Rethink Real Estate. For Good.
171 episodes - English - Latest episode: 21 days ago - ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsI'm on a mission is to make real estate work for everyone. I love real estate. Real estate makes places good or bad, rich or poor, beautiful or not.
In this show, I'm interviewing the disruptors, those creative thinkers and doers that are shrugging off the status quo, in order to build better for everyone.
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Episodes
BREIF. Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund.
April 10, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutes - 40.6 MBKirk Sykes is Managing Director of Accordia Partners, a Boston-based real estate investment and development company. Accordia develops large public-private real estate projects. Kirk was previously the head of Urban Strategy America Fund, perhaps one of the first urban real estate equity funds focused on the triple bottom line. And that brings us to this podcast. Kirk has had a highly successful career, but that is not enough for him. He has always given back, and for Kirk that means h...
Manufactured authenticity.
March 27, 2024 09:00 - 38 minutes - 53.4 MBIn real estate development, envisioning how future societies will live can often feel like masterminding a high-tech work of science fiction. Just outside of Houston, a new development of the future is emerging. But instead of flying cars and sky-scraping utopias, this version of Tomorrowland has its roots firmly and sustainably planted in days gone by. Indigo, a 235-acre community, is being developed by Scott Snodgrass and his partner Clayton Garrett, both farmers. They have thoughtful...
Crowdfunding tax credits.
March 13, 2024 14:30 - 44 minutes - 60.9 MBRich Rogers is an urban planner and attorney in Buffalo, New York. In his practice he focuses on tax credit financing and on creative problem-solving to help public and private sector projects work from concept into financing and implementation. Rich is also a real estate developer, with a project in lease-up on Buffalo’s main street. There he’s put his knowledge to good use, converting a 30,000 s.f. Historic building into modern retail and affordable housing units, and employing every...
Reclaiming Control.
February 28, 2024 10:00 - 30 minutes - 41.6 MBAdriana Abizadeh is the executive director of the Kensington Corridor Trust (KCT) in Philadelphia. You might wonder what that is and why it exists. Kensington was once known as the Workshop of the World with booming manufacturing and a well-employed neighborhood. Then, Kensington Avenue was a bustling local business corridor. Now there is a lack of economic investment and everything that comes with it. 58% of Kensington residents live below the federal poverty line and the average house...
The Great Real Estate Reset (REDUX)
February 07, 2024 10:00 - 38 minutes - 53.5 MBAs we embark on a new year, we’re all thinking about fixing things. I bumped this podcast up on my list, because Tracy Hadden Loh has a much bigger and more inspiring fix list than most of us do. Tracy is bi-racial and has experienced inequity first hand. Even as a young child she knew something was wrong. Her career has been a purposeful exploration of how to fix things. As a Fellow with the Center for Transformative Placemaking at Brookings Metro, a branch within the Brookings insti...
For the love of the building.
January 24, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes - 48.8 MBAfter a successful career in architecture and design in New York City, Mark Winkelman purchased a 300,000 s.f. historic Pajama factory. Once the largest pajama factory in the country, the buildings sat vacant in a small town in central Pennsylvania with a population of just 114,000 They set about filling it, one corner at a time, with a vision for an affordable and thriving creative hub. 16 years later, and 60% complete, the stunning buildings are coming back to life but there is still...
Magic in the details.
December 13, 2023 10:00 - 37 minutes - 52.1 MBIt’s been 4 years since I first interviewed Lorenzo Perez and I love his work every bit as much as I did then. Lorenzo advocates for LOCAL community, culture and commerce in his real estate projects, and for crafting, artistic, one-of-a-kind environments and experiences. He and his company, Venue, put that passion to work throughout the Metro Phoenix market. This approach helped them to weather the last four years, pandemic and all. Lorenzo was about to open his first hotel project rig...
Architectural entrepreneur.
November 29, 2023 10:00 - 36 minutes - 49.7 MBAtif Qadir is a serial entrepreneur, but that’s not where he started. Trained as an architect and urban planner, Atif decided pretty early on that he wanted to work his way up the ladder, from servicing developers as an architect or builder, to being one! So he started developing his own small properties, and as his frustrations with finding project financing grew, so did his entrepreneurial ideas. He launched Commonplace, a fintech platform, with a mind to create a marketplace for eme...
Shift capital.
November 08, 2023 10:00 - 45 minutes - 62.1 MBThis is my second podcast interview with Brian Murray. But time has passed, and his business (and expertise) have grown. Brian came to real estate as a non-real estate guy. Always interested in impact, he wanted to find a way to address poverty and real estate presented a tangible path. And so he launched SHIFT Capital, an impact urban real estate group focused on mission-oriented real estate strategies in underserved communities. Simply put, at Shift, Brian works on uncovering bette...
Wall Street capital.
October 25, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutes - 39 MBFrom Wall Street to mortgage banking to real estate developer. Joel Miller has focused his career with clarity and purpose. And now he’s taking it one step further by raising money for his next real estate project, through crowdfunding. Joel wants to bring others up behind him. He wants to give others the opportunities he’s been given. And one small way to do that is to provide an opportunity for everyone to invest in his latest project. Early on in his career, Joel realized that his...
Joyous disruption.
October 18, 2023 09:00 - 41 minutes - 56.9 MBJoyous disruption. This is Jonathan Dodson's goal with each and every real estate project he develops. Jonathan pivoted from an early career as a banker to real estate developer, aptly calling the firm he co-founded, Pivot Projects. He had developed an interest in urban neighborhoods and redevelopment initiatives, and when given an opportunity to co-partner on a project, he grabbed it. Now he leads the Pivot Team, navigating tough conversations and decisions to create the best outcomes f...
Lindsey is a scout.
October 04, 2023 09:00 - 45 minutes - 63.1 MBLindsey Scannapieco is an urbanist and an artist in every sense of the word. While living and studying in the UK, Lindsey worked on projects such as activating an underutilized subterranean crossing alongside Westminster Council, supporting Tech Shop in their global expansion, and developing a community led design project that reconsiders traditional construction hoardings in South Kilburn. All of this led her to found Scout, an urban design and development practice that focuses on the ac...
Real Estate Artist.
September 20, 2023 09:00 - 49 minutes - 67.4 MBLiz Dunn is a real estate artist. After spending the early years of her career as a software developer at Microsoft, Liz made a hard pivot and launched her own Seattle company in a completely different field: real estate. The last 20+ years have been filled with people and buildings for Liz. Of her 35 or so retail tenants, all are local and over half are minorities or women. Fascinating names like Chophouse Row, the Agnes Lofts and Melrose Market label even more fascinating spaces. A...
Be Good Development.
September 06, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutes - 49.9 MBFranchell Abdalla is a minority in every sense of the word. She is black, a woman and a real estate developer. But that’s not stopping her. Not for one little moment. Franchell only recently launched her development company, Be Good Development, and yet she has her sights set on incredibly complex and rich real estate projects. She assembled an astounding team to win a significant Request for Proposals issued by the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She won and has been grappling with a 100,000 ...
Strong Towns.
June 07, 2023 09:00 - 46 minutes - 64 MBCharles Marohn is a recovering engineer. He used to build roads. Charles followed all the rules he learned while studying to become an engineer. But in 2008, well into his engineering career, he became disenchanted with the notion that more roads lead to prosperity. So, Charles started blogging his thoughts. He advocated for a new approach to land use and warned about the dangers of suburban sprawl. With each blog, Charles gained readers until the blog converted into a non profit organi...
Waste to Energy.
May 24, 2023 09:00 - 49 minutes - 67.9 MBSamuel Alemayehu was born in Ethiopia and educated in the US. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor focused on deploying technology as an equalizing force. "Let's change the world to technology and products that empower the individual and sustain the village" says Sam. Through his work with Cambridge Industries, Sam is revolutionizing the way we think about sustainable energy and infrastructure. He built the first waste to energy plant customized for sub-Saharan Africa in Ethiopia, the ...
It’s all about walking.
May 03, 2023 09:00 - 48 minutes - 66.8 MBTen years ago, Jeff Speck wrote a book called Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. Since it was published, in 2012, the book has become one of the most popular titles in urban planning. His blunt assessment of the state of the planning profession, along with 10 steps for improving street design, have influenced efforts to improve safety and livability across U.S. cities over the last 10 years. Basically, it’s all about walking, for Jeff. Listen in and learn. ...
Foot traffic ahead.
April 19, 2023 09:00 - 39 minutes - 54.5 MBIs the city dead? Christopher Leinberger doesn’t think so. He recently co-authored a report called Foot Traffic Ahead 2023 that loudly proclaims, the city is not dead. Post pandemic, price premiums and increased market share dominate walkable urban places. These findings may cement walkable places as the wave of the future. They point to us moving toward a more connected, environmentally-sustainable way of life Christopher has a storied career in real estate policy and development. H...
Fix Development.
April 05, 2023 09:00 - 35 minutes - 48.1 MBPeople. Planet. Profit … and Place. This is the return that Juli Kaufmann believes all real estate should achieve. Less than that is simply not good enough for Juli. Juli founded her company, Fix Development, with this explicit goal in mind. She applies her philosophy to each and every project in her portfolio, prioritizing economic stability, environmental stewardship, social equity, and cultural continuity. One recent example is The Aux Evanston in Illinois, a vacant warehouse desti...
Ready. Set. Homes.
March 22, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 46.8 MBIn 2019, Dafna Kaplan embarked upon a journey to uncover the obstacles preventing true construction innovation from widespread adoption. Extensive research and development led her to launch Cassette, and garnered her the 2020 Presidential Award from the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for her work addressing the housing crisis. In 2022, Cassette introduced a beautifully designed one-bedroom apartment pod that can stack up to six stories high into a mul...
Disability Forward Housing.
March 08, 2023 10:00 - 38 minutes - 53.3 MBMicaela Connery is co-founder and CEO of The Kelsey, a non-profit focused on inclusive housing for people with disabilities. Micaela’s lifelong advocacy grew out of her relationship with her late cousin and close friend, Kelsey Flynn O’Connor, who lived with multiple disabilities. As the two grew up together, Micaela saw firsthand the obstacles many disabled people face in accessing the same resources as their nondisabled peers. Determined to work on solutions, she realized there was no c...
We Own This.
February 22, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 38.9 MBLyneir Richardson is building Black wealth through community-owned shopping centers. He is planning to buy 16 community shopping centers and invite 1,000 small investors to co-own them with his company, Chicago TREND. To accomplish this, Lyneir and his team have developed a rigorous set of criteria for finding and buying shopping centers in majority Black Demographics that are on the cusp of change, and which offer added value over time. His plan is to empower Black entrepreneurs a...
Caterpillars.
February 08, 2023 10:00 - 47 minutes - 64.9 MB“Being a developer without believing in architecture and its fundamental principles is like being religious without believing in God.” This is Philip Kafka’s take on architecture and real estate. I recently got to talk with him about his work and I think you will be as wowed as I am. Philip has taken a position on rebuilding Detroit that is inspirational, innovative and rare. He’s working in forgotten places, and on land that no one else believes has much value. His projects weave togethe...
Cut My Timber.
January 25, 2023 10:00 - 34 minutes - 47.3 MBGreg Howes is the co-founder of CutMyTimber, a fabricator of timber and steel components for the entire building industry. Their projects are spread as far as Alaska, Québec, and Australia, with production based in Portland, OR, with an office in Vancouver, BC. They are able to make highly complex and efficient building systems available to both large and small companies, as well as to individual, independent builders. What makes them unique is how they use state-of-the-art computer sof...
Our client is the planet.
January 18, 2023 10:00 - 51 minutes - 71.2 MBThree years ago, I interviewed the delightful Jeremy McCleod of Breathe Architecture, and today I'm lucky enough to interview him again. Jeremy founded Breathe, an architecture studio in Melbourne, Australia. There he delivers gorgeous and sustainable buildings to his clients. But Jeremy was unhappy with the ever-widening gap between those who have wealth and those who do not. So, he embarked on a second journey to deliver sustainable and affordable housing to everyone. Many told him that th...
Democratizing green roofs. (Redux)
January 11, 2023 10:00 - 41 minutes - 57.2 MBLast summer we got to talk to Molly Meyer, a remarkable entrepreneur who wants to put a green roof within the reach of anyone who owns a building, big or small. Why, you ask? 80% of the buildings that will exist in a few decades from now are already built. And since buildings are one of the biggest contributors to climate change, figuring out how to retrofit them economically, and easily, is a must do. Green roofs are a big part of that. Molly is tackling this through engineering inc...
Women-led Cities.
December 14, 2022 10:00 - 38 minutes - 52.5 MBKatrina Johnston-Zimmerman is an urban anthropologist. Want to know what that is? So did we! As an anthropologist, Katrina is curious about us – and why we behave the way we do in society and spaces. As an urbanist, she’s passionate about our cities – and how we can make them better for us, mentally and physically. So she applies anthropological principles, research methods, and the lessons learned from our collective history to the present day, observing interactions between people and th...
Gower Crowd.
December 07, 2022 10:00 - 54 minutes - 74.7 MBAdam Gower is the founder of GowerCrowd. On his platform he shares his decades of experience in finance and development, showing developers how to raise money online for real estate crowdfunding deals. Content-rich, the platform has educational materials and training courses for both developers and investors alike. Adam also hosts a podcast show called The Real Estate Crowdfunding Show, where he speaks with the founders of crowdfunding platforms, attorneys, professors, investors and more,...
From beetles to mass timber.
November 30, 2022 10:00 - 36 minutes - 50 MBSandra Lupien is passionate about the potential of mass timber. As Director of MassTimber at Michigan State University in Lansing, a program focused on outreach, research and education, she is working to advance mass timber construction and manufacturing in the state of Michigan. Sandra originally came to mass timber after exploring possible uses for wood ravaged by a beetle infestation, the result of years of drought in California. Today, she is part of a growing energetic community...
100% Community.
November 16, 2022 10:00 - 27 minutes - 37.6 MBIt started with Tosha Wilson and her cousin wanting to open a laundromat with comfortable seating, fresh brewed coffee, a book room, and a yoga/meditation space. But they were turned down for every small business loan they applied for. In an interview, Tosha said, “Two professionals with decent jobs [and] good credit scores, and the bank basically told us, ‘You don’t have enough experience.'" Out of frustration Tosha founded an internet-based community group, called Boosting Black Busine...
Project Destined.
November 09, 2022 10:00 - 36 minutes - 50.8 MBCedric Bobo is the co-founder of Project Destined, a non-profit that teaches minority teenagers the ins and outs of real estate investments. The name, Project Destined, was inspired by the 2016 film Destined, which tells the story of a young boy who in one reality is a drug dealer, and in the other, a successful architect. The outcome of a single event determines the path the man pursues. Cedric, who has roughly two decades of investor and investment banking experience, plans to change th...
Creative Homies.
November 02, 2022 09:00 - 31 minutes - 42.9 MBAdewale Agboola is an astounding photographer with many Fortune 500 clients. As a Black man he is in a minority in that profession. Only about 5% of professional photographers are Black. He is also a minority in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Only about 13% of the population in Portland is Black. But he and his partner, Cyrus Coleman, another successful artist who also lives in Portland, started hatching a plan to create a small art gallery/meeting space aimed at people just like them....
Counting on Crowdfunding.
October 26, 2022 09:00 - 37 minutes - 51.4 MBJamison Manwaring is enjoying success as the co-founder and CEO of Neighborhood Ventures, an innovative Arizona-based real estate crowdfunding company, focused on value-add multi-family properties. It’s a real estate company for sure – they buy, hold and sell property. But the capital plan is innovative. Jamison went to business school and studied finance. He loved it enough to become president of the finance club. Even at a young age his determination shone through. He wanted to work in ...
Dump it Right There.
October 19, 2022 09:00 - 37 minutes - 51.9 MBMeet Julie Bargmann, the inaugural recipient of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, described as the landscape architecture equivalent of the Pritzker Prize, so it's a really big deal! What makes this most exciting is the work that is being honored. In 1992, Julie founded D.I.R.T studio – Dump It Right There – intent on regenerating contaminated and forgotten urban and post industrial sites. And it all began near Pittsburgh, at the Vintondale Reclamat...
Not a Snowflake.
October 12, 2022 09:00 - 48 minutes - 66.6 MBElizabeth Timme is no snowflake. Strong and outspoken with degrees in architecture under her belt, she's building an alternative career on the strong beliefs she holds. That great design should be a right, not a privilege. A third generation architect born in Texas with childhood years spent in Italy and West Indies, Elizabeth has made roots in L.A.. First, she co-founded La Mas in northeast L.A. and now Office of Office, a nonprofit focused on designing joyful and careful places in collabor...
Cultural Commentary.
October 05, 2022 09:00 - 44 minutes - 61.6 MBAllison Arieff was lucky enough to help launch Dwell magazine, first as founding senior editor and then editor in chief. During her tenure, the Design and Architecture magazine won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, and by that point, it had already become a ubiquitous read for an emergent design community, rekindling a design lifestyle boom for the 21st century. Since then, Allison has continued to build a storied and prominent career as a writer, author and thought leader....
People first.
September 28, 2022 09:00 - 34 minutes - 47.6 MBHelle Søholt was just 28 years old in 2000 when she co-founded Gehl Architects with Jan Gehl, her professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Together, they built a commanding firm, now over two decades old. Gehl focuses on people first in urban design with a focus on walkability and access to greenery and public space. In 2016, Helle took over as CEO and the firm now has offices in Copenhagen, San Francisco and New York. People first has gone from its humble beginnings in Cop...
The Great Real Estate Reset.
September 21, 2022 09:00 - 39 minutes - 53.6 MBTracy Hadden Loh is biracial and has experienced inequity firsthand. Even as a young child, she knew something was wrong. Her career has been a purposeful exploration of how to fix things. These days Tracy is a Fellow with the Center for Transformative Placemaking at Brookings Metro, a branch within the Brookings Institution. There, Tracy focuses on what interests her the most. She is an advocate for cities with a focus on downtown metropolitan areas in the U.S. She writes about placemaking,...
Garage ADUs.
September 14, 2022 09:00 - 38 minutes - 53.1 MBRebecca Möller has managed very big construction projects for her entire career. In fact, she’s overseen more than 22 million square feet of commercial real estate worth over $10 billion in construction projects nationally. That’s a lot. But now she is tackling an even bigger problem – the housing crisis in California. Recognizing the need for a scalable solution, Rebecca has designed, and is manufacturing and deploying, a garage-to-ADU conversion kit. Buy the kit and your contractor can ...
I finally found my tribe.
July 27, 2022 09:00 - 49 minutes - 68.2 MBEarly in his career, Jim Heid worked on humongous real estate projects all over the world as a management consultant. Over time, the diversity of places he lived and worked in shaped his appreciation of small, community-centric places with soul. He moved his head and heart from a loft in downtown San Francisco to the tiny 12,000-person town of Healdsburg in California, where he is building his thesis that small is big. There are some big things that Jim is working on. They include his smal...
No more broken promises.
July 20, 2022 09:00 - 29 minutes - 40.8 MBBrinda Devine wants to get back to basics. Early on in her real estate career, Brinda says she was often the only woman and/or Black person in the office, in meetings, at events, and even in classes. Today, she has over 25 years of experience in real estate, having worked as VP of Asset Management for Acquest Development, and as Wayne State University’s first Real Estate Officer. In 2020 she started P8 Real Estate Solutions, to focus on developing neighborhood marketplaces in areas t...
Storyteller.
July 14, 2022 02:43 - 23 minutes - 32.3 MBMadelyne Kirch is the founder of Sun & Moon Marketing Communications in New York. What differentiates her agency is its focus on real estate. Madelyne founded her company in her basement with a $2,500 investment. That was almost 30 years ago, and the need for Sun & Moon's expertise hasn't waned, in part because developers are not schooled in marketing and generally need (serious) help. Over the years 'marketing' has changed (a lot). Gone are the days of ads in a newspaper. Today you ne...
Slaying Gentrification.
June 29, 2022 09:00 - 30 minutes - 42.2 MBDavid Kemper wanted to find a way to safeguard established renters against gentrification. His goal was to build a real-estate investment model that both stabilized existing rents and gave a voice to that community. The model he landed on, MINT (or Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trust), is a sophisticated and replicable ownership model. Each MINT develops, owns, and operates a rental housing and retail portfolio. Trust Neighborhoods, David’s non-profit, works with neighborhood-focused organizatio...
Before IMPACT was a thing.
June 22, 2022 09:00 - 28 minutes - 38.7 MBEarly in his career Paul Rabinovitch worked as a tree planter in the reforestation industry, personally planting over 800,000 trees in Canada, where he grew up. That set the stage for the career he pursued, first as the Executive Director at The Nature Conservancy, and then as a founder of Terracycle Investments, a socially-conscious real estate firm. Now Paul heads up Real Estate Investment at New Island Capital, one of the largest family offices in the country, and one of the first t...
Citizen architect.
June 15, 2022 09:00 - 42 minutes - 57.8 MBFrom an early age, Rico Quirindongo was interested in the impact of the built environment on people. That’s why he became an architect. But he sees an architect’s role as much larger than just designing buildings with a useful life. He believes every architect has an obligation, a responsibility to engage in a civic conversation for design justice - to absorb the history of a place and the needs of the current community in a meaningful way, into each and every design. Recently Rico beca...
Democratizing green roofs.
June 08, 2022 09:00 - 41 minutes - 57.2 MBMolly Meyer is democratizing the green roof. Why, you ask? 80% of the buildings that will exist in a few decades from now are already built. And since buildings are one of the biggest contributors to climate change, figuring out how to retrofit them economically, and easily, is a must do. Green roofs are a big part of that. Molly wants to put a green roof within the reach of anyone who owns a building, big or small. She’s tackling this through engineering incredibly lightweight soil...
Design justice.
May 25, 2022 09:00 - 37 minutes - 51.5 MBBryan Lee may have studied architecture, but he’s way more than an architect. He launched Colloqate Design to explore big, challenging and adamant ideas about equity in the built environment. At Colloqate, everything is on the table - sustainability, community history, immigration, transportation, food security and housing values. The end goal is an equitable physical landscape. Bryan is a founding organizer of the Design Justice Platform, he co-organized the Design As Protest National D...
New markets for main street.
May 11, 2022 09:00 - 27 minutes - 37.3 MBNuMarket was born out of the pandemic. Ross Chanowski founded the social crowdfunding platform in 2020 because he felt there wasn’t a way for communities to purposefully support the survival and growth of their local businesses. In an interview with The Boston Globe, Ross said that he wanted to develop a way for customers to meaningfully support the businesses they love while, yes, getting something in return. Ross Chanowski is passionate about building businesses that are needed, and make...
I do a bunch of weird stuff. (Redux)
May 04, 2022 09:00 - 38 minutes - 53.3 MBA year ago we talked with Kevin Cavenaugh. In case you missed that conversation we recommend you take a listen. Kevin is a rare developer. Left brain, right brain, head and heart all come to bear on his wildly creative buildings. He has carved out a special place for himself in the Portland real estate world. He has said, “I’m tired of mocha-colored, vinyl-windowed boring. I can’t change the fact that the streets are gray and the sky is gray. But the buildings?” Kevin's projects often ...
Landing a home.
April 27, 2022 09:00 - 32 minutes - 44.2 MBAlex Lofton’s mom was a school teacher. That’s who he was thinking of when he founded Landed. Alex is on a mission to help essential professionals build financial security and buy homes in the communities they serve. By 'essential professionals' Alex means school teachers, like his mom, firefighters, police and healthcare professionals – all of those professionals that a city can’t function without. And many of whom can’t save enough for a down payment on a home. Landed has developed a...