Joseph G. Svatos
Akridge
Senior Vice President, Acquisitions
Job Functions: Acquisitions & Dispositions, Development, Legal
Bio
Joe Svatos is a Senior Vice President of Acquisitions for Akridge. In this role he is responsible for the acquisition and development of new projects, including strategic planning, structuring, and implementing project development and team management. He has been involved with the entitlement and development of award-winning office, industrial, and mixed-use projects in the Washington, DC are and North Carolina for over 30 years. Throughout his career, he has developed more than 30 buildings totaling 2 million square feet. Some of Joe’s most recent projects include One Reston Town Center, One Tysons East, Westfields, and 555 Mangum Street in Durham, North Carolina. One Reston Town Center will be a 400, 000-square-foot trophy office building developed in the nationally recognized Reston Town Center. Joe structured a joint venture with the existing land owner. One Tysons East in Tysons Corner will be developed into a 220,000-square-foot trophy office building adjacent to a??recently opened suburban transit station. The transaction was a complicated, tri-party agreement that involved relocating the existing property user to new space and acquiring their existing land. Westfields involved the acquisition of 70 acres in a suburban office park that will subsequently be rezoned to mixed-used, increasing its value significantly. 555 Mangum Street, a 240,000-square-foot trophy office buildng in downtown Durham, marks the company’s first project in the Carolinas as part of a strategic geographic expansion. Twice, Joe has been instrumental in the largest land sale in the state of Maryland. The first sale was 125 acres to Coca-Cola, and the second was the sale of 65 acres to the Social Security Administration for its $400 million National Data Center. In 2010, Joe led the team securing the award for the development of the 115,000 square-foot headquarters for Legal and General America, and master planning for the 2 million square-foot Villages of Urbana in Urbana, Maryland. He has also successfully completed entitlement work for mixed-use projects?? including the $100 million Spectrum in Falls Church, Virginia, and the $250 million Fitzgerald in Rockville, Maryland. Joe formed The Svatos Company in 1988 (a joint venture with Akridge), which developed office and flex/industrial projects throughout Maryland. Prior to operating his own company, Joe managed Lee Sammis Associates Inc., in which Copley Real Estate Advisors invested $200 million. He also worked for the Washington office of Prudential Real Estate. Joe is affiliated with several professional organizations, including the Urban Land Institute and the Northern Virginia and DC/Maryland chapters of NAIOP. He is also a Trustee of the Historical Society of Washington, DC and was instrumental in negotiating to bring Apple into The Carnegie Library, the home of the Historical Society of Washington, DC. Joe earned a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Virginia.
Areas of Interest
- Deal Type
- Acquisition, Development, Ground Lease, Loan Purchase, Opportunity Zone, Partner Buyout, Pre-Development, Recapitalization, Refinance, Rehabilitation