NEW YORK and PARIS, May 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Celebrated New York real estate visionary Joseph A. McMillan, Jr. has launched Azur, an international real estate investment and development company focused on major American and European markets. McMillan will serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and will run the newly established company from offices in New York and Paris.

Under Azur, McMillan has united his interests in DDG, founded in 2009, with 2 million square feet of real estate developed throughout the United States, with French real estate investment firm GS Invest, a privately held company with over 40 years of experience and a portfolio in excess of 3 million square feet.

Formation of the new company enables McMillan to apply his groundbreaking approach to real estate investment on a global scale. Azur’s portfolio encompasses dozens of assets throughout the United States and France, which include mixed-use, industrial, office, retail, hospitality, and residential properties.

McMillan is a pioneer in the integration of real estate design, development, construction, and asset management. Under his guidance, DDG has become known for its architecturally sophisticated residential and mixed-use projects in California, Florida and New York. With the formation of Azur, McMillan is able to apply his proven investment strategies to projects in multiple markets and across asset classes.

McMillan, through Azur, has also closed his first investment in PropTech, with a significant investment in Whiterock AI, an artificial intelligence real estate analytics startup.

“The formation of Azur represents a significant commitment to real estate at a moment that demands meticulous data analysis and deep insight from investors,” McMillan said. “The world is changing, and it is a privilege to steward Azur’s resources for the benefit of our shareholders and end-users alike.” 

Under McMillan’s leadership, Azur is also announcing two ground-up U.S. development projects in the city of Chicago’s west loop, a 254-unit multi-family with parking project at 1415 Sedgwick Street in classic Old Town and a 259-key mixed-use hospitality project at 1234 West Randolph Street in the burgeoning Fulton Market neighborhood, near the recently opened Google and McDonald’s campuses.

McMillan has also directed the Azur team to explore development and acquisition opportunities in Miami, Florida and Annecy, France. In both markets, Azur has projects in pre-development pending entitlement approvals that range from waterfront hospitality and residential developments to industrial expansions of warehouse capacity for existing e-commerce tenants, and ground-up office development. In New York, Azur has multi-family residential in pre-development.

Buildings that are currently advertised or managed as DDG properties will not undergo any change to branding but will benefit from the combined resources of the new company.

McMillan noted, “Azur’s strengths of creativity and operational efficiency have little comparison in North America and Europe. We will unlock higher return performance as we continue to create beautiful solutions that improve our built environment.”

About Azur:

Azur LLC and Azur Holdings Management LLC and its affiliates (“Azur”) is a privately held New York and Paris based real estate investment and development company with assets spanning seven cities on two continents. Azur invests in, develops, owns and manages assets in the mixed-use, industrial, hospitality, retail, office and residential sectors. For more information about Azur, please visit: www.azurcos.com

About Whiterock AI:

Whiterock AI, Inc. (“Whiterock AI”) mission is to leverage data science to help real estate professionals make sense of the world’s data. By aggregating, maintaining, and processing data ranging from sales history to Uber ridership and facade images, our users access previously unseen connections between metrics to make highly accurate predictions on future financial outcomes. For more information about Whiterock AI, please visit: www.whiterock.ai

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SOURCE Azur