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Building Places People Choose

Retail-first merchandising, activation, and operations for resilient mixed-use

Lela Cirjakovic

Lela Cirjakovic

Managing Director, Multifamily Property Management

JLL

Sean McNamara

Sean McNamara

Managing Director, Mixed-use Property Management

JLL

Molly Morgan

Molly Morgan

EVP, Retail Leasing

JLL

James Cook
Moderator

James Cook

Senior Director, Americas Retail Research

JLL

Lela Cirjakovic

Managing Director, Multifamily Property Management

JLL

Lela Cirjakovic joined JLL to lead the firm’s national multi housing property management platform in America. Working with national and regional leadership, Lela will focus on building and growing client relationships across the platform.

Lela has nearly 30 years of experience in real estate asset management. Prior to JLL, Lela served as executive vice president of operations at Waterton, a vertically integrated real estate investment firm. In this role, she had direct oversight of Waterton’s Portfolio of multifamily properties and was responsible for the strategic direction of the management platform, enhancing the portfolio’s financial performance and the resident experience. Lela was a voting member of Waterton’s leadership and investment committees while managing operations, sales, marketing and technology.

Prior to joining Waterton, she spent 12 years at CAMCO, Inc., a Chicago multifamily property management company where she served as member of the Senior Executive Committee and as regional property manager overseeing the company’s Midwest operations. Previously, Lela was a regional property manager for Midland Property Management where she was responsible for 8 properties in 4 states. Ms. Cirjakovic’s career began at the Illinois Housing Development Authority where she was an asset manager.

Sean McNamara

Managing Director, Mixed-use Property Management

JLL

Sean leads the JLL mixed-use property management service line, where he coalesces the firm’s extensive real estate service offerings into a fully integrated, single-point service delivery model for clients. He develops highly bespoke strategies to optimize and streamline operations across an entire development, identify revenue generation opportunities unique to mixed-use, and create one-of-a-kind destinations with local, regional and national cachet for our clients’ projects.

Sean recently served as the client relationship manager for several of the firm’s high-net-worth, family office investor clients. Previously, he held the position of senior general manager for the Transamerica Pyramid Center during the $120 million transformational project repositioning, where he deployed over $30 million of capital over a two-year period. Before this, he served as regional manager for JLL Florida Property Management, where he led over 400 management employees. Before joining JLL, Sean served as real estate advisor and asset manager for the Mann Family Portfolio which consisted of

14.2 million square feet of retail and office, 327 acres of development land, and 4,000 commercial parking spaces.

Sean holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Science in operations research from Georgia State University. He holds Florida Broker’s License and several respected industry designations including, CCIM, CPM, RPA, and FMA.

Molly Morgan

EVP, Retail Leasing

JLL

Molly leads the 10Twelve team, partnering with investor clients and developers to create and implement fresh merchandising strategies for retail centers. She identifies and secures the right tenants and creative uses for ground-up developments, redevelopments, mixed-used projects and existing assets that add value. Molly consistently stays ahead of retail trends and has developed relationships with leading retailers who add significant appeal to consumers and owners.

Notable projects include High Street, a 42-acre mixed-use development in Atlanta, GA; Avalon a mixed-use development with 570,000 s.f. of retail in Alpharetta, GA; Birkdale Village, a 250,000 s.f. redevelopment in Huntersville, NC; Halcyon, a 550,000 s.f. mixed-use and entertainment destination in Forsyth County, GA; and The Krog District, a 240,000 s.f. mixed-use redevelopment adjacent to the BeltLine Eastside Trail in Atlanta, GA.

Molly has also worked on high profile projects including, The Battery at Truist Park, a mixed-use sports and entertainment center featuring 212,000 s.f. of retail; The Shops at Buckhead in Atlanta, GA and Summerhill, a mixed-use redevelopment of the former Turner Field Stadium in Atlanta, GA.

Prior to joining JLL, Molly was the East region portfolio review manager for General Growth Properties (GGP) where she was responsible for assisting leasing efforts for Mizner Park and Village of Merrick Park in South Florida. Throughout her career, Molly has developed many relationships with local, national and regional retailers.

James Cook

Moderator

JLL

Based in Indianapolis, IN, James is the Senior Director of Americas Retail Research. He oversees the production of national retail research and serves as the voice of retail research in the region. He speaks regularly at events, with clients and the media about how retail real estate will change with tomorrow's economy.

James also hosts the Where We Buy podcast, a show about retail and real estate. Where We Buy was awarded a Gold MAXI award from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). The show was listed by FeedSpot as one of the Best Retail Podcasts You Must Follow in 2022. James also hosts the live video show Everything We Know About Retail.

Experience:

Before joining JLL, James was the National Director of Analytics at Xceligent, a national commercial property research firm. In that role, he recruited and managed a new Analytics department, a national team of regional analysts tasked with producing quarterly market reports and thought leadership pieces.

James has worked in the commercial real estate industry since 1999, beginning as a Phoenix market research analyst with Insignia/ESG. He has served as U.S. Director of Research at Colliers International, where he oversaw the commercial property research services. Before that, he built the Colliers national GIS platform as the GIS Manager for the U.S. region.

Education and affiliations:

James received a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. James is an active participant in the International Council of Shopping Centers' North American Research Task Force. He was the chair of the 2015 Research Connections Conference. He has served on multiple NAIOP and ULI committees.

Outside interests:

James enjoys morning runs through the Indiana countryside.

Why Attend JLL's Mixed-Use Webinar

Why This Matters
 

Mixed-use isn’t a stack of asset types, it’s a highly connected ecosystem. Too many projects are piecemealed across consultants, leading to muddled execution and missed NOI. A single, integrated team, brought in early, can choreograph merchandising, activation, marketing, and operations to create true sense-of-place, stronger leasing velocity, and durable premiums across office, multifamily, retail, and hospitality. This panel brings together the JLL's mixed-use property management dream team of “The Mixx," a group with decades of expertise in marketing, branding, retail, hospitality, office and multifamily to show how coordinated disciplines deliver cohesive place-making and real P&L lift.

What You Will Learn
 

  • When to engage property management experts (and why it’s early): How to plug in during the dirt phase (18–24 months pre-delivery) to shape underwriting, phasing, cost allocation, and parking strategy.
     

  • Retail as the front door: Crafting a merchandising plan that sets identity, drives traffic, and lifts rents across every vertical.
     

  • Placemaking + activation that stick: Programming, events, and on-site experiences that convert tours and retain residents/tenants.
     

  • A one-team model: Replacing fragmented consultants with a single, connected team—“one throat to choke”—for speed and accountability.
     

  • Analytics feedback loop: How data informs tenant mix, marketing, and evolving the campus after opening.
     

  • Sports-anchored + venue-adjacent playbooks: Adapting the model to event districts and destination nodes.
     

  • From opening to stabilization: Operating cadence, service delivery, and storytelling that sustain momentum post-launch.

The Mixx working its magic:
 

Plaza Coral Gables 

OC Vibe
 

The Mixx in the news:
 

JLL names lead for its new mixed-use property management team

How Live-Work-Play Districts Are Redefining CRE in 2025

For questions regarding content and speaking, please email our Event Producer, Elizabeth Herrgott, at Elizabeth.Herrgott@bisnow.com. Want to get involved? Contact Jordan.Hinsch@bisnow.com to get information on sponsorship, pricing and availability at this event. To request disability-related accommodations, please contact ariel.fromm@bisnow.com no later than seven business days prior to the event.

Agenda

Time Activity
4:00 PM
5:00 PM
Building Places People Choose

In this one hour webinar, the JLL team behind “Mixed” will reveal the operating system behind successful mixed-use from retail-first identity to experience-led activation and integrated operations. They will unpack when to engage (well before vertical construction), how to phase delivery, allocate costs/utilities, manage shared spaces, and create a data-driven feedback loop that continually improves the ecosystem and the bottom line. The discussion will highlight how aligning retail, hospitality, office, and multifamily strategies under one cohesive vision transforms projects into vibrant destinations where people choose to live, work, and gather.