Helping Organizations
Work Smarter.

George Jacobs has served as a receiver, trustee, and consultant for a wide variety of clients. He has restructured loans, corporate governance, development analysis and lease negotiations for third-parties. On his own behalf, he has created a significant portfolio comprised principally of mixed-use, retail and multi-family assets.  He spent most of the 1980s as a principal with Hartz Mountain Industries in Secaucus where he was a partner in the development of over 20 million square feet.  Mr. Jacobs started Jacobs Enterprises (“JEI”) in 1990.  His most prominent recent projects include the acquisition and redevelopment of the 230,000 square foot Styertowne Shopping Center and 375-unit Styertowne Apartment complex in Clifton; the new downtown in Livingston New Jersey the acquisition and renovation of the Summit Opera House in Summit New Jersey. The $60 million transit-oriented mixed-use project in Bloomfield, Glenwood Village, and a new supermarket-anchored shopping center in Elizabeth, NJ.  JK Management, his management company, which at its peak, managed more than 1 million sf of retail and commercial space and 400 apartments, was sold in 2024.

Mr. Jacobs received his undergraduate degree at Rutgers College where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  He received a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Rutgers University. He is licensed as a City Planner in the State of New Jersey, and as a Real Estate Broker in the State of New Jersey.  In 1996, he was selected to be a Counselor of Real Estate, one of the nation's 1200 members and was the New Jersey Chapter President in 2006.  He is the current head of Government Relations for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ New Jersey chapter and as such testifies regularly in front of various NJ Legislative committees on real estate and economic development and condemnation issues.  One significant endeavor was the redesign and implementation of changes to New Jersey’s outmoded liquor license laws; he authored a study and testified on it in front of the State’s legislature.  One related modification was signed into law in 2024.  He received NAIOP’s Impact Award in 2024 for a career that has impacted the current and next generation of real estate professionals.

He is a founding member of the Rutgers University Graduate Business School’s new Center for Real Estate where he was on the Executive Committee.  He developed the curriculum and taught a new course on Real Estate Development at the MBA level from 2015-2024.  In 2021, he was awarded the inaugural Richard Marshall Award in Excellence in Teaching.  Mr. Jacobs has been a frequent Guest Lecturer at NYU’s Stern College of Business, Columbia University Graduate School of Planning, Monmouth University, and Rutgers University Graduate School of Management.  He is a regular speaker and former Conference Committee member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ National Real Estate Conference.  He also speaks at the Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE), and various conferences sponsored by the Urban Land Institute, PlanSmart New Jersey, New Jersey Future, Downtown New Jersey, Regional Mortgage Bankers Association, and the International Council of Shopping Centers. 

He served on the Advisory Council of Provident Bank from its inception in 2009. He served on the Board of Trustees of St. Mary’s Hospital (Passaic NJ) and currently serves on the Board of the NJ Apartment Association.   In 2007-2010 he was State Co-Chairman of the ICSC’s NJ Alliance Program.  He has been a Board Member of the ICSC New Jersey Political Action Committee and NAIOP’s Developers Political Action Committee and Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Committees.  He is also a member of the NJ Smart Growth Coalition, a past Condemnation Commissioner in Essex County, and has served on the Boards of Directors of the Passaic County Comprehensive Economic Development Commission, Downtown New Jersey, the North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the Clifton Economic Development Advisory Council.  He served as a (NJ) Governor’s Commissioner on the Business Employment and Incentive Program (“BEIP Commission”) and the NJ Governor’s Greyfields Task Force.

Most recently, in 2024 he became a Trustee of the Kessler Foundation, one of the nation's leading organizations providing research and funding to advance mobility challenged patients. In 2025 he became a board member of the Clifton Boys & Girls Club.