JBG SMITH Properties is a publicly traded

real estate investment trust A real estate investment trust (REIT, pronounced "reet") is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of real estate, including office and apartment buildings, studios, warehouses, hos ...

based in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

. As of December 31, 2024, the company owned 38 operating properties including 16 apartment complexes with 6,781 units, 20 commercial properties comprising 6.3 million square feet, and 2 properties on which it collects ground rent. It also owned 2 additional apartment complexes under construction and had 19 properties in its development pipeline. All of the company's properties are in the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the National Capital Region, Greater Washington, or locally as the DMV (short for Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia), is the metropolitan area comprising Washing ...

, mostly in National Landing, almost all of which are accessible by the

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History

In late 1956, three attorneys — Gerald J. Miller, Donald A. Brown, and Joseph Bernard Gildenhorn — formed a real estate law practice in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth ...

called Miller, Brown & Gildenhorn. In 1962, after realizing that it was more profitable to develop on their own account, the company changed to a real estate development company and Benjamin A. Jacobs joined the firm. In 1969, Miller was replaced with Jacobs and the company changed its name to JBG Associates. In the late 1980s, the company was among the first real estate development firms in the D.C. area to redevelop properties for third-party clients for a set fee. This strategy helped the company survive the

early 1990s recession The early 1990s recession describes the period of economic downturn affecting much of the Western world in the early 1990s. The impacts of the recession contributed in part to the 1992 U.S. presidential election victory of Bill Clinton over incum ...

. The company aggressively acquired several properties after the early 1990s recession. With 26 buildings in its portfolio in the early 1990s, the company considered an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

, although it did not happen. By 1997, the company had an ownership interest in 21 commercial properties, including many office buildings, two hotels and one shopping center. It sold most of its assets to Trizec Properties in 1997 for $560 million. The deal did not include 10 apartment projects owned by JBG. The sale helped raise capital for the firm. But with a smaller portfolio, the company also shed most of its staff, and only 15 people remained with the firm and Brown and Gildenhorn retired from daily management. In 1999, the company decided on a new investment strategy, seeking individual, and later institutional, investors that gave the firm access to funds it could use at its discretion. The first investment fund closed in 2002, and its first institutional investor was the

financial endowment A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of Financial instrument, financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to Donor intent, the will of its fo ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. By fall 2012, JBG had established 8 investment funds and raised $5.5 billion; several of the funds were specifically created just for investment by Yale. In 2005, JBG recapitalized several office buildings by selling a stake in the buildings to

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for $644 million. In August 2007, the company formed a joint venture with MacFarlane Partners to develop several properties. By 2011, the company had $10 billion in assets. That year, Jacobs retired as managing member. In 2013, the company was named as the most active real estate developer in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The company opened a real estate

investment fund An investment fund is a way of investment, investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These ad ...

called JBG/Fund IX on March 17, 2014, and by September 2014, the company had raised $680 million. In July 2017, the company merged with Charles E. Smith Companies, a subsidiary of Vornado Realty Trust that owned its assets in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The company changed its name to JBG Smith and was spun off into a public company. In November 2018, the company sold land with 4.1 million developable square feet to

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

and announced lease transactions with

at National Landing as part of the

Amazon HQ2 Amazon HQ2 is Amazon (company), Amazon's corporate headquarters in National Landing in Crystal City, Virginia (part of Arlington, Virginia, Arlington County) in the Washington, D.C. area, and an expansion of the company's headquarters in Seattl ...

initiative.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:JBG Companies 1957 establishments in Maryland 2017 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1957 Companies based in Bethesda, Maryland Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Financial services companies established in 1957 Real estate companies established in 1957 Real estate investment trusts of the United States