For 28 years, Jamestown has raised equity from high net worth German investors to fund its $35B of commercial real estate transactions, including the iconic redevelopments of Ponce City Market in Atlanta and Chelsea Market in New York. But in 2019, Jamestown did something new: It started a fund designed to draw investments from Americans outside the top 1% who want fractional ownership in a real estate project — specifically, the company’s redevelopment of a former dairy plant across the street from PCM, a 2.1M SF former Sears warehouse Jamestown turned into creative offices over a popular food hall. “People want to do their own thing," Jamestown CEO Matt Bronfman told Bisnow. They don't need an expert. They would rather control and make their own decisions. At the end of the day in real estate … you can point to it and say, ‘I own a piece of that building.’” 
The Jamestown Invest direct-to-consumer fund raised $5.5M before its launch, Bronfman said, and bought a 51% stake in the Southern Dairies property from Jamestown in March 2020, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It raised another $2.4M in the six months that followed,…  Read the full story here. | 
