Jennifer Christakes
Title: Regional Manager, JLL New England Property Management Group
Age: 48
Industry experience: 19 years
Jennifer Christakes runs JLL’s New England property management group, which oversees a 35-million-square-foot portfolio including iconic buildings such as Boston’s One Financial Center office tower. Christakes served as an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers before joining JLL in her native Chicago, where she worked for 18 years before being promoted to her Boston-based position in 2017. Christakes and her team of 200 employees manage 112 commercial properties in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Q: Is property management the forgotten corner of the commercial real estate world?
A: I don’t think a lot of people know that we exist. When I joined the industry, I didn’t know there were people who had to manage commercial office buildings. You can’t go to most major higher ed institutions and get a degree in property management. Even when I got my MBA in real estate, it was all about planning. It didn’t have to do with what we do as commercial property managers. Most people just fall into this field or they have a family member in this field and know that it exists.
Q: What made One Financial Center in Boston and the Dunkin’ Brands headquarters in Canton stand out and win 2018 TOBY (The Outstanding Building of the Year) awards from the Greater Boston Real Estate Board?
A: One Financial Center is one of our trophy assets. It’s owned by MetLife, it’s a beautiful building and it’s run well. It’s not just about turning in your financial reports. Are your tenants happy? It’s not only a questionnaire, you take the judging committee on a tour of the building. They look in electrical closets, your boiler rooms, the places you wouldn’t necessarily want people to look. If you’re going to win that award, you have to be one of the best in your city in the category. For Dunkin’ Brands, we won manager of the year and building of the year. They were so impressed, not only because they received free donuts, ice cream and coffee when they get the tour.
Q: How is the role of property manager changing as landlords sponsor more building-wide events to build community among tenants?
A: There was a lot of it in Chicago when I left there, and it’s becoming more of a priority here. It’s not just the younger generation. We all want a little bit of it now. People want an amenity space or a floor where they can get away. They’ll have a happy hour on a Thursday. Minuteman Park in Andover is several different buildings, and they’ll have events in one space and invite all the tenants from other buildings to do just that. It’s something that our clients and tenants are asking for us to do: to get people together.
Q: How do commercial property mobile apps fit into that trend?
A: We have a national platform that is helping flesh all of that out and figure out the best things for us to use. We are using [Boston-based] HqO in one of our buildings that Clarion Partners owns, and looking to put it in place in a building in Cambridge. That technology piece is super helpful for folks. You can sign up for that yoga class, like everything else we do nowadays.
Q: What are your goals for the growth of the New England region property management division?
A: We’d really like to take advantage of all the lab growth that’s going on, not only here but Cambridge – and the suburbs, because Cambridge is full. We have a great lab expert on our team who has been teaching me all about lab space, because we don’t have any lab in Chicago. Downtown is always a focus for us. And we grew by about 350,000 square feet in Providence.
Q: What’s the biggest evolution in property management in the last decade?
A: Just this whole community hospitality trend. That has been something that’s fallen on our plate. We’ve always worked very hard to keep our tenants happy, but with more amenity space going into buildings – the fitness centers, the open comfy spaces – that’s something that’s starting to pick up here.
This building [One Post Office Square] is going to go under a huge redevelopment: amenity spaces, a new skin and it’s going to be amazing. All of our owners are really looking at that. You need to compete with all the new developments to get the higher rents. Rents in the central business district are lower than the Seaport and Cambridge, and to attract the new talent in the market, they need to keep up.
Q: Having worked most of your career in Chicago, what’s the biggest culture shock living in Greater Boston?
A: I love living near the ocean. As far as food selections, Chicago is kind of a huge melting pot and there’s so many options out there. People are going to get mad at me, but I’m not super fond of the pizza here.
Christakes’s Five Favorite Bands:
- Foo Fighters
- The Beatles
- The Black Keys
- Led Zeppelin
- Eminem
