Rehoboth real estate investment firm JLAM heads south with second office

REHOBOTH BEACH — Boutique real estate and investment firm Jack Lingo Asset Management (JLAM) has now opened a second office in Charlotte, building off early investments in the Carolinas with an appetite for more.

JLAM named its director of investments and market leader Parker Smith to head up the Charlotte office and has plans in the works to build a team around him with a portfolio of industrial properties in both North and South Carolinas. JLAM Managing Principal Doug Motley said, the beauty is the office in Rehoboth Beach has the infrastructure to help Smith start sourcing opportunities in the hot market.

“In the past two years, we’ve been intentional about finding the best opportunity to plant our flag in the Carolinas. We’ve had success across a number of projects, and we really like the economic environment we’re seeing,” Motley told the Delaware Business Times. “It’s business friendly and the timelines to get things done are good. They’re also a great place to live and that’s a fundamental philosophy of our business: creating projects and places where people want to live.”

Jack Lingo Asset Management is the real estate investment arm of Jack Lingo Realtor Inc., a well-known name in Rehoboth Beach property investment and management. The firm has Bill and Bryce Lingo on its board of directors, along with longtime broker Shaun Tull. Motley, along with Nick Hammonds, another managing partner, handle the day-to-day activities of the firm. Motley handles acquisitions and underwriting investments while Hammonds manages projects and asset management activities.

While the name Lingo is very recognizable in southern Delaware, JLAM has quietly been investing in and building single-family residences in the state and in neighboring Maryland. Dating back to 2012, the firm has invested at least $217 million in 2,100 homes and is now turning more to apartments and townhomes.

But Motley and Hammonds have been investing in the Carolinas for more than a decade in different ventures before they worked under the JLAM umbrella. The firm’s portfolio includes 97,000 square feet of office space in Summerville, S.C. that is 100% occupied, as a COVID-19 pandemic investment.

JLAM also bought a 400,000 square-foot office campus in Blythewood, a suburb of Columbia, S.C. The plan was to add more space to turn it into a logistics center, but after some delays and added costs to keep the A/C on to deter mold, a local charter school bought it outright.

“It wasn’t something any of us had thought of. When we went down their list in terms of location, visibility, parking, infrastructure and the size, it checked a lot of boxes,” Motley said. “It ended up being a big time win and we were able to exit with a very attractive valuation for our investors.  I think that’s a good example of us having the vision to identify, ‘Hey, there’s value here.’ It could come in a lot of different flavors.”

Motley sees a lot of overlap between southern Delaware and the Carolinas, with a focus on outdoor activities and the beach. While Charlotte dwarfs Delaware in size, it’s also a gateway to smaller suburbs with different niches, much like the First State.

“When we look at the major markets there, there’s Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, and in South Carolina you have Charleston, Greenville, Columbia, and maybe Salem. All those are very different from each other, let alone Delaware. We have to look at them differently to try and find the best place to allocate our capital,” he said.

JLAM has no plans to leave its home base of Delaware and is looking forward to completing Winward Grove in Milford which will boast 203 rental townhomes. A quarter of those homes are built and actively leased; amenities and pools are coming this summer. The firm is already looking to start a new project: a 300-unit apartment complex on the north side of Dover near Delaware Technical Community College’s Dover campus.

“We’re really excited to bring high-quality, market-rate apartments to Dover because there hasn’t been a lot of new construction there. There’s an opportunity to create really nice places with higher ceilings and nicer finishes. It will make it very special,” Motley said.

In Sussex County, JLAM will also be starting a subdivision called Lightkeepers Village with a proposed102 cottage-style homes near its already existing project, the 432-home subdivision named Governors. Lightkeepers Village will be like nothing currently seen in Delaware with its focus on creating a walkable community, Motley added.