Westwood-based James Capital Advisors and Chelsea Mandel have joined forces to launch commercial real estate advisory firm Ascension.
James Capital Advisors’ team and infrastructure is transitioning into the new company.
Ascension will provide sale leaseback advisory services, tenant lease structuring, capital markets and market data and research services through its offices in New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Mike James, of James Capital, is the company’s chief executive, and will oversee the growth and corporate strategy of the new firm. He is a former senior managing director at brokerage Marcus & Millichap and launched James Capital Advisors in 2018.
“The synergies in our partnership are palpable,” James said in a statement. “By uniting our teams and resources, we are establishing a leader in the corporate real estate arena on day one.”

Mandel, meanwhile, is Ascension’s managing director, advising private equity and financial sponsor clients in addition to leading a team of 40 advisors. She has done a lot of work on sale leasebacks and real estate advisory services. She was on the real estate acquisitions team at Starwood Capital Group before joining New York-based New Mountain Capital. In 2019, she took on an advisory role at STREAM Capital Partners.

Mandel said that the new company would allow her to better focus on her clients, adding that the new organization has the necessary infrastructure to back her up.
“The quality of service that our clients deserve does not exist in the marketplace today, and we had to change that,” she said in the statement. “Our value proposition is clear. We are providing the full suite of corporate real estate advisory solutions to our clients, from owned real estate to leased real estate, globally. We serve as a true, long-term, critical partner to our clients by providing holistic corporate real estate solutions across the continuum, so there’s no need to go elsewhere.”