JMB Realty

JMB Realty Corporation is an American real estate investment company based in Chicago that at one time was one of the largest property developers in the United States. The company was founded as Robert Judelson & Co. in 1968.^[1] In 1969 Judelson (born 1939)^[2] was joined by University of Illinois roommates Neil Bluhm (born 1938)^[3] and Judd Malkin (born 1938).^[4]

Judelson split from the partnership in 1973 to form a real estate company Balcor Company with Jerry Reinsdorf. Bluhm became chairman and Malkin would be president. Judelson and Malkin were among the Reinsdorf consortium that bought the Chicago White Sox in 1981 and Chicago Bulls in 1984 ^[5]

In 1983 JMB acquired the structures that housed Federated Department Stores. In 1984 it acquired Urban Development from Aetna for $1.4 billion ^[6]

In 1988 it acquired Amfac, a large Hawaii sugar cane land owner for $920 million and has since sold off much of the property as the Hawaii sugar cane industry has been dismantled. Among the assets was the department store Liberty House, which went into bankruptcy before being acquired by Federated. Amfac went into bankruptcy in 2002. One of the companies that emerged from the bankruptcy is Xanterra, a management company in United States National Parks. The Anschutz Company bought Xanterra from JMB in 2008.^[7]

Major acquisitions

JMB expanded aggressively before having to sell much of its properties because of declining real estate values in the wake of the Black Monday (1987) crash.^[8]

• 1983: Federated Realty Associatedfor $112 million
• 1984: Urban Investment and Development, from Aetna Life and Casualty for an estimated $1 billion
• 1986: Alcoa's properties in Century City, California, for $600 million
• 1987: Cadillac Fairview, Canadian developer-owner of shopping centers and office buildings, for $2.6 billion.
• 1987: Disney Corporation's Arvida Corp. unit, developer of planned communities in Florida and Georgia, for $400 million - JMB would build the planned community of Weston, Florida
• 1988: Amfac, a diversified services company with operations in food processing, hotels-resorts, retailing, agriculture and property, for $920 million.
• 1989: Randsworth Trust P.L.C., the London-based real estate company, for $800 million, including refinanced debt.
• 1989: Panhandle Eastern Corporation's Houston Center, a mixed-use development, for $400 million.

Urban Shopping Centers, Inc.

Urban Shopping Centers was a self-administered real estate investment trust that built 25 shopping malls and managed another 60. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Chicago Stock Exchange, trading under the ticker symbol of "URB", in 1993.

Rodamco North America acquired it in 2000 for $3.4 billion. At the time it had 2,200 employees. Among the malls were:

• Water Tower Place, Chicago
• Copley Place, Boston
• Houston Galleria, Houston
• San Francisco Shopping Center, San Francisco
• Century City Shopping Center, Los Angeles
• Perimeter Mall, Atlanta
• Florida Mall, Orlando, Florida

In 2002 Rodmaco broke up the malls by selling them to The Rouse Co., Simon Property Group and Westfield Holdings^[6]

References