Betsy D'Jamoos

For Betsy D’Jamoos, the entree into a commercial real estate career came as a suprise - albeit a gradual one.

“It was unplanned. I had been in Washington, D.C., for eight years. When I left, I could have gone anywhere and done anything. My husband and I did reserach on major metropolitan areas in the country. We knew we wanted better weather, and we narrowed it down to Austin and Tampa.”

The couple chose Tampa and settled there in March 2001. In Naples, meanwhile, D’Jamoos’ father Joe had a development hobby that was turning into a business.

“He said, ‘You do management and operations and marketing. Can you come and help me figure some things out?,’” she said.

So the trips began - back and forth to Naples. First sporadically, but soon three days a week.

“It began taking on a life of its own,” she said.

D’Jamoos formally joined her father at The D’Jamoos Group in December 2001, bringing more than 20 years of management and operations expertise in both the private/public sectors and domestic/international businesses. In Washington, D.C., she had been a senior official in the Office of Management and Budget at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I really realized that with what I’ve done over the years in my career, I could marry the small business background with the strategic planning and politicking and presentation making I learned in Washington in eight years. It perfectly fit the real estate development business. It actually was a very good fit for me in the end,” she said.

D’Jamoos is president of her family’s limited partnership that holds their real estate development projects as well as their lease-held properties and operating companies. Currently, she oversees more than 60 entities controlled by the family’s holdings. In addition to the owner responsibilities, she serves as chief operating officer of their Naples-based development company, JED of Southwest Florida.

D’Jamoos leads the company in managing approximately 3 msf and about $500 million worth of construction upcoming or in progress - as well as about 3 msf already built and sold or leased.

The company’s residential, commercial and mixed-use projects in Southwest Florida include São Grato, Andalucia, Vanderbilt Galleria, Galleria Plaza and Quail Plaza in Naples; Forum Corporate Park, Orion Center, The Franklin Arms Building and Alico Commercial Park in Fort Myers; and Estero on the River, Plaza del Sol, Coconut Crossing, Corkscrew Palms and Colony Plaza in Estero and Bonita Springs.

“We’re a small business, but we have about 14 to 15 active projects in various stages of development. What keeps me coming in every day is there’s an opportunity to learn something new every day. There’s a new challenge to be met. The business is still in a growth mode, so there’s a lot of strategic planning and visioning,” she said.

“It’s also a creative business. I like the process of visioning on the front end and watching the project straight through. I’m a very holistic person to begin with, and this business and this company give you the opportunity to see something come alive.”

D’Jamoos is a member of The Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, The Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce and The Estero Chamber of Commerce. She has been a licensed Realtor for five years.

D’Jamoos is also a supporter of The Gulfshore Playhouse, a regional non-profit theater. The D’Jamoos family has donated 36,000sf of civic space in their project Estero on the River for the Playhouse to build a 550-seat mainstage proscenium theatre, a 150-seat studio theater and a children’s learning institute.

The future, D’Jamoos said, will involve staying on the cusp of development trends in Southwest Florida.

“We’re in a growth mode, and it’s not just the expansion of the number of projects but in the types of projects we’re doing. Being a small company allows us to be sensitive to the marketplace, and we’re the first developer to get approved for a true mixed-use project in Collier County. We’re not afraid to be pioneers and learn what we need to go where the future of the industry will be,” she said.

“For my future and the future of the company, it’s really looking to stay relevant and be on the forefront of where the commercial real estate industry is going. Mixed-use is becoming such an accepted and general type of commercial project now. It helps the environment, and it has a lot of economies of scale.”