Brokerage JLL added industry veteran Casey Zejdlik to its Seattle multifamily investment team just as apartment sales volume has jumped at least 40% in the region over last year's level.
Zejdlik, who has completed more than 290 deals during a 19-year career joins the world’s second-largest brokerage as a senior director on its private-market multifamily investment sales and advisory team.
The veteran’s move to Chicago-based JLL coincides with an uptick in multifamily investment activity in the Puget Sound region this year. The rebound is occurring after apartment sales cratered to among their lowest levels on record in 2023 due to rising interest rates that drove up borrowing costs and hindered credit markets.
While sales remain well below the five-year annual average of about $5 billion in the area, brokers have closed just under $4 billion in apartment volume in the past 12 months, roughly 40% higher than the prior 12-month period, according to CoStar's greater Seattle multifamily capital markets report.
Zejdlik’s “depth of knowledge and experience in multifamily real estate investment will be an asset to our private capital clients," JLL senior managing director Corey Marx said in a statement.
He co-founded and served as an adviser at Seattle-based investment firm Pilot Ventures. Zejdlik also held senior roles as managing director at CPX, and Northmarq, which acquired CPX last year.
Zejdlik spent six years prior to his real estate career as a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy. He received two Navy achievement medals and holds a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering technology.