JRK Property Holdings (Formerly Known as JRK Asset Management) Announces New Initiatives in Corporate Expansion and Branding

LOS ANGELES, July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Los Angeles-based JRK Asset Management today announced a major branding initiative for the company. Effective immediately, the fully integrated owner and operator of a $3 billion commercial real estate portfolio will incorporate the JRK prefix into each of its subsidiary companies' names to better utilize the name recognition established by JRK over its 16-year history. Furthermore, JRK Asset Management will now be known as JRK Property Holdings.

Jim Lippman, the founder of JRK, decided to launch the branding initiative to coincide with the company's recent plans to aggressively acquire distressed and underperforming commercial real estate assets. In order to meet its goal of acquiring over $5 billion of commercial real estate assets over the next 5 years, JRK made several key additions to its executive team including Dean Andrews as President of the hospitality division and David Walker as President of the private equity fund division.

"Both men are top leaders in their respective industries and we believe that their appointments strengthen JRK's positioning as a global leader in both acquisitions & finance and hotel management," added Mr. Lippman.

As part of the new corporate branding strategy, Birchmont Capital Advisors will now be known as JRK Birchmont Advisors, AMD Hospitality Management will now be known as JRK Hotel Group and AMD Property Management will now be known as JRK Residential Group. The new breakdown of the organization is as follows:

-- JRK Property Holdings: The parent company of the JRK organization provides back-office support to each of the subsidiaries including centralized accounting, finance, human resources, property insurance, legal and tax functions.

-- JRK Birchmont Advisors: The private equity fund division of JRK has a current portfolio valued at over $600 million with the ability to buy up to $1 billion in real estate through its first fund Birchmont Capital Partners I, L.P. JRK Birchmont Advisors plans on launching a fundraising campaign in Q4-2008 to raise its second real estate private equity fund.

-- JRK Residential Group: Led by 20-year industry veteran Lauretta Collins, the property and asset management division of JRK's 31,000-unit multifamily portfolio oversees over 140 conventional and tax credit properties located throughout the United States. JRK Residential Group is one of the 30 largest owners of multifamily communities in the United States and plans to continue aggressively acquiring distressed and underperforming multifamily assets in 2008 and 2009.

-- JRK Hotel Group: The property and asset management division of JRK's national hotel portfolio oversees both boutique and flagged hotels including the Roger Williams in Manhattan, the Hotel Oceana Santa Monica, the Hotel Oceana Santa Barbara and the Holiday Inn Express in Nashville. JRK Hotel Group plans on opportunistically acquiring distressed and underperforming hotel assets in 2008 and 2009 by leveraging its operating expertise alongside debt and equity capital invested on behalf of JRK Birchmont Advisors.

"By uniting our companies under the JRK brand, we will improve brand recognition across all of the markets in which we conduct business," said Jim Lippman, Founder and CEO of JRK Property Holdings. "I am excited about this initiative but even more excited about our near-term strategic growth plan which the branding is meant to signify. I hope that by sharing the JRK name, our subsidiaries will be able to leverage the organization's tremendous national footprint in tangible measures such as cross-sourcing new acquisition opportunities or joint venture partners."

For more information on JRK Property Holdings, please visit http://www.jrkpropholdings.com.

SOURCE JRK Property Holdings