NEW YORK, New York, April 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mike James of James Capital Advisors and Chelsea Mandel have partnered to launch Ascension, a contemporary commercial real estate advisory firm providing turnkey corporate real estate advisory services to financial sponsors and business owners internationally. The partnership shares a vision to elevate corporate real estate efficiency, strategy, access, and insight for its clients and establish the gold standard of real estate advisory firms on a global scale. In a move to double-down on the corporate real estate space, James Capital Advisors and its existing team and infrastructure, will transition into Ascension alongside the launch of the new firm.
Acting as the real estate extension of its clients’ teams, Ascension provides Sale Leaseback Advisory, Tenant Lease Structuring, Capital Markets, and Market Data and Research services, spanning both owned and leased corporate real estate assets. The company, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, represents clients ranging from small business owners, to large, multinational, private equity-owned businesses throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.
James, as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, oversees growth and corporate strategy while guiding the company’s vision, culture, and commitment to excellence. “No firm has demonstrated a mastery of the sale leaseback and corporate real estate advisory space globally like we are about to,” James said, adding “the name Ascension represents our promise to set a higher standard for the real estate advisory industry and to elevate our clients’ corporate real estate strategies.”
Mandel is Ascension’s Co-Founder and Managing Director, working both as an advisor to her private equity and financial sponsor clients and also leading the firm’s team of 40 advisors on all sale leaseback transactions and corporate real estate advisory assignments. “We’re investing in our people our platform, and our technologies to provide the best-in-class service for our clients which will translate to a superior experience and achieve optimal results,” Mandel said. “We are rebranding a traditionally very sleepy industry.”
For James and Mandel, significant investment in the company’s best-in-class tech stack will play an integral part in Ascension’s competitive edge. The company’s proprietary customer relationship management platform and advanced operational systems deliver an unrivalled experience, boosting consistent and efficient borderless service.
About Ascension
Ascension is a corporate real estate advisory firm created to accelerate the pace of progress and achieve a higher standard of real estate advisory services. With offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, the firm is comprised of more than 60 advisors and dedicated staff whose collective goal is to elevate corporate real estate efficiency, strategy, access, and insight for financial sponsors and business owners, globally. The company’s core offerings include Sale Leaseback Advisory, Tenant Lease Structuring, Capital Markets, and Market Data and Research services, providing a full suite of corporate real estate services and acting as the real estate extension of its clients’ teams.
About Mike James
Mike began his career at Marcus & Millichap, a publicly traded commercial real estate brokerage, where he rapidly advanced to the position of Senior Managing Director. Along with his success came numerous recognitions: becoming a top-30 agent in his first three years with the company, a top-10 agent within five years and being named a Top-4 Investment Broker in the U.S. by Real Estate Forum and Real Capital Analytics for four consecutive years. In 2018, Mike founded James Capital Advisors, a commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm with a focus on collaboration, technology, and innovation, a combination that fueled rapid growth. Mike and James Capital Advisors received numerous awards and recognitions including Power Broker and Top Sales Firm awards by CoStar in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Most Powerful Brokerage Firm by Commercial Property Executive in 2021 and Best Boss in CRE by GlobeSt in 2019 and 2021. In addition to founding and leading the company, Mike found tremendous success as a broker and corporate real estate advisor, representing a broad spectrum of companies and financial sponsors on hundreds of sale leasebacks and corporate real estate advisory assignments.
About Chelsea Mandel
In less than a decade, Chelsea has achieved success in the sale leaseback and corporate real estate advisory industry. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Chelsea began her career in the real estate acquisitions team at Starwood Capital Group, quickly thriving and gaining expertise in real estate underwriting and deal negotiations. Chelsea was then recruited to join New York City-based New Mountain Capital to help build out the firm’s new sale leaseback platform. Chelsea closed $450 million in acquisitions at New Mountain and obtained invaluable sale leaseback and credit underwriting experience. In 2019 she pivoted from principal investing to an advisory role at STREAM Capital Partners in New York City, where she completed nearly a billion dollars in sale leaseback transactions on behalf of middle-market businesses, often alongside mergers and acquisitions. A resourceful thinker with an anything-is-possible mindset, Mandel was successful in pioneering various creative structuring solutions for her clients. Most notably, she was an innovator in bringing middle-market sale leaseback opportunities to remote markets across Europe, she was successful in structuring accretive sale leaseback transactions for companies emerging from bankruptcy, and she developed unique structuring methods that enabled her clients to fund 100% of their business acquisitions with proceeds from sale leaseback transactions.
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