JLL Seizes Moment for Public Sector Focus

NEW YORK CITY-New York State is facing a $9-billion budget shortfall for next fiscal year, while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently killed a planned trans-Hudson rail tunnel on grounds that the state couldn’t afford billions in possible cost overruns on the project. It’s against this backdrop of fiscal constraints that Jones Lang LaSalle is ramping up its public institutions platform, hiring Patrick Flinn to head up the practice for the Northeast.

Flinn, who comes to JLL after spending eight years on the other side of the public/private divide, agrees that now is an opportune time for JLL to step up its game in this arena. “We foresee that the way these entities are going to survive is by being creative about their real estate portfolios,” he tells GlobeSt.com.

Previously an assistant director with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s real estate services department, where he led cross-functional project teams, Flinn points that across the board, the public sector is facing shortfalls. “Taxes are down, impact fees are down and what you need to do is reconsider ways to increase revenue and make your real estate portfolio work for you,” he says.

Flinn notes that JLL has done “a tremendous amount” of business opportunistically with public sector clients over the years, including the Port Authority. Historically, those operations have been based mainly out of JLL’s Chicago headquarters or Washington, DC. Taking a more locally based, region-by-region focus, he says, will accomplish two purposes.

One will be enhancing the firm’s ability to find opportunities in this sector. “We believe that by having a focused local presence in this region, we’ll be able to expand upon the business,” says Flinn. Based out of New York City, he’ll focus mainly on the metro area as well as Boston. A spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com that JLL is setting up similar regional practices in other parts of the US.

Another aim will be coordinating among a number of JLL business units, and their specific areas of expertise, to deliver solutions to government agencies. By bringing together the different business units within JLL, Flinn says, “we’ll be able to effectively work with our public-sector partners and higher education partners to look at the real estate portfolios to increase revenues or occupy the space more efficiently, or even enter into public/private partnerships. Those are the types of prospects public sector clients should be looking at.”

One consideration unique to the public sector is “the political realities that face these decisions, and the kind of longer-term timeline that these projects endure,” says Flinn. This is the kind of setting that JLL’s public sector practice understands and works within, he adds.

“The JLL business units have been doing this type of work for many years with private industry,” Flinn says. “What the public sector practice tries to do is translate private-world best practices into the public sector,” amid the context of political considerations. So it’s not just a bus terminal, it’s not just a building, it’s also fraught with political realities of ‘what are you trying to do’ and working through the maze of those issues.”