Koreatown-based multifamily developer Jamison Properties LP recently completed Opus, a 22-story, 428-unit luxury residential high-rise in Koreatown where one-bedroom apartments start at $3,100 per month.
But despite being Jamison’s largest and most luxurious project yet, the team behind the development is garnering much of its attention.
Made up of five women, Jamison’s high-rise team was responsible for overseeing the $200 million apartment complex from start to finish – a sight quite rare in the commercial real estate business.
“It’s special to be able to be a part of it,” Margo Weisz, a vice president at Jamison Properties and leader of the quintet, said. “It’s special to help create the environment, keep building our team and having younger people join us and mentor them. It’s a really supportive, special place.”
In addition to Weisz, the development of Opus was led by Jamison’s Adrie Miles, senior project manager; Laura Wang, director of design; as well as Jessica De Luna and Lauren Futterman, both project managers. But the reality of having an all-female leadership team like that is few and far between.
Women make up 36.7% of the general commercial real estate workforce and only 9% of C-suite positions within the industry, according to the most recent benchmark study published by Commercial Real Estate Women Network.
Women in construction
“Our team has a tremendous amount of synergy,” Weisz said. “We work really well together. We play to each other’s strengths and support each other, both in the office and out of the office.”
For Weisz, Miles and Wang, Opus marks their third high-rise project together. The trio worked on Kurve – Jamison’s $300 million 644-unit apartment in Westlake that debuted in 2021 – and, before that, Weisz and Miles did Circa downtown.
“We’re able to grow with the project and in our roles too,” Wang said. “Our responsibilities are a bit more defined. I think we took a lot of lessons learned from Kurve that made it much smoother.”
Construction on Opus began in May 2022 and the project opened its doors to its first tenants in June. The complex – which spans 483,000 square feet across two towers – is nearly 40% leased, to which the team attributes the building’s luxe amenities and prime location. It features two rooftop pools, a dog spa and a golf simulator to name a few.
“Being on this project, the most important thing has been getting the right people for the job,” Futterman said. “And it’s a coincidence, I think, more than a planned existence that we’re all women. We were just the right people for the job, and we work well together. I think it’s more chance than opportunity.”
Futterman, the youngest on the team, said she’s always felt supported by women in commercial real estate. She graduated as a civil engineer from the University of Southern California in 2018, stating that her class happened to have one of the largest female populations of any undergrad engineering program at the time.
Project manager De Luna reported different experiences having previously only worked on male-led teams. She was actually familiar with the all-female high-rise team at Jamison while still working her last job. She looked up to the team and called it her “dream.”
“This is my first setup with all females,” De Luna said. “I’ve always worked with men. Always.”
Breaking down barriers
“I think years ago women didn’t see themselves in commercial real estate and it’s taking time for the newer generations to come into this industry and then become seasoned enough to make it to the C-suite positions,” said Laurie Lustig-Bower, an executive vice president specializing in multifamily sales at CBRE Group Inc. “I think there’s an evolutionary process going on where it’s just taking time for women to infiltrate into these higher positions and also just infiltrate into the industry as a whole.”
Lustig-Bower joined CBRE in 1988 right out of college. She recalled peers encouraging her to go into single-family brokerage, which, unlike commercial, skews more female. And when she did decide to go commercial, she remembers experiences that suggested her male colleagues were threatened by her being a woman.
“I didn’t pay attention to the female side of me,” Lustig-Bower said. “I just paid attention to the business side of me.”
“The tech and finance driven departments have historically been male dominated,” Kitty Wallace, a senior executive vice president specializing in multifamily sales at Colliers, added. “And I think women are just seeing the opportunities now, whether it’s engineering, investment banking or commercial real estate. Most of it is just awareness.”
Like Lustig-Bower, Wallace is a business graduate from USC who branched into commercial real estate due to her love of business and complex analyses.
She preaches diversity in the workplace and believes working with people of different backgrounds and perspectives helps when it comes to multifamily building and creating tenant relationships.
Lead by example
“I think the idea that an all-female leadership team, especially on such a significant development project, is notable because it’s rare,” Jaime Lee said. “Our firm has never shied away from female leadership.”
Lee, a working mother of three herself, is the chief executive of parent company Jamison, which reports a net asset value of over $6 billion and an additional $390 million in annual rental revenue.
She oversees multiple family-owned real estate services companies under the Jamison umbrella, including other asset types such as office, retail and medical, totaling 18 million square feet.
“I always try to be a mentor, and I think it’s incredibly important, where maybe in generations past, there were people who felt there were limited positions for women,” Lee said. “I have the great fortune of being part of a generation that really focuses on inclusivity, that there’s plenty of room at the top for everyone, and any opportunity we have to reach down and help lift another woman up or another person who is underrepresented up, we have to take all those opportunities to do that.”
Instead of emphasizing diversity quotas, Lee said Jamison encourages companies to address the implicit biases that exist within their industries and focus on qualifications and experience as opposed to gender checkboxes.
“We look for the best candidates for the job and that’s all we can do,” she said. “We’re very intentional with the fact that every application and every resume gets its due consideration and does not have these biases that come into play as we’re looking to contribute to the housing stock of Los Angeles. But there is this balance, of course, that exists of being mindful of bias.”
Bridging the gender gap
While experts expressed the industry feels like it’s nearing a level playing field, they also acknowledged that the numbers indicate there’s a far way to go.
Beyond occupancy disparities, women continue to earn less than their male counterparts. In 2020, the fixed salary gap between the genders was 10.2% and the commission and bonus gap was a staggering 55.9%, according to the same Commercial Real Estate Women Network study.
Wallace and Lustig-Bower both believe the education system is partly to blame for the lack of female engagement within commercial real estate, stating the most important thing leaders can be doing is spreading awareness.
“Commercial real estate is something that is a good blend of people skills, math skills, vision, being creative and finding solutions,” Wallace said. “These are all skills that women have. They just need to know about it.”
Wallace and Lustig-Bower highlighted the importance of conferences and speaker events to draw attention to career possibilities and spotlight working women excelling in top positions.
“I think the more society sees females in the role of commercial real estate, the more acceptable it will be,” Lustig-Bower said. “I think we’ll see a lot more younger females being attracted into this industry just because it becomes more illuminated in their minds that this is a path to go, as opposed to just assuming that if they’re going to go into real estate, they’re going to sell single-family homes.”
Jamison currently has 2,000 units under construction, including a mixture of ground-up construction and office to multifamily conversions – and the high-rise team is staying busy.
“I’m proud to be one of the few women in meetings,” Weisz said. “It was more commonplace when I first started to be the only woman, and now there’re more and more women. It’s exciting. On a personal level, I have a 4-year-old daughter. She loves coming to the job sites whenever we’re in the car together. She loves pointing out construction. She plays like she’s going to work to build her building. I’m just proud to be able to show her that she can do anything she wants.”
