BENJAMIN NAVI
President and Founder
Benjamin Navi is the president and founder of Jimena Companies, a fully integrated private real estate investment and development firm acquiring assets in New York, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. Benjamin has over 17+ years of experience in commercial real estate.
Benjamin combines tried and true real estate practices with next generation principles in community development to reimagine spaces that offer sustainable and long-lasting impact. His firm is one of the first in the industry to take a systematic and integrated approach to incorporating Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Prosperity) practices into development opportunities. The Triple Bottom Line approach applied to real estate is only now being explored more fully and Benjamin is at the forefront of this next wave of visionary thinking for the industry. As an early adopter, Benjamin ensures his firm approaches opportunities with a more refined understanding of its returns and intended impact on the environment and the community.
As a testament to this, Benjamin founded the The Akin Group, a next generation global retail and entertainment brand committed to the transformation of retail spaces in select cities starting with Detroit, Michigan.
Benjamin’s early adoption of these practices has begun attracting numerous individuals from the industry and outside the industry to seek his thought leadership on the future of real estate development in environments where this type of thinking can be applied.
Benjamin earned his BBA in Finance & Investments from Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.
He sits on the board of IAJF (Iranian American Jewish federation) and is active in the AIPAC and involved with philanthropic organizations, Aish Hatorah International, The Roslyn Synagogue, Chabad Upper East Side, Chai Lifeline and Edmond J Safra Synagogue.