Early life and education

I was born in Seoul, South Korea, under the name Jung Hyun Suk. I lived in an orphanage for the first three months of my life because my biological parents were too poor to raise a child.

At three months old, I was adopted by an American family and immigrated to Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. My family moved from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Long Beach, California, when I was three years old, and then eventually settled in Seal Beach, California.

I was raised by a single mother who worked as a secretary and have a sister named Leslie. I attended Los Alamitos High School, where I played football. Tragically, both of my parents died during my senior year of college.

I was the first in my family to attend college, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. With a passion for real estate, I earned my MBA at NYU Stern School of Business.

Career

After graduating business school, I worked in real estate investment banking. I worked as an investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York, specializing in institutional real estate mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, and capital markets transactions. My team led the MGM Growth Properties $8 billion carveout and $1.2 billion IPO, which was the largest real estate IPO of 2016.

My team also led Paramount Group’s $2.6 billion IPO, which is the largest REIT IPO in U.S. history. At Bank of America, Jay worked on financings for Avalon Bay, Extended Stay America, MGM Resorts, Digital Realty Trust, and Education Realty Trust.

Prior to my work at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, I worked at Training The Street. In this position, I taught investment banking analysts at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Evercore financial modeling and Excel best practices.

I am currently the CEO and founder of the Prosper Group a real estate development and investment firm based in Miami, Florida.

Prosper Group recently advised on Legacy Miami World Center, a $400 million development consisting of 600,000 square feet of luxury mixed-use condo, hotel, office, and retail in downtown Miami. The Kobi Karp designed development consists of over 300 condos, 200 hotel rooms and 100,000 square feet of office in the heart of the Miami World Center. 

Prosper Group is currently acquiring irreplaceable land for condo development in Florida and car washes across the United States.

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

50 MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES OF THE YEAR 2022 - SILICON REVIEW

Solving the housing shortage in the United States: Prosper Group. “We aim to be the direct line of connection between New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and international capital and Tampa developments.”

OCTOBER 21, 2022

SEEKING COUNTERINTUITIVE DEALS, STARTUP DEVELOPMENT FIRM CHOSE TAMPA OVER MIAMI

It was almost two years ago when Jay Roberts, a real estate investment banker who’d worked for major international financial institutions, decided to go out on his own and start a commercial real estate development firm.

MAY 20, 2022

JAY ROBERTS NAMED TOP 100 PEOPLE IN REAL ESTATE MAGAZINE

Some people are born with advantages—wealthy parents, a business legacy, a preordained career path. Some, you might say, are just lucky. They always seem to be in the right place at the right time—a seat next to a CEO on a long flight, a classmate with an inroad to the hiring manager of a Fortune 500 company, a chance encounter with Mark Cuban. This is not the story of someone who capitalized on that type of fortune.

JANUARY 27, 2022

Jay Roberts of Prosper Group Discusses Why He Is Investing In Tampa Real Estate

“Tampa is experiencing a massive growth boom that happens to certain cities once a decade. Tampa is the next Austin, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, and Denver, Colorado in terms of hockey stick growth.”