Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa July 2018 | Page 10

MASTER INVESTOR
Getting to know
Jason McCormick
I
Family Man,
Developer, Investor
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JULY/AUGUST 2018 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
t takes passion, dedication and integ-
rity to make it in property. Possessing
all these qualities, along with a keen
eye for opportunity, Jason McCormick
is a refreshing voice in the real estate
industry. We sat down with the CEO
of newly-listed Exemplar REITail and
managing director of McCormick Prop-
erty Development (MPD) to find out
what makes him tick.
McCormick was born in Centurion in
1987, attending Waterkloof House Prep
School and Michaelhouse High School.
His childhood was, at once, ordinary
and unique. Growing up in a family of
property developers, he explains that he’s
been exposed to business his entire life.
“Growing up we were always somehow
involved in the goings-on of the family
business which is located on the same
property as the family home and has been
since its inception in 1983,” he explains.
The family business, MPD, has been
at the frontier of rural retail develop-
ments, introducing the first BB-BBEE
scheme in Giyani in 1987. McCormick
is acutely aware of his father’s continuous
influence in his own business dealings
and philosophy: “My father always saw
property development as a means to help
right the wrongs of the political system,
that he abhorred, which existed in South
Africa upon his return to the country
following his MBA at Stanford Univer-
sity in the USA. As an intensely liberal
person, he became socially, politically and
commercially marginalized on the ba-
sis of his English-speaking background
and then-politically discordant views on
equality. It is from this background that
he built a property company to take “the
town to the townships”, saving people
travel time and taxi fares to get the most
basic goods and services.” He explains
that, playing witness to this from a young
age left an impression: “It is little wonder
that I remain completely committed to
my father’s founding principles of creat-
ing economically inclusive developments
that fundamentally shift the livelihood of
their communities for the better.”
The decision to create Exemplar
REITail was a natural one. Rather than
KEY STATS
Age: 39
Current position: CEO Exem-
plar REITail
Family: Wife Nicole, sons Wil-
liam Rourke (18 months) and
James Bastion (3 ½ weeks old)
being a capital raising initiative, McCor-
mick explains that it was the outcome of
a process of restructuring of MPD. The
move allows the established development
company to take care of its growing pipe-
line of projects without having to dispose
of assets in order to make capital avail-
able for further developments. Since its
inception, MPD has raised finance for
each retail development on a ring-fenced
basis. McCormick explains the decision:
“We have been looking to restructure our
activities for some time now, although to
begin with we were not necessarily look-
ing to list. However, with the cheaper
cost of capital and the interest-only pro-
file that is really only available to a listed
entity because of the high levels of com-
pliance and transparency that funders are
assured of, it became clear that this was
the best way for us to effectively grow
our portfolio and roll out our substantial
pipeline of new developments, recycling
capital into the business. It made the
most sense to list.”
A true advantage for Exemplar is the
fact that the assets in the portfolio will
continue to be managed by the expe-
rienced team at MPD. Given that the
management team has a combined ten-
ure of 238 years at MPD, this is good
news indeed. “I have always been a com-
mitted team player in sport and in life
(I still captain my own cricket side, who
incidentally won the Tshwane Premier
League in 2017) and am an ardent be-
liever in allowing my team members the
space to shine, giving them the direction
they need but without inhibiting their
space to perform and grow. For us to have
achieved what we have – currently devel-
oping between two to seven new malls a
year in the development company, as well
as listing the only REIT of our size on
the JSE in the past 18 months, given the
current market, is a testament to the vi-
sion, drive and energy of management as
well as to the team that we have built over
the years,” McCormick says. He contin-
ues to explain that the team is more a
family than employees, insisting that he
doesn’t have people working for him, but
rather with him. “Life is all about part-
Books currently reading: I
would love the time to read
a book again! I have just
built a library with over 2000
books that my wife and I have
collected over the years and
will get onto finishing reading
them all once this mayhem
has subsided! At the moment
I do spend at least two hours
a day reading, but it is all
industry and business related
journals to keep myself up to
speed on what is happening
in the world and where it is all
going.
Life motto: Don’t sweat the
small stuff!
nerships. I know that sounds cheesy, but
without partnerships and likeminded
people, we are nothing.”
These partnerships extend beyond
the company. Speaking about his per-
sonal highlights throughout his career,
McCormick zooms in on the launch
of Atteridge Plaza in 2011. The first
development he had taken on from its
negotiating phase to eventual project
management, it holds a special spot.
Despite the obvious satisfaction gained
from a successful development, McCor-
mick explains that what made this deal
special to him was the way in which it
allowed them to help the surrounding
neighbourhood. MPD took a 49% equi-
ty position, with the majority 51% going
to a consortium of 41 local Atteridgeville
business-owning families. These families
are now fellow shareholders in Exemplar.
The development was not only a
commercial success, but also showed
the value of building good relationships
with communities. “It’s funny – my
early days were filled by an unyielding
desire to roll out what my commercial
education had taught me…but this was
quickly surpassed by the reality that one
needs to search for more than profit and
that reputation and doing good yields far
more in the long run. As property is a
long term game, I value relationships and
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine JULY/AUGUST 2018
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