Real Estate Capital: Q&A with Jim Blakemore
In July 2019, Bentall Kennedy, the $36 billion property management business of Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial, merged with real estate manager GreenOak Real Estate to create BentallGreenOak – an investment platform with $47 billion of assets.
Jim Blakemore, a former real estate lawyer and Lehman Brothers banker, joined GreenOak in London in 2012 to lead a European debt strategy, focused predominantly on lending against transitional real estate. With the merger, Sun Life’s North American mortgage book was added to the debt business and plans were made for expansion in the US.
We caught up with Blakemore to discuss high-yield lending strategies in a time of crisis.
