Jim joined Avison Young’s Chicago office in 2014 as a Principal of the firm. Working within the Private Equity Services Group, he brings more than 30 years of capital markets, structured finance and development experience to Avison Young, including over $5 billion of closed investment sale, financing, sale-leaseback, development capitalization and strategic advisory assignments.

Jim’s extensive real estate experience, including deep relationships with capital sources representing the full spectrum of the capital stack, allows him to provide valuable insight into the execution of transactions for private equity clients and their portfolio companies. Since joining the Chicago office, Jim has assisted clients in completing a variety of transactions. These include sale-leaseback transactions on existing facilities as well as build-to-suit financing for to-be-constructed properties. Jim has also advised clients on recapitalizing properties, sourced general partner and limited partner equity for development transactions, arranged construction financing for new developments and brokered the sale of institutional quality assets.

Prior to joining Avison Young, Jim was a Principal at Chicago-based real estate developer Mesa Development. At Mesa, Jim was responsible for all capital structuring activities related to the almost $1 billion of urban, mixed-use, residential development completed during his tenure. Jim identified and structured approximately $700 million of senior construction financing, $125 million of mezzanine financing and $80 million of institutional co-investment equity capital.

Jim began his real estate career at Jones Lang LaSalle, where he completed his tenure as a Managing Director in the Capital Markets Group. Based in the firm’s Chicago headquarters, he oversaw all capital markets activities in the central region of the US, including asset dispositions and financings, structured corporate finance transactions and other financial advisory assignments on behalf of clients that included domestic and foreign corporations, developers, REITs, real estate fund operators and institutions.

Recent significant transactions Jim has completed on behalf of clients include the build-to-suit, sale leaseback financing of a 965,000 square foot porcelain tile manufacturing plant, the sale of a 2.68 million square foot robotic sortation facility net leased to a major global on-line retailer, the sale of the headquarters and training facility net leased to a major professional sports franchise and the sale of a 1.1 million square foot on-airport cargo distribution facility net leased to a major global logistics provider.