Jacob Dinetz, 26
Senior real estate associate at Blank Street
Jacob Dinetz jumped right into the scalding hot coffee wars after his education was complete.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a business administration degree that focused on real estate, plus a stint at brokerage giant Cushman & Wakefield, Dinetz stepped into the roaring competition for people bent on fueling their energies with caffeinated beverages. It’s a field dominated by Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, but also joined by such chains as Gregory’s, Peet’s, Joe & The Juice, Blue Bottle and many others — not to mention a bunch of one-off shops that seek to sell passersby a hot coffee and sweet pastry.
Dinetz joined Blank Street Coffee, where he serves as the company’s real estate manager.
While still at Cushman, he hooked up with the company’s food and beverage team (known in the industry as F & B). “I found that the intersection of F & B and real estate, it seemed that there has been no real strategy and real thoughtful thinking from the real estate side,” Dinetz said. “The more I worked with those guys, the more I realized that the really strong
F & B operators, once they were able to limit their menu, promote quality products and do it upscale. There weren’t that many groups doing that globally.”
So, in September of 2021, he was approached by the leaders of Blank Street, who said “their mission was to deliver high-quality coffee at a quality price point.” Given where retail real estate was trending, switching jobs made sense to Dinetz.
“We believe there’s a lot of competitors in the space who do it really well,” he said. “We are able to do something really unique and different.” —D.M.L.
