Jake has applied more than 15 years of experience to helping healthy, distressed, and bankrupt tenants reposition and optimize their real estate portfolios. He is an expert in lease renegotiation and disposition, property sales, merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory, and corporate bankruptcies.
About Jake
Jake brings deep knowledge and deal experience spanning across asset classes, helping clients maximize the value of their real estate. He has structured and negotiated thousands of commercial transactions, including lease assignments and subleases, lease terminations/renewals, sale-leasebacks, and fee simple sales.
During his career, Jake has:
- Represented a debtor, a major fitness center chain, in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to renegotiate approximately 250 gym leases, saving over $300 million in total rental liability.
- Led the industrial real estate strategy and execution for a national milk marketing cooperative in its $433 million acquisition of a food and beverage company to structure a post-transaction merged warehouse portfolio.
- Twice led a real estate cost savings and capital raising program for a restaurant chain with locations across 12 states to shutter over 50 underperforming restaurants and generate new capital via fee simple property sales. This included a multiunit sale-leaseback transaction generating millions in new capital, ultimately avoiding an in-court restructuring.
- Led a debtor’s real estate strategy and lease optimization/execution program in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of a 340-unit restaurant chain across the U.S., securing $63 million in real estate cost savings.
- Led the real estate strategy and successful landlord negotiations for a high-profile co-working company to exit costly office leases prior to the tenant’s initial move-in date, equating to nearly $20 million in discounted rent liability
- Represented a New York City-based private equity firm in its acquisition of assets of a well-known higher education program to identify and renegotiate select commercial leases, resulting in millions of dollars in lease savings.
Prior to Huron, Jake served as senior vice president at Hilco Real Estate, where he was a key leader in its restructuring division.
Jake received his Master of Business Administration in real estate finance from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa. He is a licensed real estate broker in Illinois and a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).