Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaime Sturgis.
Hi Jaime, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a Fort Lauderdale native who became passionate about my city and real estate at an early age. I grew up watching my father manage and lease retail shopping centers and was immediately intrigued. My dad loved the art of the process, from different marketing tactics to attracting the ideal tenant, to lease negotiations and learning what was important to focus on and what could be conceded. Last but not least, he loved honing the skill of tenant curation, the ever-evolving pursuit of successfully curating a symbiotic tenant mix.
I went on to triple major at Florida State University and graduated cum laude with degrees in Real Estate, Entrepreneurship, and Professional Sales. I got an internship in my junior year of college and started working in the emerging neighborhoods of Miami, not far from my hometown of Fort Lauderdale. The timing was difficult for real estate, having just come out of the mortgage meltdown, and the emerging neighborhoods which are iconic today, such as Wynwood were in their infancy.
I cut my teeth selling these emerging neighborhoods before they were proven, and were still very much in transition. I recall several tours in the now-famous Wynwood where I would be showing properties to prospective clients and gunshots would erupt – never a great selling point as you’re trying to convince someone to move their business into the neighborhood. However, the recession and the emerging neighborhoods were a blessing in disguise, as they forced me to hone my craft and adapt accordingly.
As the economy and real estate market turned the corner, I was in a good position to capitalize on the lessons learned and the future potential of these emerging markets. After several years of pioneering the emerging markets of Miami, I decided to move back to my hometown, Fort Lauderdale, and continue shaping emerging markets in Broward County. I own an award-winning real estate brokerage, Native Realty, and live in Fort Lauderdale with my wife, Lauren, and our two children.
I met Lauren at FSU, and we were married at the Four Seasons Palm Beach in 2016. Lauren is a Registered Dietitian who started her own nutrition consulting business in 2014 and after achieving great success sold the business in 2021. She is integral in helping me manage the rapidly growing Native Realty. When not working, we love traveling. I am an avid surfer, diver, boater, and mountain biker.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
In early 2017, I made the bold decision to leave a successful Miami brokerage and start Native Realty. I was in my 20s at the time and made a career-defining bet on myself to build a real estate firm from scratch. As Native’s leader, I am responsible for setting our firm’s ethical standards and providing an example for our brokers and staff to follow. I have to balance being a broker, developer, contractor, property manager, and community advocate – all while being the primary producer for the firm.
Around that time, I saw the same potential in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village that existed in Wynwood and set out to help the neighborhood realize it. Back then, Flagler Village consisted of strips of outdated and vacant commercial warehouses. I envisioned a bustling area with creative offices, restaurants/bars, art galleries, apartments, and performing arts spaces. Many people thought I was crazy for thinking I could transform the neighborhood into the new Wynwood.
However, I was able to convey that vision to many entrepreneurs, business owners, and landlords – completing more than 2 million square feet in transactions in Flagler Village over the last five years. In early 2019, I completed a milestone transaction that served as a defining moment in the evolution of Flagler Village and earned multiple awards and recognitions. I successfully brokered the sales of Flagler Uptown and The Hive to a major Miami investor who has been active in Miami’s urban core neighborhoods of Wynwood and the Design District.
Each site sold for $6.625 million, for a total sale price of $13.25 million. The transactions set Flagler Village records on both a price per building square foot and a land square foot basis. The record-breaking transaction was the culmination of my reinvention of both properties – and my efforts to change the narrative of Flagler Village. Both Hive and Uptown were old warehouse properties that I extensively renovated, repositioned, and attracted an exciting mix of creative retail, office, and restaurant/bar tenants.
They are now the signature buildings of Flagler Village, thanks to the eye-catching murals of legends including Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, and David Bowie that I brought in street artist Herbert Galarza to create. Since we turned around Flagler Village’s reputation, institutional investment has been pouring into the neighborhood. We are doing the same in other Broward County neighborhoods including Fort Lauderdale’s Sistrunk corridor and 13th Street (Studio City) and several other neighborhoods from Palm Beach through Miami.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Native Realty is a full-service real estate firm with dedicated commercial brokerage and property management divisions. We have disrupted the industry since I launched Native in early 2017. We are redefining what it means to be a commercial real estate broker through our neighborhood placemaking accomplishments and assuming pivotal leadership roles in the industry and community. Operating with the mantra “LOI or die,” our team employs grassroots, guerilla tactics to change the narrative about previously overlooked and neglected neighborhoods.
Instead of looking at individual listings and transactions in a vacuum, we take a holistic approach to the urban neighborhoods we live, work and play. We identify such neighborhoods with untapped potential and generate leasing and investment sales activity in those emerging markets. In late 2021, Native relocated its corporate headquarters to a new 4,000-square-foot Fort Lauderdale office that is double the size of our previous headquarters.
The move was Native’s fourth headquarters expansion in four years to keep up with the firm’s aggressive growth. I also successfully recruited several new brokers in 2021, a time of unprecedented demand and competition for talent in South Florida’s booming commercial real estate sector. I was able to further bolster our team of brokers this year, with the additions of the experienced Adam Docktor and Adriana Lilly to the Native family.
Contact Info:
- Email: js@nativere.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nativerealty/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NativeRC/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB5JVqoA_1OklUt6WjMG5ng/featured
