Jim Borders is President and CEO of Novare Group, a real estate investment and development company based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Urban Land Institute Atlanta’s 21st Annual Awards for Excellence recently honored the developments of significance in the Atlanta metro area. Brother Borders received the Frank Carter Community Achievement Award, given to a deserving individual in development or a real estate related field who has made an outstanding contribution in his or her lifetime to the metropolitan Atlanta area.
Borders began his professional career as an attorney with Atlanta law firm King & Spalding and later practiced as a turnaround consultant at GrandWest & Associates. In 1992, Borders founded the predecessor of Novare Group. The company’s first investments were in self-storage facilities and office buildings, and the success of those projects led to the development of apartments and condominiums, including adaptive reuse of several buildings in and around Atlanta.
In 2002, in partnership with Wood Partners, the company delivered its first high-rise development, Metropolis, which has been widely credited with sparking residential demand that helped transform Midtown Atlanta into the vibrant neighborhood that it is today. The company has continued to focus its activity on high-rise mixed-use communities and developed 11,700 multifamily units in 36 high rise buildings, expanding the company’s activity into Denver, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Orlando, Tampa, Austin, Houston, and Dallas.
Borders serves on the board of directors for the Buckhead Coalition, the Midtown Alliance, Central Atlanta Progress, Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures, LLC, an affiliate of Georgia Tech, and as a trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation, Inc. Borders received a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1983 and a J.D./M.B.A. degree from the University of Georgia in 1988. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the National Association of Home Builders, where he serves on the Multifamily Leadership Board. Under Borders’ leadership, Novare Group has been recognized with two ULI Project of the Year Awards and three Projects of Excellence.
