As a land grant institution, the success of Cornell University has been intricately linked to real estate since the school’s very inception. With a central campus comprising 745 acres, and a total of 11,000 acres in Tompkins County alone, managing Cornell’s vast real estate portfolio is no small task. For this week’s Distinguished Speaker Series, students of the Baker Program have the opportunity to hear from Cornell’s own Jeremy Thomas, Senior Director of Cornell Real Estate.
With years of experience in both the public and private sectors, Thomas came to Cornell in early 2015. He is responsible for directing real estate development activities for the university and manages an annual $30 million portfolio of transactions, acquisitions, dispositions, real estate gifts, leases, licenses, easements, and new construction. His oversight includes strategic planning for all of Cornell’s real property assets.
Prior to joining Cornell, Thomas was heavily involved in public sector real estate in the City of Philadelphia. He served as the Director of Real Estate Development for the city’s Department of Commerce and as a Senior Redevelopment Specialist for the Office of the Deputy Mayor. While in this role, Thomas worked closely with developers and institutions to promote the redevelopment of distressed real estate assets and to stimulate a profitable development environment. He also worked on special projects, including a $13 million streetscape project designed to promote redevelopment along one of the city’s key commercial corridors.
In the private sector, Thomas served for several years as the President of the Board of Directors for the Weaver’s Way Co-op, a food market based out of Northwest Philadelphia with annual sales of nearly $20 million.
