Garrett Lee

Garrett Lee stepped into the chief executive role this year at Jamison at a particularly consequential time for the Los Angeles-based company his father started decades ago.

His sister, Jaime Lee, left the CEO position earlier in the year, handing Garrett the keys to one of the region’s most prominent housing developers and about 18 million square feet of commercial and multifamily real estate across Southern California.

Garrett Lee was already deeply involved in Jamison’s development strategy as president of Jamison Properties, helping oversee a pipeline that has delivered more than 8,000 market-rate and affordable units through ground-up development and the office-to-residential conversions that have become increasingly central to Jamison’s identity. The firm has long been in the thick of Los Angeles’ simultaneous struggles with a housing shortage and stubbornly high office vacancy.

Jamison kicked off 2026 by securing $195 million to convert the 33-story former ARCO Tower into 686 apartments — one of the largest adaptive reuse projects in L.A. history. Jamison has completed seven such conversions since 2013, with several more under construction or in planning.

This June, Jamison’s affordable housing arm, Arden Residential, partnered with Kennedy Wilson’s Vintage Housing on a plan for 4,000 affordable units across Los Angeles. The first project, Sky Castle, will turn the former World Trade Center complex in Downtown L.A. into 512 affordable apartments.

Jamison is also advancing other Koreatown conversions and ground-up projects, including 3325 Wilshire Boulevard and the 428-unit Opus complex, which secured a $220 million financing package last year.

Lee has described adaptive reuse as a way to address the housing shortage while giving obsolete office assets new life.