James Capital Advisors Sets Up Shop in Phoenix

James Capital Advisors has expanded into Phoenix. The move is the first step in the firm’s ambitious national expansion plans, which will continue to evolve in 2020 and beyond. Former Marcus & Millichap net lease brokers and well-known industry veterans Jonathan Eckerd and Ken Johnson II are the inaugural brokers at the new Phoenix office. Both brokers have joined James Capital Advisors as VP of net lease.

“We have plans to expand nationally, and this is a part of that plan. Phoenix was a natural first step for us. We already do a lot of business there and it is close to Los Angeles,” Mike James, founder and managing director of James Capital Advisors, tells GlobeSt.com. “We had the opportunity with Ken and Jonathan to have to veteran brokers that could spearhead the charge there. Phoenix was the first place that we wanted to go, and it worked out well from a personnel perspective.”

The middle of a pandemic and severe economic dislocation may seem like an odd time to increase market share and execute a national expansion, but James says that the firm’s ongoing growth, even through the last several months, warrants the growth. “In our existing brokerage business, we have demonstrated that our ability to grow market share was exponentially greater than really any potential downside in transaction volume that we believe is possible,” he says. “We have been growing like weeds, and as long as we have been able to capture market value, we will continue to execute the plan.”

The firm’s business have been only nominally impacted by the pandemic, and in August, the firm celebrated its best month yet. “Frankly, not much has changed. We have had a lot more interest in brokers being remotely on boarded all over the country, and we have had a lot of outreach since the pandemic,” says James. “Outside of the first few months of the pandemic, things are back to normal for us. In fact, we are having one of the best months that we have ever had as a company.”

Phoenix was a natural first step for the firm’s expansion plans. The market has experienced tremendous growth in the last several years, both population growth and job growth. As a result, capital has flooded into the market. That trend hasn’t waned during the pandemic. “We are seeing a lot of capital leaving Los Angeles and California as a result of a number of different issues that exist here,” says James. “We think that markets like Phoenix stand to benefit long term from that migration, and we are seeing a lot of investors move capital from California into other parts of the country. That is a huge part of our business. Having a foothold in one of those markets and one of the largest market that is close to L.A. is huge for executing on our strategy. That has only accelerated with the shutdown.”

While Eckerd and Johnson will establish the firm’s net lease foothold in the Phoenix office, but James plans to expand into other asset classes in the market as well.