JWB Real Estate Capital | 2021 Revenue: $180.9 Million
Alex Sifakis rode his electric scooter to Paws Tavern from his Atlantic Beach home a few blocks away.
It's the same model Sifakis has been using for nearly a year to host tours of Downtown Jacksonville's urban core for investors and developers to showcase the area's potential.
The scooters, which users pay a lease for, are part of a micromobility pilot program in downtown Jacksonville.
“I wish I had bought this before I started doing scooter tours. I would have saved about $800,” said Sifakis, president and co-founder of JWB Real Estate Capital.
For Sifakis, touring is an investment.
His goal is to generate interest in the $87.8 million residential and commercial development JWB is pursuing downtown and recruit talent to further redevelop the center.
“I love finding investment opportunities that also serve the public interest,” Sifakis said.
“For me, this was just the next step (for JWB). I've always had a strong passion for downtown and I think having a vibrant urban downtown really takes Jacksonville to the next level,” he said.
He believes economic development will lead to an increase in average income in Jacksonville.
Sifakis founded JWB in 2006 to flip single-family homes with CEO Greg Cohen, his high school friend and college roommate.
Sifakis said the company started with two homes in its first year but has grown to purchasing 996 properties in 2021, diversifying into developing and managing single-family homes, apartment complexes and commercial properties.
Sifakis co-owns and leads the company along with Cohen, CFO Adam Riegel and COO Adam Eisman.
The company's primary business is the management and development of single-family homes in Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
He said JWB has raised more than $500 million from private investors to fund projects over the past 15 years.
The company manages 4,300 rental properties and serves 1,300 clients, according to its website, JWBRealEstateCapital.com.
These clients are capital investors and individuals who purchase homes from the company, Sifakis said.
Sifakis, 38, had graduated from the University of Florida in 2005 and was set to take a marketing job in Gainesville.
“It didn't excite me and I always wanted to work for myself,” he said.
“I found myself unemployable. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit.”
Sifakis moved to Jacksonville, where he began reading books on how to flip houses.
He encouraged Cohen to resign from his position at Johnson & Johnson.
“My husband had to go to work every day so I slept on the floor at his house until I convinced him to quit his job,” Sifakis said.
They each used $20,000 they had saved from working during college and asked their parents and friends to be JWB's first investors.
Their mother set aside $50,000 in “savings.”
Within a year, JWB was purchasing and renovating homes through more private lenders.
The company flipped 25 homes that year, and increased that to 45 the following year as home prices plummeted during the Great Recession.
“It was definitely the wrong time to start a real estate business, but looking back, it was a good year,” Sifakis said.
“We were making a little bit of money, so we were small enough to be able to keep the store open when the market crashed, but big enough that we knew what we were doing.”
Trust and Support
Sifakis said he and Cohen bore financial losses from 2008 to 2009 and have repaid investors in full.
“Once the dust settled, investors trusted us,” Sifakis said.
“We had access to capital. Everyone else was going out of business, but we had a track record of success in the worst of markets, which allowed us to scale very quickly.”
Since August 2020, Sifakis has been focused on JWB’s adaptive reuse at North Core Downtown and La Villa construction plans. (Photo: Dede Smith)
It's all about relationships, he said.
“Your only value is keeping your promises. Do the right thing for people, continue to provide great service, make a profit and they'll keep coming back.”
JWB began building single-family homes in 2011. Sifakis said he added crowdfunding to JWB's capital portfolio in 2013.
He said that by using the online RealtyShares platform, JWB was able to open itself up to investors around the world and raise $1 million in a single day.
Sifakis said JWB used crowdfunding to obtain a line of credit and scale more quickly.
Sifakis said JWB Capital investors are currently earning a minimum return of 10%.
The company is developing 2,300 single-family homes and about 1,000 apartment complexes.
The majority of JWB's business is renovating existing, underutilized housing in underserved markets.
The company will buy homes, renovate them, rent them out and sell them to investors. Sifakis said JWB will continue to manage the properties as long as investor buyers want the services.
Sifakis said JWB's team of 81 employees — property managers, customer service representatives, office and maintenance staff — has helped him keep the company's focus on developing downtown.
“We have a really incredible team that makes all of this possible and runs the day-to-day operations. They excel at customer service, process improvement, management, all the things I'm not good at,” Sifakis said.
“You need to know your strengths and weaknesses.”
Sifakis said his wife, Britt, was there “almost the entire journey.”
For 10 years, Britt and her two children, 5-year-old Sawyer and 3-year-old Shepherd, have worked 90-hour weeks to provide for the family.
Downtown and the Future
Since August 2020, Sifakis has led JWB, which is focused on adaptive reuse in North Core Downtown and the La Villa construction plan.
The company is renovating the historic Federal Reserve Bank and Florida Baptist Convention buildings into a downtown block of apartments, restaurants and retail stores.
JWB is also proposing to renovate the Porter House Mansion into office and restaurant space, as well as build a multifamily addition.
The company purchased the warehouse and parking lot at 331 W. Ashley St. from the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville.
JWB is developing an $18 million, 91-unit for-sale townhouse project in LaVilla, with a second phase proposed to include 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
Downtown continues across the Matthews Bridge into one of the city's oldest suburbs.
“What happens to downtown will change what happens to Arlington,” Sifkais said.
He said March 4 that the development cost for the first phase of revamping the former Town and County Shopping Center in College Park is $18.5 million.
The company plans to fund the project with city grants, loans and cash.
Sifakis sees College Park as a gateway to Arlington, a neighborhood where JWB has built and renovated about 500 homes.
He said his role at JWB is always thinking about what's next.
The next move may be to focus less on scale and more on technology and efficiency in homebuilding.
Sifakis is exploring the feasibility of 3D printing homes and adding rooftop solar power to JWB homes.
Sifakis said JWB will begin hiring more employees as it continues to expand its residential and commercial inventory.
JWB is “really investing here,” he said.
JWB sees downtown as an opportunity to keep the company busy for the next decade, but has no plans to expand outside of Northeast Florida.
“What we've done is expand our area of expertise within Jacksonville, rather than expanding outside of Jacksonville,” Sifakis said.
“And we'll probably continue to do that.”