LOS ANGELES—AECOM Capital, an affiliate of L.A.-based AECOM, launched in January 2013 with a vision to fund real estate development opportunities using a fund model. In a year and a half, the new investment company has committed $100 million of capital and launched six development projects worth $2.3 billion. Among those projects, four are located in Southern California, including the now famous project on six acres in Downtown Los Angeles' South Park neighborhood. Although AECOM Capital has had some major success this year, few know about the still-new company and its innovative investment model. So, we sat down with the man behind the model and the investment decisions, AECOM Capital CEO, John Livingston.

GlobeSt.com: How did AECOM Capital come together?

John Livingston: I come out of Tishman Realty & Construction. I was with that company for 20 years. We sold the construction company to AECOM four years ago, and I spent some time traveling around the globe to create a global construction platform. About 18 months ago, I went to my CEO and the board to suggest that we create a real estate platform because we had such tremendous resources in house, both design and construction from Tishman, and with capital and a balance sheet we could create a real estate platform in a fund model. I put together a business plan and said why don't you commit $150 million to me and I'll put up a small share of that, and we'll be joint venture partners to invest in real estate projects. In doing so, we both control our destiny more and we will get yield over time on our investments and we will also get short-term service revenue.