February 28, 2025 by John Krukowski

'Truly Different': A Look Inside JLL’s Unique Approach To Mixed-Use Property Management

Photo: Courtesy of JLL

The Plaza Coral Gables

Agave Holdings had most of the key ingredients for its ambitious new project in Florida, including 7 acres of prime land zoned for mixed-use development. 

But the firm, an innovative developer and private investor, was still missing the help of an experienced property manager to bring its nearly billion-dollar vision and investment to life.

Agave, which is active in the United States and Mexico, saw the development in Coral Gables as a legacy project. Its plans for The Plaza Coral Gables — the largest development in the city’s history — called for 2.2M SF of Class-A retail, residential, office and hospitality space. It would also be home to Agave’s new headquarters.

The multibillion-dollar investment firm was experienced in commercial real estate, but Greg Schwartz, Agave's head of asset management, acknowledged that cohesively bringing all the pieces together would be “extremely complex.”

“When you start with something of this size and you begin to think about how it will work as a business, the focus is on what structures will fit on the site and be physically built,” he said. “Then, you must think about allocation methodology, staffing plans, vertical subdivisions and the way that a shared expense flows through different profit and loss centers.”

For those reasons, Agave sought a partner with considerable CRE management experience to oversee all aspects of a large mixed-use development, one that also understood how mixed-use is evolving to meet the needs and expectations of owners, investors and tenants.

Mixed-Use = Less Risk

“Greg Schwartz came to me and said, ‘Hey, we really would like to understand how JLL would manage the project and manage it differently,’” said Sean McNamara, a commercial real estate veteran with nearly 30 years of experience. 

McNamara, head of mixed-use for JLL property management, said his firm can offer clients like Agave the synergy of multiple in-house disciplines working together to manage a mixed-use property. Its areas of expertise include property management, retail leasing, accounting, experience management and marketing — all of which come into play in complex projects like The Plaza Coral Gables.

McNamara said JLL takes a team or “altruistic” approach to mixed-use property management. This means that rather than working in silos, with each department at JLL competing for the client’s attention and dollars, the members of JLL’s multidisciplinary team work together in deference to the overall project and its components, the community and the development’s investors.

“All of the traditional real estate market fundamentals are maximized,” McNamara said. “As a result, your retailers are happy because you are driving demand to the front door while also creating a dynamic ecosystem for tenants, residents and visitors of multifamily, office and hotel properties. It creates a sort of business line buoyancy because it allows you to create value in every asset class on the property.”

This is important to clients who see mixed-use as a hedge against uncertainties like inflation and business cycles, he said. (See sidebar for more on what is driving investor interest in mixed-use.) If all the elements of the development are planned and managed with equal care, then investors are less at the mercy of changing business conditions that can challenge a single-use property.

“Mixed-use allows them to maximize their investment return by spreading out the risk across the different business verticals,” McNamara said. “But one of the challenges for investors like Agave Holdings is getting the highest and best return out of each of those asset classes and unlocking the intrinsic value of the mixed-use real estate that they have spent a lot of investment capital on to develop.”

Mixed-Use, Not Mixed Results

Managing a large mixed-use development requires staying on top of the fast-changing expectations of consumers. Concepts that might have baffled an earlier generation of developers, such as experiential and live-work-play, are now high priorities for CRE operators and investors.

“High-touch service is not new across asset classes, but the industry really started changing, particularly multifamily, when disruptors like Airbnb became a thing,” said Mark Zettl, president of JLL property management. “With online reviews and ratings, owners realized they needed to change, and what was once a very transactional business started adopting a completely new level of service.”

Zettl, who brings 30 years of hotel industry experience to JLL, said the company’s holistic approach to mixed-use helps its clients smoothly meet consumers’ new expectations for hospitality-grade services and amenities that drive higher levels of engagement with the property.

That won’t work if all members of the management team aren't in complete alignment with what it takes to create a balanced “ecosystem” that meets the needs of both investors and consumers, he added. 

Photo: Courtesy of JLL

Many consumers and investors appreciate the live-work-play ethos of mixed-use properties.

“We've created a seamless, industry-leading program because we recognized that mixed-use owners were getting frustrated when they would hire JLL for the office segment, for example, then they'd have to hire somebody else to go run their multifamily and someone else again to run their retail,” Zettl said. “They’d have to work with multiple managers and contracts, which meant they’d have three times the work to stay on top of all these different components.”

Now, clients can benefit from expertise across multiple asset classes because JLL’s people work as a team. This helps clients benefit from an engaged base of mixed-use tenants, residents and visitors, said Ryan Room, chief operating officer of JLL property management.

“There's an enticement around mixed-use because you have those live-work-play elements attracting people and creating a win-win-win for everybody,” Room said.

When all cylinders in the mixed-use engine are firing in sync, “People stay engaged and it’s not feast or famine for the owner where everybody goes to the office, has lunch or dinner and then drives home. Instead, it’s a real ecosystem.” 

'Results Speak For Themselves'

McNamara said JLL is excited about putting its multidisciplinary approach to mixed-use to work for other clients across the country. 

“The reception we’re getting from the marketplace is that what we are doing is truly different,” he said. “They see that JLL has developed a platform that will align with and help them deliver on their vision for the project, which is what every developer wants, particularly if they see the property as their legacy.”

That is the case for The Plaza Coral Gables, where “the results speak for themselves,” according to Agave Holdings Managing Director Carlos Beckmann.

Those results include 5.6% average residential rent growth, 15K SF of retail space under letter of intent in only four months, 14 restaurant leases signed and 3,000 daily visitors. 

Photo: Courtesy of JLL

The Plaza Coral Gables is the largest development in the Florida city’s history.

“Our office tower is 100% leased, and there is a waiting list for our apartments,” Beckmann said, adding that The Plaza Coral Gables’ success has been “phenomenal” and “above our projections.”

As other investors eye complex, large-scale developments, Zettl said he believes JLL’s unique approach can help them reach their mixed-use goals too.

“What we've created — and what we're very proud of — is a completely different way of running the property, with one JLL manager running all of it,” he said. “We can do this because we've got the leading retail, office and multifamily management resources, and we have invested very heavily in this approach to help clients achieve a high level of engagement.”

This article was produced in collaboration between JLL and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.