By Dennis Kaiser

Next week, Connect Real Estate Los Angeles is on tap featuring a jam-packed afternoon of conversations, networking and presentations. There’s still time to register for the March 27th conference at this link.

We asked Jamison’s Jaime Lee to share her development and investment insights on the Los Angeles market in our latest 3 CRE Q&A. She will be speaking on a panel titled: Buy, Build, Sell, or Hold: Investment & Development Insights.

Q: What is your investment and development strategy for 2018, and how has that changed over the past few years? 

 A: 2018 is a huge and exciting year for us. While we have historically been a commercial office landlord, we are delivering seven new multifamily development projects this year alone, totaling 1,700 units, including our first five ground-up projects. This will bring our total multifamily unit count to more than 2,000 residential units, making Jamison a solid player in the Los Angeles multifamily market. This is a significant year for us as we prove up our development model and track absorption. At the same time, we are only just ramping up our development pipeline with eight more projects under construction that will deliver next year, and we hope to continue at a pace of about five starts per year moving forward.

Q: What is driving investment and development decisions in Los Angeles today?

A: There are a multitude of factors affecting investment decisions today. Developers have to weigh strong demand, rising rents, and our critical need for housing, against the concerning factors of rising construction costs, slowdown of absorption in both residential and commercial space, zoning and approval issues, the high pricing of assets, and the approaching end of a very protracted economic cycle.

Q: What are some examples of Jamison Properties’ projects or investments that reflect that strategy?

A: Our first two multifamily developments were adaptive reuse conversions, The Westmore and The Abbey, both located in Koreatown. Both projects are designed with the millennial young professional in mind, with more modern amenities and features than existed in this submarket before. However, they attracted tenants far beyond that initial target demographic, including families and downsizing empty-nesters. Both leased up within four months at higher than expected rents, and really demonstrated that we could bring desirable residential product to the market while also removing office square footage, thus supplementing our existing commercial portfolio.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Kaiser