Property manager
finds career calling
at JLL
Adele Bayless takes person-centric
approach in supporting her clients and
team
Adele Bayless’s start in property management came in 1992 when she answered an ad to be an executive assistant at a building management company in Los Angeles.
“I didn’t really know what building management was. But I could see that property managers got things done, which I thought was great. I can’t really pinpoint when it became my career, but it came naturally to me. I love it and I’ve never looked back.”
Adele Bayless and her family
Over the years, Adele gained experience managing properties including industrial, multifamily, office and retail. Her career started at Cushman & Wakefield and she has been with JLL for three and a half years. Today, as a General Manager, she and her team oversee approximately 3.2 million square feet in the Minneapolis market.
For Adele there’s no one part of her job she enjoys the most since it always stays different and interesting. “We’ll be painting one day, then managing a safety issue the next day and developing tenant events after that – it’s never boring.”
After learning the skills needed to take under-performing properties and turn them around, she’s now in a transitionary role to manage the newest high-rise to hit Minneapolis in 20 years, with office space, luxury condos and a Four Seasons Hotel. The property will total 1.2 million square feet.
“Managing through a redevelopment has been an item on my professional bucket list. I’m very excited to determine the property’s plan and think through all aspects…the ‘worldwide vision’ of everything Property Management can bring to the table,” says Adele. “This is a new client who is currently engaged with our Property Management, Brokerage and Project and Development Services teams and it showcases a true One JLL approach. I want to prove to the building’s new owner that JLL deserves to be involved and provide the best service possible.” Adele brings this can-do mentality back to her team and regularly runs “person-centric” presentations centered around positivity, the essential role team members play and purpose. “Property Management can be very behind the scenes. I like to encourage people to remember how important their work is.” |
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When it comes to who inspires Adele, she can point to several people, including important but perhaps lesser-known figures in the Black community. “My mom is first in terms of influence and shaping my experience. She was incredibly strong – she even worked with the Black Panthers.”
Adele also notes the influence of Bayard Rustin, an advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. “A lot of people don’t know who Bayard Rustin is, but he was critical to the Civil Rights Movement. Because he was Black, a gay man and communist, he faced more oppression and had to operate behind the scenes. But he was brilliant, influential and made a lot of things happen.”
But it’s not just figures from the past that inspire Adele. When thinking about the next wave and the future of Black History, she notes, “young Black people are stepping up – there is a long list of how many of them inspire me. Their activism is coming in all ways, shapes and forms – and it’s wonderful.”