Jermaine McMihelk credits a cold email with landing a job at NewMark Merrill Cos. and launching his career in commercial real estate nearly a decade ago. Now, he’s teaming up with the shopping center company to invest in retail centers in undersupplied, inner-city communities.

McMihelk and NewMark Merrill Cos. president and CEO Sandy Sigal have co-founded NewMark Merrill Hadler Community Partners. McMihelk will serve as managing director and oversee day-to-day operations, and he has ambitious plans for the firm.

The immediate goal is to acquire around four shopping centers in Los Angeles over the next year, and the longer-term vision is to build a national investment platform. “We are super excited,” said McMihelk. “On top of what we believe is a huge investment opportunity, we think that we will shed a lot of light on the fact that there is a ton of value in these urban neighborhoods that has been overlooked by our industry.” He also sees an opportunity to make huge economic impacts within these communities and be a part of their development and growth.

Compton to Morehouse to Harvard

NewMark Merrill Hadler is a passion project for McMihelk, who grew up in L.A.’s Compton neighborhood during the 1980s. Hadler is the street where McMihelk’s grandparents purchased their first home when relocating to Los Angeles. It was in a diverse community made up of families — including Latino, Asian, white and Black people — who lived in harmony and built and created strong communities, he said. “Hadler Street is a microcosm of what I believe we can build as a company and the potential we have as human beings when we work as a collective,” said McMihelk.

His father’s drug addiction left his mother to raise three children on her own in a turbulent environment. His family was homeless three times, and he lost his brother to gun violence.

McMihelk credits family, faith, sports and especially his mother with helping him stay on a good path. “I can’t say that at any point in my life I saw or remember seeing any worry or concern, despite all the things that we went through,” he said. “Her leadership always provided me with a sense of optimism that no matter what you go through in life, things will be OK, we can weather the storm. And that was a great foundation.”

It was his mom who took him to the public library, instilled in him a strong sense of curiosity and raised him to believe that there was no ceiling limiting what he could do. After high school, he attended community college before transferring to Morehouse College, from which he graduated with a degree in business administration. He then earned a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Passion for Influencing Communities

While he was in law school, McMihelk participated in a student organization that provided legal services to Greater Boston’s low-income population. That involved cases related to housing and eviction, which sparked his interest in real estate. “That was when I was first exposed to the opportunity that exists for developers to influence communities in a positive way,” he said.

During law school, he cold-emailed developers about opportunities to learn the ins and outs of the business. Sigal was one of the few who responded. They connected, and when McMihelk graduated from law school, he went to work for NewMark Merrill, first as an operations assistant and legal analyst and then as a portfolio manager.

“Jermaine has an incredible drive to succeed, as well as an obvious passion for underserved communities,” stated Sigal. “He could have said: ‘I’m a Harvard graduate, so why do I have to do so much entry-level work?’ But he didn’t. He learned real estate from the ground up, used every challenge as a learning opportunity, and he was a very quick study. He is a standout but is a total team player, and he lets his action speak for himself.”

Prior to co-founding NewMark Merrill Hadler, McMihelk served as an asset manager for Primestor, overseeing the grocery-anchored shopping centers it held in partnership with Federal. He also founded an investment business in which he opened the first Black-owned 7-Eleven franchise on L.A.’s Crenshaw Boulevard.

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McMihelk said he’d known he’d have to leave Compton to access the things he wanted in life. But “as I’ve gone along my journey, I’ve been trying to answer those questions on how it could be better and how we can do better,” he said. As he did so, he came up with a business plan. His next thought was to take it to Sigal, who had been both a friend and a mentor, to see if there was a way to work together. The result is the launch of NewMark Merrill Hadler.

Finding Value in Inner-City Neighborhoods

During his time at Newmark Merrill Cos., Sigal said, “Jermaine did an outstanding job with different centers in our portfolio, including two that went through remodel and reimagining, and I knew he would be a great advocate for expanding that reach.” Additionally, McMihelk brings a unique perspective, having grown up in an area similar to those the NewMark Merrill Hadler venture will target. “His experiences are long-term with a view as a community member, giving us the ability to do much more in these neighborhoods and adding credibility to our efforts,” Sigal added.

NewMark Merrill Hadler will focus on grocery-anchored neighborhood and community shopping centers in markets where there is underinvestment and undersupply. Initially, it will concentrate on Los Angeles County, where McMihelk said only about 15% of shopping centers are owned by institutional money. Thus, he views the area as a huge opportunity to acquire value-add assets and lend the firm’s expertise to improve on properties that have not been managed professionally.

McMihelk expects the venture both to benefit communities and to generate a good return on investment. “We’re seeing brands and merchants that are more willing now than ever to grow in markets that they hadn’t previously been in, and with that, they’re going to be looking for the right partner,” he said.

The first step will be acquiring the right assets in the right locations at a good basis. “On top of that, we want to partner with brands and merchants who are true believers in the areas that we’re in,” said McMihelk. Leveraging existing connections with local leadership and nonprofits and creating new strong and authentic ones will be key, he said. “If we get those things right, we’ll be able to make the type of impact that we’re looking to make.”