Volkswagen Taps JLL as Exclusive RE Service Provider

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor 

Ken Koupal, JLL

Volkswagen Group of America has appointed JLL as its exclusive provider of real estate services, including integrated facility management, transaction management, lease administration, strategic consulting and project management, JLL announced late last week.

The automaker’s 5 million-square-foot U.S. CRE portfolio encompasses more than 65 office, technical and distribution sites, as well as dealership locations, in 20 states.

Selection criteria reportedly included JLL’s service delivery platform, as well as its track record in project management, site selection and brokerage services.

The two companies’ relationship goes back about a decade and includes JLL’s work with VWGoA on its headquarters relocation from Auburn Hills, Mich., to Herndon, Va., as well as site selection for its 2.5-million-square-foot assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The new agreement encompasses VWGoA’s locations ranging from those two properties to development and technical facilities, post-production facilities, parts distribution centers and financial service centers.

In addition, the portfolio includes vehicle-testing centers, training centers, sales offices and a port terminal in Houston, JLL managing director Ken Koupal told Commercial Property Executive.

He declined to say whether VW has any outsize jobs, like the headquarters move or another new factory, waiting for JLL’s attention and would only say that “The portfolio has been fairly steady-state for a while.”

Koupal did note that JLL has had a relationship for some years with the parent company in Germany (Volkswagen AG) and has provided transactional services in Europe.

VWGoA has about 6,000 employees and a network of 992 dealers in the United States.