Bridge Investment Group:

PROJECT BRIEF

Bridge Investment Group is a privately held real estate investment management firm with $25+ billion in assets under management. The Atlanta-headquartered company tapped NJI to rebrand its three-building, Class A Office property in collaboration with architecture and interior design firm INTEC Group. As Bridge’s first investment in Virginia, this office park needed to stand out in the competitive Reston market.

To understand the ambition and design trajectory of the project, our team engaged early on with architects, investors, and real estate brokers. Weaving together architectural concepts and the desire to attract dynamic, technology-focused tenants, NJI sought a new name, brand, and full suite of creative elements to unify the campus.

Our team led a comprehensive discovery process that included the property’s leasing team and the architect firm steering the physical redesign. Engaging these extended stakeholders gave us a definitive picture of the campus attributes, as well as the area, competitors, and tenants — both current and desired.

To position the campus effectively in Reston, a saturated business hub just outside Washington, D.C., we knew we needed a brand that was thoughtfully distinct to stand out from its competition and mark Bridge’s noteworthy arrival into the Virginia commercial real estate market.

We needed a new name that spoke to the campus’s access and connectivity; alluded to tenants’ younger, start-up culture; and felt authentic for the area.

OUTCOMES

In creating the brand, we used geometric shapes inspired by the property’s architectural elements. We incorporated transparent and textured versions of the brand mark into interior finish details, fusing brand elements with the narrative of the property and surrounding area.

From a reimagined broker brochure to hand-dipped Maker’s Mark bourbon in the perfect teal mix, the craftsmanship and history in the Makers Point brand contributed to a narrative throughout the property. Compelling architectural changes, packaged in the new Makers Point brand, resulted in nearly 100% occupancy contracts before construction even began.

Makers Point was inspired by Reston’s deep history. The bucolic hills and open spaces were once home to farms and family businesses, including the A. Smith Bowman Distillery. From its founding in 1934, the day after Prohibition was repealed, it was the only legal whiskey distillery in Virginia. The original distillery warehouse, built in 1892, still stands today.