LEVERAGING
DECADES OF
LEADERSHIP
JAMES S. BACKER
President
James S. “Jim” Backer has over thirty-five years of experience in commercial/industrial real estate. Prior to launching JSB Development in 2000, Jim was an executive with Newhall Land and had a major role in the planning and development of Valencia Commerce Center and Valencia’s Town Center Drive.
After leaving Newhall Land, Jim developed a 670-acre business park in West Sacramento and the 240-acre Centre Pointe Business Park in Santa Clarita. Under his leadership, JSB Development has developed 50 buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet, including Tourney Place, a six-building office complex totalling 163,000 square feet. The company is currently completing Monticello, a 60 unit apartment complex with 10,000 square feet of commercial space and the first automated parking facility in Santa Clarita. Its most ambitious project is Vista Canyon, a new 185-acre transit oriented community with 1,100 homes and 950,000 square feet of commercial space in Santa Clarita, California. Grading commenced on the property in July, 2015 and the first buildings and residences are opening in 2020.
Jim served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SCV Chamber of Commerce for 2014 and served on the Board for nine years. He currently serves as President of the SCV Education Foundation, a nonprofit foundation he founded dedicated to improving public education in the Santa Clarita Valley. In addition, he enjoyed coaching his kids in baseball and softball and was responsible for the redevelopment of the Canteen and associated infrastructure at the William S. Hart Baseball and Softball Complex, the largest PONY organization west of the Mississippi River. Since 1998, Jim has been an active member of the Build-to-Suit Forum of NAIOP and he joined the recently formed CEO/Company Leadership Group.
After growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, Jim graduated from Stanford University with a degree in History and earned his MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.
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