| Jeff Jones | Principal | Development |
Jeff Jones’ primary focus since college has been researching emerging trends in demographics, psychographics, and technology and how to create a new business model to generate above market returns. This philosophy has been the driving mechanism in his career.
After graduating college in 1992 Jeff went to work for the Dietz Organization and his emerging trends focus immediately paid dividends, as Jeff was the first broker to recognize to-be-formed REITS and closed over $100M (1992 dollars) of UP-REIT apartment transactions.
Jeff left Michigan for Arizona in 1994 and became an apartment agent at Marcus & Millichap where he closed over 45 transactions totaling $105 million in a four year period. In 1998, Jeff formed the Jones Group Real Estate Services, LLC (JGRES) and Jones Group Real Estate Development, LLC (JGRED). JGRED under Jeff’s leadership became a pioneer in the luxury student housing industry building over 2,940 beds of urban mixed-use high density luxury student housing. JRED went completely against the general consensus and built mixed-use urban student projects with very large units vs. consensus of building suburban building with small unit square footage. Jeff’s concept proved to be significantly more profitable than the consensus over the last 14 years.
JGRED then turned its focus to building urban transportation oriented luxury living units catering to echo boomers and baby boomers. JGRED acquired numerous parcels of land along the light rail in Metropolitan Phoenix beginning in 2003 but recognized the construction cost escalation and overbuilding; consequently did not break ground on any projects. JGRED has utilized the recent downtime to work in conjunction with renowned architect Kristjan Sigurdsson to develop urban BIM models to maximize density, eliminate building conflicts and dramatically lower construction costs associated with urban projects.
To date Jeff Jones as principal of JGRES has closed over $459M in apartment transactions, and developed over $148.2M in urban mixed use luxury student housing, and developed or acquired over $56.3M in commercial projects.
| Kristjan Sigurdsson | Principal | Design |
Kristjan attended Arizona State University and received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Design and Architecture, Summa Cum Laude in 1990, and a Master of Business Administration degree in 1993. Kristjan is a Registered Architect in the State of Arizona, and a LEED Accredited Professional.
Kristjan joined Archicon in 1990, then a 6 person boutique firm, fresh out of college. Within a few years he made principal partner and helped grow the company to a 50 person firm doing projects in over 20 states. Kristjan was the principal designer of the firm, but also managed all staffing and scheduling for over 200 projects at a time.
Kristjan started K&I Architects in the fall of 2001, and quickly grew the company to a 30 person firm. Kristjan headed up a specialized team of designers and architects that focused exclusively on multifamily housing (apartments and condominiums). At this time Building Information Modeling (BIM) was just surfacing in the AEC industry. BIM is a collaborative intelligent 3-D model based process that integrates all of the architectural, structural, MEP and other building components into a single 3-D model that provides the project team the ability to identify, visualize and resolve conflicts throughout the design process, resulting in projects that are built faster and at less cost. Recognizing the tremendous overall value of BIM Kristjan made significant investment in the new technology and devoted the time and resources for his multi-family design team to become experts in the process.
With a desire to specialize exclusively in residential design, Kristjan started K&I Homes in 2008. Since then Kristjan has been focused on developing new and innovative concepts for multifamily housing prototypes that will provide the basis for the new generation of living units to be built over the next decades.
Continuing the development of internal collaborative BIM procedures and processes, to manage projects faster, and more economically, Kristjan has embraced the new BIM powered collaboration called IPD, or Integrated Project Delivery. IPD is a highly effective collaboration among the owner, architect, and contractor from the early design phase through construction and occupancy. The IDP team meets frequently with multiple relevant disciplines to continually refine a design. Target Design Value is established up front and the entire team commits to design and build to that cost. Rather than estimate based on a detailed design, the design is based on a detailed estimate. Rather than evaluate the constructability of a design, the design is developed for what is constructible. The team works together to define the issues, make decisions and then design to those decisions. This greatly improves the design results, and consequently streamlining and shortening the much more expensive construction effort. The overall result is reduced time needed for design and construction, higher quality projects, overall cost savings, reduced conflict, change orders and other project delays.
| Larry Mohr | Principal | Construction |
Larry is the principal of Mohr Management, LLC, which offers construction management consulting services to real estate developers and owners and is able to apply his experience from over 35 years with The Weitz Company to assist clients with cost effective and timely solutions to their design and construction needs.
Larry’s career at Weitz included positions as Project Engineer, Design Coordinator, Project Manager, Vice President, Construction Manager, Vice President Business Acquisition, Business Unit President and Board Director.
During Larry’s 12 year tenure as a member of the Board, Company annual revenue increased fourfold to over $1 billion and the Company business models and systems were enhanced to support the needs of a top 50 US building contractor.
During Larry’s 16 year term as Southwest Business Unit President, Business Unit annual revenue increased from under $40 million to well over $100 million and Business Unit annual profitability increased over tenfold to nearly $6 million. Individual project capability grew from projects no greater than $17 million to projects over $70 million. The Southwest Business Unit was frequently the Company’s top profit producer during this time.
One of Larry’s strengths is serving client’s needs during the project creation and design phase. He advised many clients on cost effective solutions beginning at the concept stage continuing with selecting material, systems and construction details through the construction drawing stage to meet the client’s needs. Larry was recognized as one of the Company leaders in developing and delivering best of class preconstruction phase services.
Larry’s active involvement in the preconstruction phase on many projects led to partnerships with clients in which the Company or Company principals participated in the debt or equity and development risk on select projects including shopping centers, freestanding single tenant retail, office buildings and a wet lab research building. Larry’s involvement in this broader range of development services positions Larry to provide even more complete services to Mohr Management clients.
| Jim Jones | Principal | Brokerage |
Upon graduation from Arizona State University in 1995, Jim became an apartment agent at Marcus & Millichap in Phoenix. After just three years at M&M, Jim became a Co-founder of The Jones Group Real Estate Services, LLC in 1998.
Jim is responsible for the day to day management of the Jones Group and has personally closed over 150 apartment transactions totaling over $459M. Jim’s 17 years brokerage experience includes site selection, market analysis, financial due diligence, and business model metrics.
Jim also has extensive experience as a principal in apartment development and ownership, single family home development and office acquisition and ownership. Jim brings a vast array of in-depth expertise to the UHDC team.