Adrian Washington- Socially Conscious Developer (#59)

Adrian Washington and John Coe

Bio

Adrian Washington, CEO and Founder, Neighborhood Development Company

Mr. Washington has over 30 years of experience in real estate development, construction and management, and has led the startup of four private companies and one public/private entity. Since founding NDC in 1999 he has led the development of over 1 million square feet of real estate in the DMV area, with an active pipeline of another one million. NDC is also a partner in the District’s City Center DC project and in Baltimore’s State Center project. In 2005, Mr. Washington took an 18 month leave of absence from NDC to serve as the President and CEO of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (AWC), the entity charged with leading the redevelopment of the city’s Southwest and Anacostia Waterfronts, including Nationals Stadium, the Navy Yard, and the Wharf. In 2021 Mr. Washington founded Platform LLC, a visionary new startup company that will disrupt the $1.3 trillion construction/real estate development industry. Mr. Washington grew up in the city’s Anacostia neighborhood and is a lifelong resident of DC. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the Harvard Business School.

Show Notes

• Strategic leader and sets the course for the company (5:15)
• Impacts of pandemic- increased need for housing (5:45)
  • Freed up government resources (6:40)
  • Commercial portfolio affected negatively (6:50)
  • Expected to have trouble with rental collections, but did not happen (7:15)

Origins

• Grew up in SE DC (Anacostia) (8:20)
  • Parents were government workers (8:45)
    • Mother was a librarian and she influenced him academically (9:00)
    • No entrepreneurial influence from family (9:20)
    • Older brother influenced him with his newspaper route and he watched him and participated (9:55)

Education

• Attended a private school for HS- Canterbury School (11:00)
  • Attended Stanford University (11:10)
    • Never had been to California (11:30)
    • Political Science/Pre Law (12:10)

Initial Employment

• Joined IBM in their Sales training program for three years (12:50)

Harvard Business School

• Accounting & Finance new to him (16:15)
• Organizational Management- running a company (16:30)
• Marketing learnings (16:45)
• International business learnings (16:50)

Next Employment

• Management Consulting- Strategic Planning Associates (17:20)
  • DC firm that advised Fortune 100 companies (18:00)
  • Taught him rigor- Grad school on top of Grad School (18:20)
  • Clients usually out of town (19:00)
  • Didn’t like the idea of being the “product” for clients (19:30)
  • Wanted to make decisions himself and live with them, but as a consultant (20:10)

Real Estate Inspiration

• Bought a home in Le Droit Park, DC and renovated the historic home and enjoyed it (21:00)
• La Droit Park was the “first suburb” of Washington (L’Enfant Plan) (21:55)
  • Great Victorian architecture (22:20)
  • Near Howard University (22:45)
• Continued to buy, renovate and sell houses for about four years and struggled (23:50)
• National Housing Partnership (25:20)
  • Joined them in 1989 to learn about more institutional investing in multifamily (26:00)
  • AIMCO Merger (26:15)
  • John Bartling, Rod Heller (27:20)
  • Grosvenor Tower was “flagship” project (27:45)
  • Asset manager and multifamily owner (28:50)
  • Legacy affordable housing aspects (29:00)
  • Learned investments (29:50)

Neighborhood Development Company

• Started Neighborhood Development Company (30:15)
  • Gut rehab on Chapin St., NW- 18 units ($30,000/unit) price (32:20)
    • Not first deal, but largest at that time (33:00)
  • Buy vacant buildings in the immediate area of their office (Georgia Ave. NW) (33:30)
  • Early in his career he wasn’t focused on affordable housing crisis (34:30)
  • Condo project on Kennedy St., NW- Transforming buildings (35:00)
  • Difficult to evaluate property value…only by extrapolating (35:30)
• Joined Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (DC Government Initiative) (37:00)
  • Heard that Andy Altman, who led AWC, had left so he applied to do it (37:20)
  • Looking for more of a developer/business background and someone who grew up in the neighborhood (38:00)
  • Opportunity to join a government agency (38:30)
• Jair Lynch and he started their firms at a similar times (39:15)
• Pam Bundy and NDC were part of City Center and CityVista (40:10)
  • Learned development as a bootstrapper- helped him learning by partnering in these large mixed use projects (41:00)
  • Learned from institutional architects about complicated projects (41:40)
• Buwa Binitie was influenced by him and help him to drive one of their first LIHTC projects at 4100 Georgia Ave., NW along with Gina Merritt who helped him think it through (42:30)
  • Transition point for his firm (43:00)
• Monty Hoffman‘s career was analogous (44:15)
  • Cites Monty’s team having the most creativity and vision for The Wharf (44:30)
  • He chose Monty’s team (45:00)
• Dissolution of AWC- Mayor Fenty decided to bring the agency into the DC Government as a direct agency within DMPED (45:45)
• Came back to NDC after AWC opportunity and focused on it while at AWC and there was no conflict (47:15)
  • Sabbatical at AWC getting away from his company and eased back into the company (48:40)
  • Global Financial Crisis was a jolt to them at the time and he was trying to stay in business (49:30)
• Started with small projects in Columbia Heights (50:15)
  • Lamont St. Lofts– 2005 (50:50)
  • 4100 Georgia– First ground up building (51:10)
  • JVs with City Center and CityVista (51:20)
  • Shift in business philosophy to more mission driven projects (51:45)

Mission Driven Philosophy

• 100% of projects now are “mission driven” going forward (52:00)
  • Children influenced him to direct his efforts toward social mission efforts (52:20)
  • Two daughters and a son- none had interest in business thus far (53:30)
• Project oriented capital raises (54:15)
  • Mission driven capital interested in their business activities (54:30)
  • New Markets Tax Credit- Benning Road project (55:20)
    • Food Hall Concept (55:55)
    • Maker space for cosmetics (56:00)
    • Publicity and crowd funding for project (56:20)
  • Yes Organic Market at 4100 Georgia Ave. (56:40)
• Lens for new business (57:15)
  • Test of minimum of 30% affordable (57:30)
  • Leading edge sustainability (57:45)
  • Community lens- Neighborhoods offer broad support (58:00)
  • DC RFPs occasionally (58:20)
• As a company be aware of environment, but do what you are good at doing (59:45)
  • Stay in one’s niche (1:00:00)
• Core Values (1:00:20)
  • Integrity and accountability (1:00:30)
  • Teamwork (1:00:45)
  • Get it done…make it happen- creative ways to perform (1:01:10)
• About 12 employees now and doesn’t want to grow too much more than 20 people (1:01:50)
• Focus on development and not asset management (1:02:30)
  • LIHTC projects are held for long haul (1:03:00)
• Many people have influenced him (1:03:30)
  • Mother is huge influence (1:03:50)
  • Sister influenced him- Runs DC Housing Authority (1:04:00)
• Perspective on Social Issues (1:04:50)
  • Role model for young black developers (1:05:00)
  • Responsibility for leadership and inspiration (1:05:30)
  • More impact in education to help young black men away from prison (1:05:45)

Platform LLC

• Platform– his new company to design efficient ways to develop underground development aspects (1:06:20)
  • Staring into holes in the ground (1:07:45)
  • Takes one forever to get out of the hole (1:08:00)
  • Cost overruns from underground storage tanks (1:08:20)
  • Not much technology for underground activities (1;09:00)
  • Looking to reduce the costs for underground infrastructure (1:09:15)
  • Believe in pursuing new technologies (1:09:55)
  • Uses Uber as an example (1:10:00)
  • Process has not changed (1:11:15)
  • Early planning stages (1:11:30)
  • First Principles- construction interest (1:11:45)

Personal Philosophy

• Life Priorities (1:14:15)
  • Children are priority (1:14:30)
  • Spending less time in NDC (1;15:00)
  • Barker Adoption Foundation– Model has changed (1:15:45)
  • Enterprise Community Development– expand affordable housing (1:16:45)
  • Two focuses at a time (1:17:15)
• Wins- Certain projects (1:18:15)
• Losses- RFPs that they didn’t win and JVs that have not worked out (1:18:40)
  • People that left him (1:19:00)
• Surprises- People that either outperformed or underperformed (1:20:20)
• Advice to 25 yr. old- “Enjoy the journey every day” (1:21:15)
• Billboard statement- “Hug everybody!” (1:22:30)

Postscript

• Colin Madden joined
  • Educational path…best in class
  • Got into real estate via back door
  • Sees Adrian as a maverick
  • New company startup
• Reading and entrepreneurship as a kid inspired him
• Didn’t like the traditional paths from Stanford and HBS
• Learn what you don’t want to do
• Startup- Construction Physics blog
  • High level look at construction
  • Time lines intertwined
  • Innovation is discouraged due to risk
• The Wharf tunnel insulation example
• Lessons from what someone doesn’t like

Similar Episodes

• Buwa Binitie
• John Green and Joe Carrol (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2)
• Jair Lynch