Jim Jacoby

James F. "Jim" Jacoby is an American businessman based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Jacoby is the founder, chairman and CEO of The Jacoby Group, Inc., a synergistic group of operating companies headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The nationally recognized Jacoby Development, Inc., a land development company that specializes in environmentally sensitive multi-use properties and reclamation of impaired sites brownfields is a member of the group.

Jacoby was born in 1943 in Miami, Florida, the fourth and youngest child of Phebe and Dewey Jacoby. From an early age, he showed interest in all facets of math and business, and was the most entrepreneurial of his siblings. After high school he served in the Naval Security Group, a U.S. Navy intelligence unit, from 1961 to 1969, during which he was stationed in the Philippines, Germany and the United States. After serving in the military, he attended Miami-Dade Community College and subsequently moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1973 Jacoby launched his entrepreneurial career in real estate scouting and assembling sites for developing and redeveloping various projects. Jacoby developed multiple retail projects and began a relationship with Wal-Mart in the late 1970s. This relationship lead to the formation of what would eventually become Jacoby Development, Inc. and the development of 40 Wal-Mart anchored shopping centers on the East Coast throughout his career.

Describing his feelings as a crisis of consciousness, Jacoby realized that his goal was to build more than just shopping centers; he was interested in creating healthy communities that would last for years to come. A visionary, Jacoby began focusing on environmentally-friendly and long-term sustainable development before it became a trend.

In 1997, Jacoby contracted the site of the former Atlantic Steel mill in Atlanta, Georgia in partnership with AIG and in 1999 they collectively built Atlantic Station, now widely used as a case study for successful transformation of a brownfield site to a LEED certified campus. Atlantic Station was the first LEED certified campus in the U.S. and includes offices, retail, residences, hotel, a major grocery store, restaurants, a movie theater, and more. During the ten years required for creating this livable and workable space, Jacoby took on the cleaning of the former steel mill site, and laid out the infrastructure, including a bridge across I-75 and I-85 to connect Atlantic Station with the east side of Midtown Atlanta.

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