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This is the real estate shop where each episode will bring you a top industry

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expert to share their current programs or projects that are making an impact in

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our communities today.

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Be sure to check us out on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

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In this episode of the developers, we had the privilege of interviewing

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Buwa Benite, principal of the DC based Dante's partner, one of a number of

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black owned development companies in Washington, DC.

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Let's join in.

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So, well, I know you have a pretty fascinating story about how you got into

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the industry and kind of how you develop your firm.

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Love to share that with the general audience.

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You know, as we think about emerging developers trying to figure out, well,

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how do I leave my nine and five and get into real estate or, you know, how do I

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grow my parents, mom and pop development company into something bigger?

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Yeah, no, first and foremost, thank you all for being, as I

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said, thank you all for being here.

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No, I should be the one to thank you for allowing me to be here and share

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my story with you all.

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Look, the first thing I would say is do not leave the nine and five.

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You want to keep the nine and five.

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The nine and five is essential because, you know, I started out because I was

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very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for some really, really good people.

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Right.

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And those interesting individuals worked on some very challenging projects.

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And it's those projects that for the most part sort of gave me my start and gave me

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the confidence to be an entrepreneur.

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Right.

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So I always say like, there's nothing better than learning on someone else's dime.

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Right.

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It's like, you don't really have the money and you can go out there to sort of, you

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know, work with folks who have the money and more importantly, understand the

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business.

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Right.

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So I was very fortunate because, you know, not only did I have an opportunity to work

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on projects and better understand how to move projects forward and the finance and

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behind the projects, but I also understand that there's a business around it.

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And if you're not focused on the business, it doesn't matter how your projects perform

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because you're just going to constantly find yourself being a hamster in the hamster

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wheel.

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So look, the short answer is I'm third generation real estate.

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My grandfather, my father passed on to me.

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Initially, I was very reluctant to be in the real estate business because I wanted to

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do something very different than what the family had done.

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I basically sort of went around, you know, the earth, the moon and the stars several

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times to finally get to a place where I figured out that this is what I love to do.

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It was really a job that I had taken that I fell in love with.

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So, you know, you may or may not know I'm a very passionate guy and, you know, I only

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like to do the things that I love to do.

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And if I don't like it, if I don't love it, I'm not going to do it.

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So I fell into this job that was just a phenomenal job.

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And it basically built, it was, it complimented all the skill sets that I had

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developed over the years.

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And, and that's, and it was from there that I said, I'm going to go educate myself a

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little bit more about this industry.

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I'm going to, you know, shadow the masters in this industry and, and learn from them

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to be able to, you know, be, be, be that next, you know, Steve, Steve Ross, be the

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next Chris Smith, be the next, you know, victim with fallen and Quentin Primo, be

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the next, you know, the top folks that we, we all, we all grew to and aspire to be.

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So, so that's, that's sort of how I got here.

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Awesome.

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Awesome.

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When early on, when you got in, how did you navigate some of the challenges of

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having to post your own guarantees and then ultimately building out your development

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team?

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I'm still having challenges posting guarantees.

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Let's, let's not, let's not, let's not, you know, the elusive guarantee.

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Look, look, I was telling the group yesterday, I've always been a big believer in,

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in one, if you understand the business, right?

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It doesn't matter how, how you build your business, right?

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It doesn't matter how, how, it doesn't matter like how much, you know, right?

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If you understand, like I was very fortunate to look at the business and

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regardless of the color of your skin, you still have to have experience.

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You still have to have liquidity and you still have to have a net worth.

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So we can say all the things that we want to say about the capital markets is

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concerned, which I'm sure we'll get into, but the bottom line is real estate is the

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most sort of objective business that you and I can ever be in because it's

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capital intensive.

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So if you've got the dough, you can play.

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If you don't have the dough, you're not going to be able to play.

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Bottom line.

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So I knew that going in.

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So, you know, I worked extremely hard to make sure that I was a master of the

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craft, right?

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I think we make really good developers, right?

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I educated myself on, on real estate finance and all that comes with.

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So the only thing that I did not have was, you know, as far as a lender

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looking at me objectively was just the liquidity on the network.

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So part of the reason why I say don't leave your day job is because I worked

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extremely hard to save every single money I made.

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And that's, that's it.

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It's just that simple.

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So from, from the earlier deals that we did, I mean, Kervin, you know, you,

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you have a consulting company.

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We, we, for the first six years of the firm, we did not do one development

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deal because I understood the business.

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Right.

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If I had done a development deal at a very early age, I would own 0.01% of a deal.

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You know, you, nobody got time for that.

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I don't, I don't have time for that.

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I don't have time for 0.01%.

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I want to own minimum 50%.

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And I want to own 100%.

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Right.

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So I basically just stashed every single money that I made, like 90% of everything

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that, that, that we made, and we just parked it in the bank account.

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We did a couple of really interesting deals and the money that we made from

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those deals, trust me, I was tempted.

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I was like, man, I could buy that Lamborghini right now.

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I could get that tomorrow.

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Right.

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Wow.

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I gotta go hire top notch staff.

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So I was like, ah, do I have, do I convince Corey Powell to come on or, or do I go buy

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that Lamborghini and guess what, revealed, right?

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The Lamborghini is clearly not something I still have to today.

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What I saved, we saved every single money we had because that's what

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allowed us to have the liquidity.

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And when we did deals, we held onto the assets such that when we walked into the

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bank, we could check all the boxes.

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So by us checking all the boxes and you still did not extend credit to me.

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Now we know there's a different conversation that we have, but at least

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we could check the boxes.

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So that's a lot of the money that we made from, from, from years ago is still parked

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in the bank account because we need to satisfy the liquidity on that one.

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The other thing that I would say to about that is folks have to learn, you know,

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there's this thing we say in Nigeria where I'm from folks have to learn to cut

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their coat according to their size.

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And I believe in that firmly, which is like, if you only have half a million

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dollars in the bank account, don't go do a 200, a 200 unit deal.

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It doesn't, the math does not compute and folks are always like, well, if I,

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you know, but there's a 200 unit deal, I should do the 200 unit deal.

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I was like, okay, cool.

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But you can program the deal all you want, but when you go say, okay,

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the deal all you want, but when you go see the lender, you're not going to,

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you're not, you're not going to check that box.

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Unfortunately.

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So we made a very cautious effort and we still do as a firm, we make it a very

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cautious effort as a firm to not do transactions whereby we cannot leverage

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what we have today, right?

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I'm not going to go do a billion dollar deal because guess what?

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My balance sheet, as much as I love to think that it can, cannot support a

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billion dollar transaction.

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Eventually it would, but as of right now today, it can't.

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So we know exactly what our cap is and we stick to that cap until, until we

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have more liquidity to be able to allow us to graduate to the next level.

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Awesome advice.

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So what products have you done and are there any ones that are particular,

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like your favorite ones that stand out to you?

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Yeah, it's like, it's like, which child is your favorite child, right?

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Um, look, man, every, every transaction, um, you know, and it's, it's, it's,

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it's weird, man, because I know this has been recorded.

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Like if I see one, I could just hear someone calling me tomorrow and say,

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what, what do you mean that that's your favorite deal?

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I thought the deal we did is our favorite deal.

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And I'm trying to figure out a way to answer this question.

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Um, I always go back to one of my early, early deals, right?

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It's, it's, um, it's a deal that I think really sort of changed the way it changed.

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It sort of gave me the confidence to stick to my own script and build

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a company that is mission driven.

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So what does that mean?

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It means that, um, we could prove to the world that we are good developers,

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we could prove to the world that we are good stewards of money.

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We could prove to the world that we're good stewards of public resources.

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It could prove to the world that we can actually create a black and brown

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owned firm that can execute and execute on a very high level.

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Um, it can prove to the world that affordable housing does not have to be

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what you and I know to, to call the projects.

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It can actually be no different than your luxury housing.

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So that project that we experimented with is called Justice Park.

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So it's a project that, um, it was a public disposition of, of, of government

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land, um, in a very high cost neighborhood in the district of Columbia that we were

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fortunate enough to be awarded.

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So, you know, there's a whole story behind the award process is, you

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know, we all respond to RFPs.

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You got a campaign, you got to, you've got to like, you know, compete.

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Extremely hard, but luckily for us, we were the only ones that did to do

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an affordable housing project.

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Everyone who beat on the site was like high end condo.

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There's no luxurious condo.

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Brandon got architects from London to come and design the building.

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And we're like, uh, yeah, we just doing affordable housing and, and we want to

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do, but everyone was still looking at us with side eye, like, I'm not

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sure if you have the money, I'm not, you know, I don't know, you know, pre-development

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was still a thing that, you know, we had to go solve for.

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And, um, look, I called a very good friend of mine, Bo Minkitti, because I didn't

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have all the money to activate the deal.

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Bo said, yes, he wrote me a check on the spot.

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You know, I ran back with the team.

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We, we, we designed the project.

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We got it built.

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We got it leased up in record time.

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And that did just change the trajectory of the company.

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That was when it, that's when everything changed.

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That's when we started off, you know, we kicked off this luxury affordable housing,

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um, theme that, that we, we see all the time.

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Right.

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And it just sort of gave us the confidence with ourselves and with our partners that

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we could actually move a project.

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We can actually get a project done.

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So, uh, Justice Park, I would say is, is it wasn't the final product.

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Yeah.

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Awesome.

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Awesome. I know you've done a lot, you know, over the past couple of years since starting

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a business, two part question, why affordable housing out of, you know, retail office,

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uh, market rate.

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And then second, um, talk to me about expanding beyond your immediate area to other markets

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and what that has looked like for you.

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Sure.

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Uh, so you heard me earlier talk about the fact that, look, um, I only do what I love.

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And I, and I say that, you know, I'm not a big fan of the market.

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Um, I only do what I love and I, and I say that, you know, all the time, like I'm not,

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if I don't love the project, if I don't love, you know, the individuals that I'm going to,

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you know, spend time working with, I'm not, I'm not going to get involved.

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I always follow my heart.

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I follow my instincts with everything I do.

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Uh, affordable housing is the same thing, right?

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It's a personal story to me.

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Like I got into this because, right.

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I tell people all the time.

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Um, I went to school in New York and after graduating from school, I could not afford

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to live in, in the city, even though I was making good money.

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And as a young man in New York city, I felt like I was on the curfew, right?

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Because I always had to catch the train to go back to Jersey city.

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And I don't know about you, I don't like the idea of being in the curfew.

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I want to party all night and, and enjoy all that New York city.

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That's what I want to do.

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And the only thing that was getting in the way of me partying all night was, was

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affordable housing, right?

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So, so it has always stuck with me since then.

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So, um, same thing.

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I moved to San Francisco.

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I lived in a hotel for, for six months because I couldn't find a distant place to live,

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you know, close to my, my, my work, uh, to my office.

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So, um, you know, I had to get real creative to, that was actually my very first school

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living opportunity.

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That was when I went and I rented an apartment building.

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I had no business renting and I went the very same day and put an ad in Craigslist

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so I can, I can chop it up into, into a four bedroom so I can, I can, I can afford the

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rent.

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And the same thing obviously happened to me when I moved to DC as, um, I had to rent a

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bedroom and eventually moved to Laurel because I couldn't afford to live downtown.

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So it's always been in the back of my mind and when I eventually fell into real estate,

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I basically said, I've got to solve this problem of individuals like myself making 60,

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$80,000 and, and wanting to, to enjoy all that downtown living had to offer without

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doing it without spending 50% of my salary in rent.

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So, right.

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Right. And it's a, it's a problem that I love solving till today.

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It never gets old and that's why I do it.

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That's, that's why I do it.

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That's why it's a personal story to me as far as, um, branching out into other,

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others, other states.

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Number one, the problem is a problem that needs solving in high cost neighborhoods.

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So thank goodness, there's a lot of issues associated with providing affordable

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housing wherever you go.

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So for us, it was just a natural progression because the business, I don't need to, I

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don't need to prove to anybody that the problem exists.

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The problem exists in New York and we just saw New York as a great market for us to sort

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of expand our tentacles.

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And it's been a phenomenal ride.

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It's been a phenomenal ride, phenomenal experience working out of New York City.

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I like that city a lot.

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And, and I'm just glad that we are put in a position to help solve that problem in New

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York and we're building the team.

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My goal is, and I see it happening, that the New York team is going to get larger than

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the DC team in very short order.

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And yeah, and hopefully we'll be able to find other cities that we can do the same in as

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With the traveling and managing two teams, how you practice in self care and then also

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how you kind of manage in a household, keeping a wife happy and kids and such.

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So let me, let me, let me, let me start with self care.

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So self care, you know, I kind of think of myself as an athlete anyway.

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I've always thought that way.

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So I've, you know, for me, pushing myself physically means that I can push myself

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mentally.

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So I'm an avid cyclist.

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I bike all the time.

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And in the pandemic, I picked up running for the first time in my life.

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I've never ever ran.

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So I just started running and I, I don't love it at all, frankly.

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It's one thing I don't love, but yet I keep coming back to it because I like, I like the

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fact that it's really pushing me physically.

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And, and, and I love, you know, I love a good challenge.

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So not only so then I picked up, but I picked up running and I also picked up bootcamp

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classes.

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So all of those sort of physical activities have really, really sort of helped me become

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a lot more disciplined, a lot more focused and just basically like, you know, like really,

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you know, building my confidence level to the point where I feel like I can truly do

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anything that I set my mind to.

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So from a self care standpoint and also do it now, answering your question, right.

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You should see my house sometimes in the mornings, right?

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Like in the early mornings, like we are all one day a week, we all work out together.

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Even though they don't like working on me because they think I'm, I'm like, you know,

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this drill sergeant, right.

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But one day a week, we all work out together.

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But every day everybody is, is, is in this mission.

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Everybody is, is, is in this make makeshift gym that we created where everybody's working

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out.

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Everybody has to work out every day.

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So that's how we find the things that we like, that we like, or we have commonality in to

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do together.

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And we've always done that, right.

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So even a drive to school can be a very fun ride because we love listening to music, right.

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So the 20 minutes or 30 minutes that we spend in the car are really precious 20 minutes

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because we're sitting down there trying to best each other in terms of who's got the

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best playlist, right.

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Like we're doing that right now.

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So, so as a family, you know, as a family, we, we, we, we, we, we look for the things,

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like I said, we look for the things where we have common interests and, and we basically

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continue to build on those things.

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Look, they, they are a part of the journey, right.

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And the truth of the matter is, this is what I love to do.

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And I'm very, very blessed that I have a great family support system that is supportive of

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my dream to solve this problem that we know is out there.

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And they're part of, they're part of the journey.

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They come to the construction sites.

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They travel with me sometimes to New York City, you know, and they have to suffer through

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all the occupational hazard that they, that, you know, that I put them through, you know,

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like I can't just walk down the street without like looking at a construction site or looking

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at the brick or looking at the fenestration, right.

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So they, they, they understand that this is, this is part of me and, and I'm very, very

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lucky and fortunate to, to have, you know, a support system that is very, very, very

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excited.

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I mean, I don't know if you know, we just, we just closed, we just closed $40 million,

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right.

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So we got to put that out in the street.

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They were very well aware when I was, you know, we've been chasing that elusive money,

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you know, it was a carrot for a very long time and, and I finally plucked that carrot.

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So, so, so, you know, they're part of the journey.

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They, they, they, they're part of the journey.

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They understand, they see it.

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And when you win, they, they, they, they, they, they cheer, they cheer us on such that

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we can continue to do more.

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And hopefully they too are able to see that anything is possible, right, with, with, with,

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with them.

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So we'll see, you know, talk to me five years or 10 years and hopefully they still like

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me and they still want me to be their father.

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So, you know, we'll see.

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00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:51,760
And that's a very good segue.

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00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:56,480
Cause the next question was, you know, where do you see yourself in the company in like,

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00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:57,600
say the next five years?

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Look, my goal right now is to foster the next generation of black millionaires.

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That's all I want to do.

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I want to create as many black millionaires as I possibly can.

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I think so far my track record is looking good.

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I only want to read reports five years from now.

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I keep telling everybody I, I, I'm the latest developer you ever come across.

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I don't, I don't, I actually don't like working.

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But I just want to be able to, I want to create, I want to create a company of companies whereby

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I have, I've had an opportunity to nurture some exceptional talent and they can sort

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of run each of the silos and I'm just a chairman.

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Right?

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Like that's, that's what, you know, I'm actually surprised that every now and then I'm able

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to add value to the organization because I've, you know, Dante's partners and all the

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family, we have some really, really sharp, hardworking, exceptional human beings that

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have sort of taken this mission on and taking it to the next level.

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So all I want to do is just support them in their growth and in their family's growth,

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in their wealth growth and health growth such that they can sort of go create all the black

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millionaires as well.

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So that's, that's what I want my legacy to be.

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I want my legacy to be like, oh, you can point to a lot of people that, that have prospered

360
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just because, you know, I had an opportunity to, to, to affect or impact their lives positively.

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And I remember I tell people, you gave us our first shot, right?

362
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As a consulting company and think 2011 when you're looking at that site in Southeast.

363
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So I appreciate that.

364
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:56,800
Yeah.

365
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:57,440
Yeah.

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00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,760
Our last question, if you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

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The only thing that I would do differently is I would have started investing earlier on,

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like the whole concept of I don't have money to invest or I don't, I don't think I'm wealthy

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enough to have a financial planner is the biggest mistake that we can ever make.

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You know, and I'm sure you, you all, you all can relate to this, right?

371
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We don't have dinner conversations where we talk about money as a culture.

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It's just not something that, that, that we do within our, within our culture.

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Right?

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So the whole idea of, of saving the whole idea of investing is the one thing that I

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really, really wish I did at an early age, because if I just invested $10 or a hundred

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dollars a month consistently for, for, for, for 10 years, which flies by very quickly,

377
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:57,040
I don't even know if I would be doing this podcast right now, to be honest with you.

378
00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:57,920
I'd be like, what?

379
00:23:57,920 --> 00:23:59,840
No, man, I'm, I'm, I'm chilling.

380
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I'm drinking my Margarita.

381
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:04,960
I'm relaxing, you know, like, don't, don't bother me.

382
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I'm not working.

383
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:08,960
Right.

384
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:13,200
That's, that's, that's basically it.

385
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:14,640
That's, that's basically it.

386
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,160
That's, that's the only thing I'll do differently.

387
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:17,200
Everything else would be the same.

388
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:18,640
Sweet, man.

389
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:20,640
Any last comments you want to add?

390
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,440
Emerging developers to know food for thought.

391
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:34,640
Listen, the opportunities are vast and no better time than now to be a black developer

392
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,760
in America, as far as I'm concerned, no better time than now.

393
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:44,880
Like if you don't come out of COVID by adding an extra zero behind your, your, your existing

394
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:50,960
network, that's, that's on you.

395
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:58,000
The opportunities are way vast and, and, and, and, and there's a, there's a, there's a moment

396
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:03,200
right now, a reawakening that we hope continues so long as we continue to perform.

397
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,480
And, you know, just go out and get it.

398
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:08,880
Like go out and get it.

399
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:13,280
Like, don't look at like, and like, just go out and get it is what I always tell people.

400
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:17,360
Like there isn't any, I mean, Kovin, you know, there isn't any opportunity that we come in

401
00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:18,800
contact with that we don't chase.

402
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,520
Not, especially if we feel like we can win it.

403
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:24,320
So go out and get the opportunities are vast.

404
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:27,280
It's just an amazing time right now.

405
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:33,840
So please, you know, take a, take advantage and, and, and use this opportunity to, to do

406
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:34,960
some amazing things.

407
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:36,560
So that's, that's all I have to say.

408
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Another day at the shop, content they can't get anywhere else.