Jay Despard


Jay Despard is Senior Managing Director and head of Rockefeller Group’s Rocky Mountain Region.  Based in Denver, he has more than two decades of real estate investment and development experience.

Mr. Despard joined Rockefeller Group in 2021 to lead the company’s real estate acquisitions, new developments and operations throughout Colorado and the greater Rocky Mountain Region.  Rockefeller Group established the region, its sixth in the United States, in concert with its planned joint venture development of 1055 19th Street in downtown Denver – the 2.5-acre site of the former Greyhound bus terminal.  The joint-venture, with Golub & Company, is planning a large-scale, mixed-use development on one of the last undeveloped full-block sites downtown.

Prior to joining Rockefeller Group, Mr. Despard spent more than two decades with Hines in Colorado, including the last 17 years in Denver in positions of increasing authority.  Since 2014, Mr. Despard held the senior-most regional officer position for the firm in Colorado, responsible for all real estate development, acquisition and leadership initiatives throughout the state.  Among his most notable projects, Mr. Despard led the development and leasing for 1144 15th Street, the nearly 700,000 square foot, 40-story trophy office tower completed downtown in 2018.  He also completed the lease-up of 1601 Wewatta and arranged the building’s sale at record pricing for the Denver market, among many other prominent local projects.

In addition to senior advisory and committee roles at Hines, including the Hines Global REIT Advisory Board and U.S. Strategy Committee, Mr. Despard has served in outside real estate and civic leadership roles, including as an International Advisory Board Member of the University of Colorado Real Estate Council, Executive Board Member of the Downtown Denver Partnership, and Executive Member of the Denver Metro Commercial Association of Realtors.  He is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and holds a master’s degree in real estate development finance from NYU.