Jim Shook is Principal and Founder of Shook Realty Group, the Indianapolis commercial real estate firm he opened in 2002. He provides the firm's leadership, business development, and long-view strategy, and personally advises clients on acquisition and disposition deal structure, market conditions, and new development opportunities. His current focus spans retail and office asset management, land assembly, and development advisory, with increasing emphasis on project conversion work: the kind of value-add repositioning that a 45-year career equips a principal to underwrite.
In the 1980s, Jim trained at Rubloff, Inc. in Chicago, one of that city's heavyweight commercial real estate firms. He returned to Indiana in the 1990s to join the Shook Agency in Lafayette, the family business founded by his great-grandfather in 1915. In 2002 he opened Shook Realty Group in Indianapolis, extending the family practice into Central Indiana and laying the foundation for the brokerage, consulting, and property management work that SRG does today.
Jim's principal-side investment career began in the early 1990s with the acquisition of Market Square Shopping Center, a 32-acre, 240,150-square-foot retail center in Lafayette, Indiana. He purchased it as a value-add project with the 90,000-square-foot former L.S. Ayres anchor vacant, backfilled the anchor with Stein Mart, repositioned the small shop space, and managed the asset before selling it in 2007. Since then he has owned or developed, either personally, in partnerships, or as a syndication sponsor, more than 15 multi-tenant commercial real estate projects, including a 100,000-square-foot office building at 201 Main Street and a 200,000-square-foot retail strip portfolio. He has separately led significant residential and land development projects, including the 78-lot, high-end Capilano subdivision and the 200-lot Harrison Highlands development.
On the client-advisory side, Jim's notable engagements include a 300-acre land assembly in Clinton County, Indiana for a 1.6-million-square-foot ConAgra Foods distribution center, and a multi-year consulting engagement with a private family fund advising on retail, land, and multifamily investments across Central Indiana. He is currently leading data center land assemblies in Indiana.
Jim holds a BS from Indiana University and is a licensed Indiana real estate broker. Over the years he has served on board positions ranging from public commissions and banks to hospitals and private foundations; today his civic involvement centers on the Indiana Historical Society, the Hoosier Art Salon, the Camping & Education Foundation, and the Sleeping Bear Gateway Council.
Why commercial real estate? In Jim's own words: "110 years of family-owned business. It was pre-ordained." He's the fourth generation in a five-generation line that now includes his son Creighton. As he puts it: "it drives life and lifestyle, so clearly there is no retirement in my future."