PIHE Entrepreneurs in Residence: Jason Spillerman '92 (CALS)

Key areas of expertise:

• Food and beverage
• Real estate development
• Hotel programming
• Restaurant design and development
• Restaurant finance

Jason Spillerman is a principal and co-founder of Vibrant Development Group, Vibrant Leasing Strategies and Vibrant Ventures. Prior to founding Vibrant Development Group, Jason was a senior consultant at MRA International, a leading development consulting and strategy firm.

Throughout his career, Jason has consulted with a variety of development interests including real estate investment trusts, private land owners, public and quasi-public development entities, cities, gaming companies, professional sports clubs and entertainment/media companies to realize unique destination real estate projects. Jason specializes in strategic assessment of development opportunities for casinos and real estate developers. He focuses in particular on formulating strategies for large-scale retail, dining and entertainment developments and has considerable experience with creative programming and unique tenant identification for gaming companies and mixed-use destination projects.

Jason has worked on development strategies and creative programming for unique retail and entertainment- based concepts such as Harbor East, a 10 million square foot mixed-use development along Baltimore’s famed Inner Harbor; and National Harbor, $4.5 billion master-planned mixed-use waterfront convention and entertainment destination anchored by The Gaylord National.

Jason and his partner, Chuck, developed the strategy, concept, and program for the retail, dining, and entertainment uses at Revel, a $2.5 billion resort destination in Atlantic City. Other representative engagements include crafting the destination strategy for the NFL Dallas Cowboys franchise for a new, state-of-the- art stadium with ancillary mixed-use development; advising the Aztar Corporation on the creation of a $300 million retail, dining and entertainment destination at the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City; and, for a coalition of public and private interests, helping calibrate the economic impact of locating the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Jason is a member of the James Beard Foundation, International Council of Shopping Centers, and the Cornell Real Estate Council. He has moderated expert panels and has been a speaker at the Global Gaming Expo, Cornell Real Estate Council and the Urban Land Institute. In addition, Jason is a principal of Vibrant Ventures, a boutique private equity firm and serves on the Board of Directors of a number of independent restaurant concepts.

Jason holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a Master’s Degree from Drexel University, and has completed graduate coursework at MIT Center for Real Estate.

To meet with Jason please sign up via StartUp Tree!