Longtime Midwestern operator JVM Realty Corp. has added industry veteran Steve Boyack as its chief operating officer as it sets its sights on growing from 5,500 to 15,000 units over the next five years.
JVM, a vertically integrated, family-owned company founded in 1975, buys apartments in Midwestern markets, including Kansas City and Indianapolis and the St. Louis (home of the Ceylon Apartments, pictured above) and Chicago suburbs. The company’s portfolio has been as large as 9,000 units made up mostly workforce apartments. As the Oak Brook, Illinois-based firm shifted to institutional-quality assets over the past decade, its portfolio shrunk. Now, with Steve Boyack aboard in its main office, it plans to expand.
Before joining JVM, Boyack was as COO and global head of property management for CA Ventures, a parent company of CA Student Living, and a senior managing director at Greystar, where he was responsible for overseeing real estate operations and leading the expansion of the company's footprint in the Midwest. Boyack also served as chief operating officer and senior vice president of asset management at Chicago-based The Laramar Group.
"We've grown to a point now that we have $1.4 billion of properties in the portfolio to accommodate or to support our continued growth," said Jay Madary, JVM CEO. "We need to have the leadership — not just in the property management level but at the corporate strategic leadership level as well. So Steve really fits the bill."
The appetite for apartment investment is strong around the country, but JVM holds some advantages. The company relies on high-net-worth investors that generally expect lower returns than institutions, according to Boyack.
"We're investing with our high-net-worth investors, and they're very entrepreneurial,” Madary said. "It gives us the flexibility to be entrepreneurial as well and have full discretion over the dollars we invest. I and other senior execs are in our funds as well. We're very motivated to outperform our projections. So we're very careful on the acquisition side."
Moving to a second-generation family-owned firm was appealing to Boyack. "Like many people, I spent time during COVID-19 thinking about what I do, why I do it and who I do it for," he said. "Joining an organization that values its people and the communities that they serve made JVM an easy choice."
Boyack will be responsible for the performance of JVM's property management platform and will guide its operational functions, including technology, sales and marketing, asset management and office management.
"My talents lie in developing people to perform at their best and reach their career goals," Boyack said, "designing processes that create efficiencies and promote individual and collaborative productivity and deploying technologies that solve real-world problems and deliver outstanding outcomes for residents, operators and investors."
