James W. Abbott

James W. Abbott (“Jim”) founded Realty Advisory Group, Inc. (“RAGI”) in 1995 and serves as its Executive Director.  He is responsible for the leadership of the company’s professionals and its real estate brokerage strategy and practices. His mandate is to deliver incomparable brokerage/consulting service to its clientele regardless of the size of the requirement or client.  Jim is a seasoned real estate professional with a strong 40+ year real estate background from which RAGI’s clients benefit.

1979 – Graduated from the University Of Southern California (USC) with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance with an emphasis in Real Estate Finance.

1979 – 1995 – An industrial/commercial real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield of California, Inc. (C&W) in its downtown Los Angeles Office. Jim became a C&W Director and was appointed the Branch Manager of C&W’ s Los Angeles North Office (LAN) with the task of restructuring the operation, which he accomplished in less than 3 years (tripling its revenue).

1995 – Present – Realty Advisory Group, Inc. Executive Director. In April of 1995 Jim decided that he wanted to implement his style of real estate brokerage practices and subsequently founded Realty Advisory Group, Inc. (RAGI) (www.RAGInc.com). RAGI has grown into one of Los Angeles’ most respected boutique real estate brokerage, consulting and advisory firms. One of RAGI’s first contracts was to oversee the orchestration and creation of a development project in China for a client.  Jim negotiated the land lease with China’s Zhejiang Provincial Government and assisted with the project’s layout in accordance with US standards. The project was in Shaoxing. The assignment required 13 trips to Hangzhou, Shanghai and/or Hong Kong.

Jim was also a Managing Partner in the development of over 900,000 square feet of industrial buildings from 1988 through 2009 and was instrumental in the development of another 1 million square feet of primarily industrial type projects. For these projects Jim negotiated capital partnerships with Buchanan Street Partners, Lehman Brothers and Pacific Coast Capital Partners.

As a result of the Great Recession, Jim realized the real estate services marketplace was missing a key, and ever so important, option – pure brokerage/consulting/advisory services that are 100% free of conflict. In response to this need, RAGI provides only brokerage/consulting /advisory services. RAGI is not conflicted by, nor does it offer, other services such as Property Management, Project Management, Valuation & Advisory Services, Asset Management, Capital Markets Services, Development Services, Investment Management, etc.  Furthermore, RAGI does not invest as principals or own any publicly traded REIT stocks. The bottom-line is that if a real estate transaction is required or a situation analyzed in order to facilitate a real strategy, RAGI will provide that independent service.  RAGI’s brokerage/consulting/advisory services combined with its real estate knowledge, credibility, unique culture, and experience reinforce its competence to create pure unbiased real estate value for its clients.

Jim’s 40+ years of experience in industrial / commercial real estate, and RAGI has transacted in the USA, Asia and Europe. Jim served on the Advisory Board of SEAL-NSW Family Foundation and Jonathan Club Board of Directors, including as its President, was a founding Board Member of the Rod Dedeaux Foundation, and has been active in many other worthwhile organizations. RAGI has clients of all shapes and sizes, and appreciates the opportunity to represent them whether it is a startup or a Fortune 500; RAGI is relationship driven. A few of RAGI’s larger transactional clients are noted below:

Rexford Properties, CenterPoint Properties, Composite Horizons Inc. (Berkshire Hathaway), UPS, United Technologies Corp., Abbott Laboratories, SnapChat, Amgen, Gilead, Guthy Renker, Carters, Bissell, International Greetings, Kohler, ToysRus, Malibu Dream Girls, CPM One Source, St. John Land Co., Fresenius, Blue Ridge Home Fashions, Iron Mountain, Sysco, Danaher, JM Eagle, USPS, Lexmark, RREEF, Prologis, Boskovich Farms, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, Dollar Tree, Fiskars, Middle Atlantic Products, Lumber Liquidators, Vernado, Walter Packaging, Hellman Logistics, Crow Holdings Industrial, Glenair, Inc.