Benjamin Gutkin – Principal
B.A., Stanford University
M.B.A. with distinction, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Phoenix native Benjamin Gutkin grew up learning real estate from his father and grandfather. He began his own real estate career in the early 1990s working for the family business in Phoenix before moving to Los Angeles to work for CB Richard Ellis. As a Financial Analyst for CBRE, Benjamin underwrote more than $700 million of real estate assets across a wide range of development types including retail, office, multi-family, and industrial projects. He left CBRE to work as an Associate for Sonnenblick-Goldman Company, a boutique real estate investment bank, where he facilitated transactions involving the sale and financing of over $160 million of institutional commercial real estate assets and new developments.
To make life a bit more interesting, Benjamin took time off from real estate to pursue acting. But after a year of working diligently as an extra and starring in the occasional student film, Benjamin headed back to business school and then the real estate industry. Before becoming a partner in JAG Development, Benjamin worked in acquisitions for a retail real estate firm in Los Angeles. Two years and many discussions later, Benjamin returned to Phoenix and joined his brother Allan in the quest to build on the urban energy of downtown.