Adam I Gordon is the Managing Partner of Wildflower Ltd. A fourth-generation New Yorker, Gordon has built his career identifying and capitalizing on emerging real estate strategies. Gordon's narrative-driven approach rests on the insight that existing real estate design typologies become outmoded as consumer and commercial trends evolve. In New York City's labyrinth and dynamic environment, resolving these challenges is difficult but rewarding, and Gordon pursues every venture with curiosity, passion, and integrity.
Gordon's most ambitious effort to date is Wildflower Studios. New York's cultural and artistic depth is a natural fit for the expansive possibilities of digital-era entertainment. However, the city lacks both the permanent, full-scale production facilities built-up over the years in Los Angeles and the sprawling landscape on which to build them. Wildflower's solution: a vertical village for film production. Designed by architect Bjarke Ingels and developed in partnership with lifelong New Yorker Robert De Niro, the multi-level Queens campus will combine the collaborative potential of a Hollywood-style studio with the latest in digital production capability. Wildflower Studios exemplifies Gordon's approach towards development, evolved over three decades of experience solving real estate puzzles.
Previous to Wildflower, he co-founded Madison Development, a leading developer and operator of urban infill self-storage facilities. Over the same period, an interest in design and domestic architecture led him to single-family townhouse development, first for himself and then for others. Successful professionals with serious design aspirations were pouring into New York, but existing properties lacked the craft and elevated details these buyers expected. Gordon partnered with architect Steven Harris to build a series of homes that helped define living in 21st-century New York.
Today, it is the city's outdated warehouse and distribution infrastructure that requires renewal. E-commerce and the rapid delivery model of companies like Amazon require warehouses capable of processing 250 delivery vans per hour, many loaded by robots with products that may have arrived just that day. Gordon leased the first modern e-commerce warehouse to open for Amazon in the city, and today Wildflower is Amazon's most active New York City developer.
Gordon's curiosity and passion are not limited to real estate development. Gordon has a lifelong fascination with the ocean. As a member of the Directors' Council at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, he helped develop the Institution's 100-year plan. On land, Gordon founded Knights Valley Wagyu to provide humanely raised, 100% Japanese Wagyu beef to independent Michelin-starred restaurants within a bicycle ride of his Sonoma County ranch. Gordon is partnering with Stanford University researchers to develop a fire resilience plan to help ensure Knights Valley's ecosystem's long-term survival. The ranch also serves as a proving ground for Gordon's ever-changing collection of 4x4s, one aspect of Gordon's lifelong fascination with classic cars.
From e-commerce to oceanography, Gordon approaches every project with an open mind and curiosity about the underlying dynamics. The objective is not to be the first, or the biggest, or to be different for the sake of novelty. Investors don't want passion projects, but they are best served by projects undertaken with passion and rigor.