a few months, the Seattle pilot reduced the facility's parking costs by 44% compared to the same period last year. In Boston, Jamestown piloted a parking program that managed parking reservations made online. The program was so successful that the company's online parking revenue increased 74% year over year in May, despite very little work on Jamestown's part.
Jamestown launched its sustainability program in 2008, long before it became a staple of real estate companies' business strategies. The company recognized early on that utility costs were one of its biggest controllable expenses, and if it could make a dent in that and reduce costs, it could go a long way toward reducing carbon emissions. The company has partnered with Prescriptive Data, a company that uses AI to optimize building operations, on properties in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The San Francisco property saw a 260% return on investment since partnering with the company to run the building's HVAC system more efficiently. Denning-Jackson acknowledges that there's a lot of trial and error in the partnership, but says that as more large real estate companies partner with technology companies, a track record will build up and help spur more pilot projects. “I want to be a pioneer, but it can also be high risk,” Denning-Jackson says. “But it gets me so excited when I see that JLL or Nuveen have piloted one of these companies before. I really rely on the community, so we're not alone, and everyone's doing really interesting things.”
Jamestown Innovation and Design Building in Boston (Image: Jamestown LP)
Another way the company has looked at innovative ideas for its properties is by repurposing underutilized space, a concept that is becoming increasingly popular right now, especially as office building owners look to increase revenue in a tough market. Jamestown owns a number of adaptive reuse properties, and in certain projects, it has transformed entire factories and distribution centers into office and retail space.
The process of renovating can also result in interesting surplus space that is perfect for repurposing. In Rotterdam, Netherlands, Jamestown Europe made its first major acquisition in 2019 with the purchase of the Grote Handelsgebouw. The company turned part of this large historic building into a park and included a bakery. The new space can be used by both visitors and tenants, and will generate additional rental income. “I think it's a great example of taking an underutilized space and turning it into a really attractive space,” Denning Jackson said. At Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Jamestown converted the property's valet parking space into a showroom for EV manufacturer Rivian. “It was a great place to show off electric vehicles, and it was space that we weren't using anymore,” he said.
Exploring new platforms and forging new partnerships is part of the journey for Jamestown, which has been doing things a little differently since its inception. Expanding the use of technology across its properties, especially with the goal of increasing revenue, is a smart move in today's uncertain real estate market. It's also something all landlords are trying to do in an increasingly competitive environment, helping to differentiate their buildings from their rivals. While pilot projects often don't work out, those that are ultimately successful are not only a boost for technology companies and building owners, but also serve to advance the use of technology in commercial real estate.