IN 1989, JIM FOUNDED and served as chairman of Associated Capital Properties, Inc., an office and investment company, where he directed all of the company’s operations until its sale in 1997 to Highwoods Properties for $622 million. After the sale, Jim served as Senior VP for Highwoods from 1997–1999 and as a member of its board of directors for three years. 

When Jim left Highwoods in 1999, he bought DASCO, an owner and operator of medical office buildings, for $500,000 with no assets. After only five years of taking over DASCO, Jim sold the company to CNL Retirement for $240 million.

In 2000, Jim founded Eola Capital LLC (“Eola Capital”) while continuing to grow DASCO’s operations until its sale. From 2000 – 2011, Eola Capital acquired $1.3 billion of office assets with other leading institutional partners, including 13.3 million square feet in Florida, Atlanta, and Virginia. 

In May 2011, Eola Capital combined with Parkway Properties, Inc. (“Legacy Parkway”), a publicly traded real estate investment trust (“REIT”), and Jim was named Executive Chairman of Legacy Parkway’s board. 

In December 2011, Jim assumed the role of President and CEO of Legacy Parkway. Shortly after, Jim and his leadership team received a PIPE Investment from TPG Capital (“TPG”) for $250 million, resetting the trajectory of Legacy Parkway. 

The management team began repositioning Legacy Parkway’s portfolio, utilizing this growth capital to acquire high-quality iconic assets across the SunBelt at attractive values due to limited institutional liquidity at the time. Within five years, Legacy Parkway’s management team executed a wholesale transformation of its portfolio, acquiring $3.9B of assets and recycling $2.6B of non-core assets.

As a result of this transformation and through innovative, accretive transactions, Legacy Parkway’s stock realized an annual rate of return in excess of 21% at relatively low leverage, making Legacy Parkway the highest performing office REIT within its peer group.

In 2013, Legacy Parkway acquired Thomas Properties Group, Inc. (“Thomas Properties”) and entered into the key markets of Austin, TX and Houston, TX.

When oil prices began to decline in 2014, Legacy Parkway’s stock price also dropped steadily, along with the stock price of companies in its peer group with significant holdings in Houston like Cousins Properties Incorporated (“Cousins”).

After months of strategic evaluation, the Legacy Parkway executive management team determined that the best way to unlock shareholder value and create liquidity for the company was to merge with Cousins (the “Merger”) and spin off the combined company’s Houston assets into a new, publicly-traded REIT, Parkway, Inc. (“PKY”). 

This simultaneous merger and spin-off was completed in October 2016 and allowed the non-Houston assets to trade without being encumbered by the effects of declining oil prices, while providing investors with an opportunity to invest in a pure-play Houston REIT and capitalize on the Houston market’s eventual resurgence. 

Additionally, the merger unlocked the value in the Legacy Parkway portfolio. The Legacy Parkway shareholders that elected to receive shares of Cousins’ common stock recognized a considerable increase in value as compared to the value of Legacy Parkway shares immediately prior to the closing.

Heistand, among others, led the management team of the newly spun-off PKY. Recognizing the immediate need to unlock value in the Houston portfolio, prior to the closing of the Merger, the management team began exploring joint venture opportunities for Greenway Plaza, PKY’s largest asset.

Within six months of the closing of the Merger, PKY closed on the joint venture of Greenway Plaza with an affiliate of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPPIB”) and an entity controlled by TH Real Estate Global Asset Management (“TH Real Estate”) and Silverpeak Real Estate Partners (“Silver Peak”), each owning a 24.5% interest.

A few months after the closing of the joint venture, CPPIB and PKY entered into a definitive merger agreement under which CPPIB agreed to acquire 100% of PKY for $1.2 billion, or $23.05 per share. Each share of PKY common stock held as of October 10, 2016 through the closing of the merger with CPPIB recognized a total appreciation of 18.4% (inclusive of dividends). This transaction enabled PKY to unlock value by capturing the arbitrage between discounted public company values and the private market value of the underlying assets.

The merger with CPPIB closed in October 2017, and immediately afterwards, Heistand, among others, purchased PKY’s management business and operations from the remainder of PKY’s business and formed Parkway Property Investments.

The merger with CPPIB closed in October 2017, and immediately afterward, Heistand and other members of the management team purchased PKY’s management business and operations from the remainder of PKY’s business and formed Parkway Property Investments (“Parkway”).

As of December 31, 2022, Parkway owns, operates, and/or provides accounting services for approximately 27 million square feet of high-quality office and industrial assets located in attractive submarkets in California, Florida, Texas, and Virginia.