Our Team
Mr. Atkinson received his MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley and a B.A. in Urban Studies and Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Atkinson is a former President of the San Francisco Bay Area NAIOP chapter of the San Francisco Bay Area who remains active as a member of the chapter’s Advisory Board and is a Senior Advisor to its Young Professional Group (“YPG”). Mr. Atkinson is also a member of UC Berkeley Fisher Center’s Policy Advisory Board, Berkeley Real Estate Alumni Association’s Advisory Board and Alumni Council.
Jay Atkinson
Founder & Managing Principal
Mr. Atkinson founded Paceline Investors in 2015 and is the firm’s Managing Principal. Mr. Atkinson has a long career in commercial real estate spanning investment, asset management, development and fundraising functions. Mr. Atkinson has successfully blended in entrepreneurial talents within an institutional background in his career.
Prior to forming Paceline Investors, Mr. Atkinson co-founded Cannae Partners in 2010, a San Francisco-based real estate investment firm focused on value-added investments in the Bay Area. These investments were made alongside and on behalf of institutional partners, including J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Westport Capital Partners, TDA Investment Group and New York Life. One particular transaction – 1019 Market Street in San Francisco - earned the San Francisco NAIOP chapter’s 2014 Investment Deal of the Year.
Before Cannae Partners, Mr. Atkinson was a Vice President of Gerrity International and an Investment Committee member of a $250 MM joint venture with Morgan Stanley to develop Wal-Mart anchored shopping centers in mainland China targeted towards the country’s emerging middle class. As a founding member of the enterprise, Mr. Atkinson’s primary role was to lead the venture’s development activities which totaled fifteen active projects totaling more than eight million square feet with more than sixty Gerrity/GMS China team members.
Prior to China, Mr. Atkinson worked in investment and development activities for GMS Realty, LLC, a retail property owner/operator of grocery-anchored retail on the West Coast owned in conjunction with the Washington State Investment Board and Principal Financial Group. Additionally, M. Atkinson has worked with Jones Lang LaSalle’s Capital Markets team in Los Angeles, for Trammell Crow Company in the Northeast and for the City of Philadelphia’s Empowerment Zone in community and economic development.