WEBVTT 00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:11.599 Hey folks, I'm Matt major from growth mode content. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:15.380 Welcome to another edition of good news York 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:20.559 I'm joined again by my Smiley co -host in his 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:23.000 his spiky hair ready to go. Yeah, it's finally 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:26.100 getting back Mikey B's here. Thanks, man I'm 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:28.140 glad to be here. You have hair. It's Thursday. 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:30.519 I do have hair I'm I'm in the club of always 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:33.350 wearing the starting to get the Like, I'm blessed 00:00:33.350 --> 00:00:36.049 because I know I have friends now. Was it moving 00:00:36.049 --> 00:00:38.670 back? Yeah, I'm getting... You know what? I didn't 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:42.130 notice it until we started GNY and I started 00:00:42.130 --> 00:00:43.630 watching the clips and I'm like, oh god. Yeah, 00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:45.729 my forehead's getting bigger. Yeah, I was like, 00:00:45.869 --> 00:00:48.070 it's growing. We need a billboard when we have 00:00:48.070 --> 00:00:50.789 my forehead, but we're here. Enough about your 00:00:50.789 --> 00:00:54.609 billboard, head. We've got a great guest joining 00:00:54.609 --> 00:00:58.409 us today. Jim Williams is with us and this is 00:00:58.409 --> 00:01:01.250 a gentleman that honestly we... We're not super 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:04.310 familiar with him. We saw a story in the paper, 00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:07.409 and we said, this guy is doing some good things, 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:09.329 and that's the ideal type of thing we want to 00:01:09.329 --> 00:01:11.170 bring in on Good News York. It was one of the 00:01:11.170 --> 00:01:15.150 easiest bookings. I was like, Jim, we love the 00:01:15.150 --> 00:01:16.590 article. We'd love to have you on. He said, let 00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:18.810 me check you out, which was very smart. Because 00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:21.409 everyone these days can say, I have a podcast. 00:01:21.489 --> 00:01:23.049 You don't want to get into it. You never know 00:01:23.049 --> 00:01:24.629 what you're getting involved in. We checked this 00:01:24.629 --> 00:01:26.730 out, and we passed the test, and he's here with 00:01:26.730 --> 00:01:29.230 us today. That's it. You passed the marker. I 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:31.480 love it. Jim, how are you, man? Welcome to the 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:33.480 show. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. You know, 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:38.079 another rainy CNY day, but I'm doing very good. 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:40.099 And thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. We're 00:01:40.099 --> 00:01:42.480 glad to have you. The umbrella business is really, 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:44.599 their stock is through the roof these days. It 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:47.920 seems like it's incredible. Jim, let's give folks 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:49.959 a little background. Tell us kind of what you 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:52.239 do, what's your day job, and then we'll get into 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:54.480 what got you some attention here. Sure, sure. 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:58.019 So I've lived in Syracuse for over 30 years. 00:01:58.349 --> 00:02:01.650 Came here and went to had a grad assistantship 00:02:01.650 --> 00:02:05.950 in music up at SU nice So that's primarily where 00:02:05.950 --> 00:02:08.930 my background initially was but always interested 00:02:08.930 --> 00:02:12.969 in building so Took my music degree and turned 00:02:12.969 --> 00:02:16.849 it into building stuff. So I do primarily commercial 00:02:16.849 --> 00:02:20.889 construction Wow have an interest in in music 00:02:20.889 --> 00:02:25.069 art building structure and Really love this area. 00:02:25.530 --> 00:02:29.780 So That's my day job. I work for an organization, 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:33.560 Foundation Housing, and we do student housing, 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:37.259 renovate buildings completely. We're going to 00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:40.520 look at doing some ground -up projects. We're 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:45.080 primarily all over New York State, so Troy area, 00:02:45.340 --> 00:02:48.639 Albany area, Syracuse, Binghamton, Cornell, Ithaca. 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:53.800 That's what my day job is. You're you're you're 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.080 keeping these kids in some nice safer places. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:59.080 I'll tell you they Dramatic improvement from 00:02:59.080 --> 00:03:02.300 my college. Oh my gosh, you know the dorms and 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:05.860 in all these places now they have like a Gorgeous 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:08.439 apartment. I live like yeah, and we we primarily 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:11.719 do take older structures. We do some historic 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:14.439 tax credit projects That's great and really convert 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:17.259 them to something that that's usable for them 00:03:17.449 --> 00:03:21.509 So but I came from a retail commercial construction 00:03:21.509 --> 00:03:24.169 background did a lot of projects over at destiny 00:03:24.169 --> 00:03:27.310 USA Oh, I did the IMAX over there bridge over 00:03:27.310 --> 00:03:31.110 Hiawatha Wow a million square feet of structure 00:03:31.110 --> 00:03:33.930 Hallways all sorts of stuff over there. That's 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:37.550 incredible. I live in Ithaca. So it's Especially 00:03:37.550 --> 00:03:40.810 over the last ten years the transformation of 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:45.830 of housing and dormitories It's been just amazing. 00:03:45.990 --> 00:03:49.789 Yeah. And a lot of modern, from what I... I mean, 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:51.590 maybe I'm wrong, but from my point of view, it 00:03:51.590 --> 00:03:54.289 looks like a lot of modern architecture. It's 00:03:54.289 --> 00:03:56.250 really exciting. Yeah, we try to do things that 00:03:56.250 --> 00:03:59.789 are stylized that are going to, you know, be 00:03:59.789 --> 00:04:02.289 interesting for people as well. It's not just, 00:04:02.569 --> 00:04:04.110 you know, as you were saying, when I went to 00:04:04.110 --> 00:04:06.449 school in the 80s, when I was in college in the 00:04:06.449 --> 00:04:08.889 80s, it was just, you know, cinder blocks. Yeah. 00:04:09.090 --> 00:04:14.030 Oh, yeah. So... But again, enjoy this area, enjoy 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:19.930 what I do, and decided I had worked in for -profit 00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:22.709 industry, not -for -profit. There's been a lot 00:04:22.709 --> 00:04:25.750 of talk about infill housing in the Syracuse 00:04:25.750 --> 00:04:29.310 area, and the article recently was really primarily 00:04:29.310 --> 00:04:31.970 about that. And Jim, tell people just real quick, 00:04:32.050 --> 00:04:33.509 what do you mean when you say infill housing? 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:37.649 What's that term? So you're taking lots, either 00:04:37.649 --> 00:04:40.209 vacant lots or structures that have been torn 00:04:40.209 --> 00:04:43.490 down and created vacant lots. I see. And building 00:04:43.490 --> 00:04:46.569 residential homes on those lots. I see. Whether 00:04:46.569 --> 00:04:49.509 it's multiple parcels together, individuals, 00:04:50.350 --> 00:04:53.269 individual parcels, it's just coming up with 00:04:53.269 --> 00:04:58.569 an idea and a way to be able to use the existing 00:04:58.569 --> 00:05:04.009 retail, real estate that we have. So I just... 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:07.000 being involved with, again, for profit and not 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.939 for profit, I saw there was a need for kind of 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:13.699 middle income housing. Yeah, absolutely. So my 00:05:13.699 --> 00:05:16.699 idea, you know, I've got a lot of friends who 00:05:16.699 --> 00:05:20.040 are looking for houses now, some younger people, 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:23.480 older people, and it's just not available. Yeah. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:26.040 There are plenty of excellent organizations, 00:05:27.459 --> 00:05:30.019 you know, home headquarters, Jubilee Homes, they 00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:32.839 do great work and do a lot of new structures. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.160 But a lot of that is grant -based, and there's 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:38.500 not a lot of houses available for people who 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:41.860 are just looking for homes. I live in Eastwood, 00:05:42.060 --> 00:05:45.639 love the city. Nothing better to me than jumping 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.759 in my car and driving five or 10 minutes and 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:51.459 getting to some great restaurants, seeing some 00:05:51.459 --> 00:05:55.560 great shows downtown, going to the art museums 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:58.899 that we have. And I think people really kind 00:05:58.899 --> 00:06:01.129 of lose track of that in the city. There's a 00:06:01.129 --> 00:06:03.529 lot of talk about negative things that happen, 00:06:03.870 --> 00:06:06.250 but that happens everywhere. And we're not an 00:06:06.250 --> 00:06:09.410 anomaly. Right. No, absolutely. And honestly, 00:06:09.550 --> 00:06:11.610 it's one of the things that we've tried to focus 00:06:11.610 --> 00:06:15.250 on here with Good News York is the positive. 00:06:15.649 --> 00:06:17.709 Because you turn on the regular news, and that's 00:06:17.709 --> 00:06:19.610 all you hear is that negative stuff. And you 00:06:19.610 --> 00:06:20.970 think it's horrible. And honestly, it's that 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:24.610 way in every city. The crime rate doesn't even 00:06:24.610 --> 00:06:26.930 matter. Good area, bad area. They'll find that 00:06:26.930 --> 00:06:28.970 one story, and that is the entire 6 o 'clock 00:06:28.970 --> 00:06:31.470 news. And unfortunately, that becomes kind of 00:06:31.470 --> 00:06:35.769 the mindset. So folks that are really cheerleading 00:06:35.769 --> 00:06:37.970 for this area is something we're a big fan of. 00:06:38.470 --> 00:06:40.750 So that's great. And again, I appreciate you 00:06:40.750 --> 00:06:45.709 having me on. And it's important to me to allow 00:06:45.709 --> 00:06:47.870 people to have a different view of the city. 00:06:48.949 --> 00:06:53.149 So I decided that I would been interested in 00:06:53.149 --> 00:06:57.699 building. I have done this for 30 years and wanted 00:06:57.699 --> 00:07:01.319 to also put a little bit of a stamp for me. There 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:03.579 are people in the industry that know who I am. 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.420 Most people don't. You said you saw an article. 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:08.779 And I'm sure that I have friends that said, I 00:07:08.779 --> 00:07:11.639 can't believe you're in the paper. And other 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:14.199 people that just say, read the story and say, 00:07:14.339 --> 00:07:18.100 well, what's a big deal? I can do that. And as 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:21.339 we're talking briefly before this started, You 00:07:21.339 --> 00:07:23.319 need people that are going to act upon ideas, 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:26.639 not just have ideas. 100%. You live by that. 00:07:26.740 --> 00:07:30.459 100%. You live by that. I really do. It's the 00:07:30.459 --> 00:07:34.180 most simple concept and yet is typically the 00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:36.240 biggest barrier. You have brilliant people, great 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:38.959 ideas, great plans that never make it out of 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:41.079 the little notebook. And you always speak of 00:07:41.079 --> 00:07:43.399 that from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Sure. 00:07:44.029 --> 00:07:47.430 It really it's across the board really in every 00:07:47.430 --> 00:07:50.329 industry. Yeah Yeah, and and there are entrepreneurs 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:54.129 in every industry, right? And and we we you know 00:07:54.129 --> 00:07:57.089 people have an understanding of that So this 00:07:57.089 --> 00:07:59.769 all kind of started with an idea over a year 00:07:59.769 --> 00:08:03.629 ago I wanted to do some infill housing. I went 00:08:03.629 --> 00:08:05.949 down to New York City. I played trumpet I was 00:08:05.949 --> 00:08:09.569 just I had some I had some guys that I know some 00:08:09.569 --> 00:08:12.050 dudes down the city working on some horns was 00:08:12.050 --> 00:08:14.339 sitting around waiting for them and and just 00:08:14.339 --> 00:08:17.199 sketched up an idea that I had for a house. Wow. 00:08:17.420 --> 00:08:20.420 So the lots in the city are very small. Sure. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:23.740 And one of the problems is access to the lots, 00:08:23.779 --> 00:08:25.860 being able to build on them. You have setbacks. 00:08:26.139 --> 00:08:28.360 There's a lot of intricacies that people don't 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:31.259 really think about. Yeah. But I had an idea to 00:08:31.259 --> 00:08:33.659 just design something, so threw it on paper, 00:08:33.779 --> 00:08:35.980 and literally it was a cocktail napkin sketch. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.679 That's awesome. So then on the flight home, I 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:42.460 ended up cleaning it up a little. Then... over 00:08:42.460 --> 00:08:46.480 the course of a month or two ended up talking 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:50.080 to some friends of mine who are architects and 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:52.600 Sent them drawings and they did an initial sketch 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:56.960 for me Wow and Just kind of morphed into the 00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:59.120 idea that it is now I met with Caitlin right 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:01.980 at the land bank to see if they had any property 00:09:01.980 --> 00:09:04.559 I dealt with them when I was working at home 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:06.740 headquarters sure the construction department 00:09:06.740 --> 00:09:10.559 there and She had some property available. I 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:12.539 looked at it and I said, I think this is a good 00:09:12.539 --> 00:09:16.659 transitional area. Yeah. And so that's kind of 00:09:16.659 --> 00:09:19.299 morphed into the idea that it is right now. That's 00:09:19.299 --> 00:09:23.299 incredible. You. It seems like you're tapping 00:09:23.299 --> 00:09:26.100 into something that that folks haven't yet in 00:09:26.100 --> 00:09:27.500 many places where you're talking about these 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:29.820 lots, right? It seems like, you know, the landbanks 00:09:29.820 --> 00:09:32.419 around and here's a building that's there and 00:09:32.419 --> 00:09:35.100 that you can rehab. But you're sort of really 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:38.500 making use of the property. than a lot of other 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:41.000 folks are. Is that accurate? Well, it's not more 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:45.399 than a lot of other people are. It's a need to... 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:47.980 There are lots that you can't expand. Gotcha. 00:09:48.059 --> 00:09:51.879 So a lot of what's happening is on multiple lots, 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:55.419 and they're dividing three lots into... resubbing 00:09:55.419 --> 00:09:58.559 them into two. I see. To make them... to allow 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:02.299 for setbacks and necessities of kind of modern 00:10:02.299 --> 00:10:05.659 living. Yeah. You know, I had done a project... 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:08.980 12 or 14 years ago on Park Ave. I was involved 00:10:08.980 --> 00:10:11.879 with, it was called the Five Sisters. So we took 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:16.139 five Victorian houses, renoed them, and that 00:10:16.139 --> 00:10:18.860 was something that people said we'd never be 00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:20.899 able to sell them. And there were no comps in 00:10:20.899 --> 00:10:23.740 the area when the organization I worked for at 00:10:23.740 --> 00:10:26.840 the time went to sell them, so we had some difficulty 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:30.580 with banks. But ultimately, they all sold, and 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:32.620 everybody was happy in that whole area within 00:10:32.620 --> 00:10:35.409 the city on Park Ave. is beautiful now. Yeah. 00:10:35.870 --> 00:10:38.250 And that's over just a little over a decade. 00:10:39.549 --> 00:10:42.070 One thing that I'm running into a little bit 00:10:42.070 --> 00:10:44.830 of a problem is that financing, I'll just have 00:10:44.830 --> 00:10:47.309 to do this kind of on my own. Sure. There are 00:10:47.309 --> 00:10:50.769 a lot of banks that say, well, it's a great idea. 00:10:50.990 --> 00:10:53.450 Well, if you're buying this for yourself, we 00:10:53.450 --> 00:10:55.149 could give you a construction loan, but you're 00:10:55.149 --> 00:10:57.389 in business. You haven't been in business long 00:10:57.389 --> 00:11:00.490 enough. And just kind of what people run into, 00:11:00.809 --> 00:11:04.100 the problems they run into. And my response is 00:11:04.100 --> 00:11:06.360 always, you know, you're right. I'm a new business. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:09.980 I've just been doing this for 35 years and done 00:11:09.980 --> 00:11:13.019 some pretty large. Right. Yeah. But, you know, 00:11:13.179 --> 00:11:17.820 also through that. And and again, it's it's working 00:11:17.820 --> 00:11:21.179 with the land bank was great. And the the you 00:11:21.179 --> 00:11:23.399 know, they they're providing a bit of a backstop. 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:26.440 We'll call it backstop. That's great. Where if 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:30.950 I gave them a budget. that was overarching from 00:11:30.950 --> 00:11:34.590 kind of soup to nuts. And if I fall short of 00:11:34.590 --> 00:11:38.210 a sales price with a fixed fee from a open book, 00:11:39.129 --> 00:11:42.289 they'll cover some of those costs. Now, if I 00:11:42.289 --> 00:11:45.570 hit my budget and don't need any money to meet 00:11:45.570 --> 00:11:48.450 that budget, they don't do anything. Other than 00:11:48.450 --> 00:11:54.090 sell me the property. It's an idea that I'm sure 00:11:54.090 --> 00:11:56.960 a lot of people have had, but again. You know, 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.899 you need to act on it. And I know within the 00:12:00.899 --> 00:12:03.139 industry, everybody wants to do a bit of smoke 00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:05.740 and mirrors or costs of things and want to make 00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:08.980 as much as you can. Sure. Another idea that I 00:12:08.980 --> 00:12:12.419 had with this is I'm not looking for bottom dollar 00:12:12.419 --> 00:12:15.440 contractors. I want to work with dudes I've known 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.299 in the industry for decades. Right. Or even some 00:12:18.299 --> 00:12:20.700 new contractors I think are fantastic. Sure. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:25.509 I've helped a lot of local MWBEs. I'm established. 00:12:25.549 --> 00:12:27.789 There's some guys that I've worked with that 00:12:27.789 --> 00:12:30.909 used to just do you know staircases and porches 00:12:30.909 --> 00:12:33.629 and decks and now they're building homes and 00:12:33.629 --> 00:12:36.429 people have gone from a hundred hundred and fifty 00:12:36.429 --> 00:12:39.529 thousand dollars in in Revenue a year to four 00:12:39.529 --> 00:12:41.990 four and a half million Wow, so and that's something 00:12:41.990 --> 00:12:44.429 I've always been interested as well Yeah, I'm 00:12:44.429 --> 00:12:47.769 a bit of a pied piper on occasion. I know my 00:12:47.769 --> 00:12:51.289 wife would say I'm aggravating as hell But you 00:12:51.289 --> 00:12:54.759 know, it's something I I feel I can motivate 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:58.279 people and kind of bring them along. And the 00:12:58.279 --> 00:13:00.340 great thing about this above and beyond everything 00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:02.940 is it's just kind of been the impetus to begin 00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:06.259 discussion about it again. Yeah. I love that 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:08.279 about you. You're a loyal guy. You're kind of 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:10.759 like the Adam Sandler of commercial real estate. 00:13:11.019 --> 00:13:13.460 You know, you just keep employing all your friends. 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:15.820 You got your core team. You got your core team, 00:13:15.899 --> 00:13:18.320 man. But that's important. I always said no matter 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:21.840 what it is that if I succeed in an area, you 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:24.919 know, I want to not just not MC Hammer style 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:26.399 where I'm just going to employ my friends for 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:28.970 the fun of it. plug my friends in who have these 00:13:28.970 --> 00:13:32.029 talents and skills so that we all do this together 00:13:32.029 --> 00:13:34.769 and we all succeed. That's what a community is, 00:13:35.090 --> 00:13:38.090 right? Society is kind of a collection of people 00:13:38.090 --> 00:13:41.769 with diverse ideas and thoughts. and interests, 00:13:41.809 --> 00:13:45.210 and you have a commonality at some point, so 00:13:45.210 --> 00:13:47.110 why not grab those people and take them along? 00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:49.470 I love that, man. And I always say this, too. 00:13:49.629 --> 00:13:51.610 If somebody can do something better than me, 00:13:51.730 --> 00:13:55.070 please do it. Yes, yes. I am all about motivating 00:13:55.070 --> 00:13:58.049 people to be way better than me. I agree. I love 00:13:58.049 --> 00:14:00.190 that. In this industry especially, you find there's 00:14:00.190 --> 00:14:02.990 a lot of jealousy. You know, you're in music 00:14:02.990 --> 00:14:06.330 and entertainment in general. I heard the most 00:14:06.330 --> 00:14:08.590 simple statement a couple years back that was 00:14:08.590 --> 00:14:11.330 like, just because someone is as talented or 00:14:11.330 --> 00:14:13.730 more talented than you does not take away from 00:14:13.730 --> 00:14:16.169 your abilities and talent. There's enough to 00:14:16.169 --> 00:14:18.309 go around, you know? And so I think it's a really 00:14:18.309 --> 00:14:21.289 healthy attitude. Do it better than me. And kind 00:14:21.289 --> 00:14:25.809 of to jump off that idea, there's funding available 00:14:25.809 --> 00:14:29.629 out there to help people. People are afraid to 00:14:29.629 --> 00:14:32.330 build in the city. I don't think there's been 00:14:32.330 --> 00:14:36.220 any... you know, mid -level scale of building 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:39.460 or somebody that really reached the middle point 00:14:39.460 --> 00:14:43.080 of the market in 50 or 60 years. You have high 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:45.080 -end stuff, you have grant -based building, but 00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:48.240 nobody is building for just kind of the common 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:51.080 man. Right. When you say they're afraid, what 00:14:51.080 --> 00:14:53.100 do you mean? People are afraid that they're going 00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:56.220 to have... a material stolen, people are concerned. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:14:59.000 It's just like, it's as if anybody that... Gotcha. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:14:59.899 Just the negativity of the area. So they're just, 00:14:59.899 --> 00:15:01.840 like, intimidated by the idea. Yeah, it's not 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:04.139 a sense of discomfort in being in the city. Yeah, 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:05.340 I know. That makes sense. Now, there are people 00:15:05.340 --> 00:15:07.200 that say, I wouldn't walk down streets in the 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:09.200 city. Well, I'll walk down just about every street 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:12.100 in the city. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's, unfortunately, 00:15:12.179 --> 00:15:15.080 there's that, you know, misconception, and I 00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:18.659 think a lot of that comes from we are really... 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:21.340 Rural area in general sure where we've got a 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:22.940 couple of pockets of these cities But there's 00:15:22.940 --> 00:15:24.740 a lot of folks from outside and they still have 00:15:24.740 --> 00:15:27.159 that which is as silly as it is then now the 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:29.740 big city Mentality, you know and the big scary 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:33.559 pool it To circle back. It's also the 24 -hour 00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:35.100 news cycle. We were just talking at the right 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:37.259 the show where there's all they're saying that's 00:15:37.259 --> 00:15:39.899 all the Negativity going on in these in these 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:42.080 you know metropolitan areas, and that's not really 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:45.159 what's going on. I mean Jim what? Something I 00:15:45.159 --> 00:15:48.600 really appreciate is we're hearing all kinds 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:50.559 of things about the real estate market. A, it's 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:54.080 so tough. But also, as things are booming here 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:56.679 locally, we're getting all these investors and 00:15:56.679 --> 00:16:00.240 all these weather that's local investors, whether 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:04.039 it's these horrible big venture capitalists that 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:06.419 are coming in and buying up houses, they're all 00:16:06.419 --> 00:16:09.720 in it because of this massive profit. which, 00:16:10.019 --> 00:16:11.559 you know, listen, I'm a businessman, I get it, 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:14.179 that's cool, but I think what you're addressing 00:16:14.179 --> 00:16:17.399 is the fact that we're leaving behind everyday 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:21.320 families, you know, how are folks, you know, 00:16:21.740 --> 00:16:24.320 who, like you said, they're not super rich and 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:26.559 they're not so poor that they can get some of 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:29.070 those other programs, they're... Right in the 00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:31.429 middle and you know class they're getting priced 00:16:31.429 --> 00:16:34.389 out of the market right and one of my ideas to 00:16:34.389 --> 00:16:38.950 to address that the the Income for not only not 00:16:38.950 --> 00:16:41.490 only somebody buying the house, but but develop. 00:16:41.950 --> 00:16:45.429 Yeah, so I look at churn So if you do multiples 00:16:45.429 --> 00:16:48.389 of anything, you're gonna make more money So 00:16:48.389 --> 00:16:51.049 why not cut your profit a little make it palatable 00:16:51.049 --> 00:16:54.610 for everybody and I have no problem or no qualms 00:16:54.610 --> 00:16:57.669 with with you know, opening my books to the land 00:16:57.669 --> 00:16:59.730 bank. And that was, you know, there was a program 00:16:59.730 --> 00:17:02.309 that was available in the county for, there was 00:17:02.309 --> 00:17:04.650 a few bucks that were available for houses if 00:17:04.650 --> 00:17:06.970 you made them accessible. Well, that's for five 00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:09.150 units or more. I tried to get some of that and 00:17:09.150 --> 00:17:10.829 they said, you're only doing two units. And I 00:17:10.829 --> 00:17:13.769 said, okay. So I was actually talking to Caitlin 00:17:13.769 --> 00:17:16.970 at the land bank after that, and was a teeny 00:17:16.970 --> 00:17:18.890 bit, you know, torqued about that, but. Sure. 00:17:19.069 --> 00:17:21.730 I just mentioned that, and she said, well, let 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:24.150 me see, maybe we can do something internally. 00:17:24.150 --> 00:17:27.289 And that's turned into what was in the paper 00:17:27.289 --> 00:17:30.009 and what's just common knowledge and public knowledge 00:17:30.009 --> 00:17:33.210 and available publicly. So if people are interested, 00:17:33.250 --> 00:17:36.630 they can go on the land bank's website. They 00:17:36.630 --> 00:17:39.130 can see the board meetings that I had to speak 00:17:39.130 --> 00:17:43.789 at. And again, it's not, you know, I'm not in 00:17:43.789 --> 00:17:46.529 this to denigrate anybody. I just have an idea. 00:17:46.950 --> 00:17:50.920 No, you're helping. That's great. And there's 00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:53.700 pushback on a couple different ends on occasion, 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:59.119 but I think it's important. 100%. And it's a 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:01.460 good idea, and I hope more people do it. So Jim, 00:18:01.619 --> 00:18:04.599 tell me just a little bit about kind of the process. 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:06.940 Is this the sort of thing where you have your 00:18:06.940 --> 00:18:09.390 buyer? sort of lined up even beforehand, or is 00:18:09.390 --> 00:18:11.430 it more like a spec house? No, these are these 00:18:11.430 --> 00:18:14.910 are completely on spec. OK, so it's completely 00:18:14.910 --> 00:18:17.789 on spec. It's spec house. What is spec house? 00:18:17.970 --> 00:18:20.269 Sorry. I'm going to play the role of the everyday 00:18:20.269 --> 00:18:22.190 guy that doesn't know what's going on. Demonstrate 00:18:22.190 --> 00:18:25.410 you build the model without a person picked out 00:18:25.410 --> 00:18:27.569 for it. Got it. You know, sorry. If that's a 00:18:27.569 --> 00:18:30.150 fair description. Yeah. Yeah. You're just building 00:18:30.150 --> 00:18:32.960 something with the. anticipation that somebody's 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:35.619 going to sure got it so speculation right yeah 00:18:35.619 --> 00:18:38.900 there's this you're speculating on the market 00:18:38.900 --> 00:18:42.359 and it's no different than what an entrepreneur 00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:46.420 does sure so it's it somebody has an idea you 00:18:46.420 --> 00:18:49.740 think that your your ideas worth a certain value 00:18:49.740 --> 00:18:53.859 has a certain value and you move on yeah so you 00:18:53.859 --> 00:18:56.700 know just design is the first part finding the 00:18:56.700 --> 00:19:02.420 property going through municipal approvals. It 00:19:02.420 --> 00:19:05.500 took several months because the lot that I bought, 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:09.140 I re -subdivided into two lots. I see. So there 00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:11.299 was a problem with the width on both lots. They 00:19:11.299 --> 00:19:13.740 were actually three inches short of what the 00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:17.140 minimum city standard was. So that held things 00:19:17.140 --> 00:19:19.160 up for about three and a half months, just getting 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:22.259 approvals, going through the process. Now, don't 00:19:22.259 --> 00:19:24.920 fault the city when zoning and planning regulation. 00:19:25.369 --> 00:19:27.990 But there also needs to be maybe some administrative 00:19:27.990 --> 00:19:30.549 approval for something that's so minor. Right. 00:19:30.869 --> 00:19:34.109 And the irony is that if the lot was a little 00:19:34.109 --> 00:19:37.529 short depth -wise, that there's administrative 00:19:37.529 --> 00:19:39.950 approval. But nobody had thought that, hey, if 00:19:39.950 --> 00:19:42.130 this is a couple inches narrower than what we 00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:45.809 meet, the minimum lot width is 40 feet. These 00:19:45.809 --> 00:19:49.829 are 39 feet, 9 inches. Wow instead of somebody 00:19:49.829 --> 00:19:51.809 just looking at it and signing off. It's three 00:19:51.809 --> 00:19:55.250 and a half months of yeah of waiting and meetings 00:19:55.250 --> 00:19:59.829 and drawing so but so you do that and then just 00:19:59.829 --> 00:20:04.630 Put together material lists and contractors and 00:20:04.630 --> 00:20:06.869 get the stuff up and get done. That's awesome. 00:20:07.069 --> 00:20:10.640 So When you you mentioned originally, you know, 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:12.099 your original drawing and then you went to the 00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:14.640 architects and stuff. I'm just curious if when 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:17.319 you're designing these things, do you design 00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:19.119 it sort of independent of the neighborhood or 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:22.480 do you kind of kind of factor it in to to match 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:25.259 other houses, things of that nature? So so scale 00:20:25.259 --> 00:20:27.720 wise, I took a look at scale. Yeah. I wanted 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:29.680 something that would scale for the neighborhood 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:33.359 and the location. Gotcha. The width was really, 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:36.160 really the width of the house. It's a 20 foot 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:38.440 wide house. Gotcha. So everybody does things 00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:41.640 that are kind of center -loaded and makes the 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:44.579 bedrooms really small. So I side -loaded the 00:20:44.579 --> 00:20:46.980 house. And again, it's nothing that other people 00:20:46.980 --> 00:20:49.819 haven't thought of. But just put that on paper 00:20:49.819 --> 00:20:53.079 so the bedrooms and living spaces are good size. 00:20:53.819 --> 00:20:56.500 The houses, I'm building one that's about 1 ,900 00:20:56.500 --> 00:20:59.660 square feet. The other one's just a single -story 00:20:59.660 --> 00:21:03.220 1 ,300 square foot home, but lay out really well. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:06.599 I'll modify the exteriors, one will be a little 00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:09.539 more modern, kind of straighter lines, streamlined 00:21:09.539 --> 00:21:12.400 a bit more. And then do something, essentially 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:16.019 they're shotgun style houses. Gotcha. Do something 00:21:16.019 --> 00:21:18.799 that's craftsman style. So I want something that's 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:21.000 going to be indicative of the character of the 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:23.200 neighborhood, but also be on occasion a little 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:28.119 different. That's awesome. And even going to 00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:30.059 the architect, it was really more to put it on 00:21:30.059 --> 00:21:32.460 paper. Yeah, just have somebody throw the design 00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:35.660 in and put it on paper talk about some modeling 00:21:35.660 --> 00:21:39.079 of things and and I've already met with trust 00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:42.460 manufacturers to help with the trust, you know 00:21:42.460 --> 00:21:46.359 trust design and I'm going to do a bit of panelization 00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:49.359 of the houses. So show up so I can just put panels 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:52.460 up, not modular, but just so the structure can 00:21:52.460 --> 00:21:54.819 get up quick. Yeah, that's great. So you're you're 00:21:54.819 --> 00:21:57.019 a creative because you're a musician and obviously 00:21:57.019 --> 00:22:01.059 you're in the field that you're in. Do you find 00:22:01.059 --> 00:22:05.240 that like in music or? Entertainment you wake 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:07.640 up sometimes and you're like I have this amazing 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:09.559 idea for a house and you sketch it out You just 00:22:09.559 --> 00:22:12.720 get random like design ideas. Yeah, I think you 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:15.420 just it's just like keeping a diary, right? Journal 00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:18.240 I never never did that when I was a kid. So sure 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.839 when I when I was younger, too played music. 00:22:21.019 --> 00:22:22.700 I went to school for music because I had a full 00:22:22.700 --> 00:22:24.460 ride. They gave me everything, you know, for 00:22:24.460 --> 00:22:27.140 room and board and torsion. But I did a ton of 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:28.819 drawing and painting when I was younger, too. 00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:31.279 Yeah. Used to do one man shows and I grew up 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:33.960 in Connecticut and had one man shows at the high 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:37.200 school. Some stuff locally in a small town used 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:40.880 to do. designs for the newspaper that for front 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:43.440 pages of the paper they would pay me for. That's 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:45.920 awesome. Which is better than working at McDonald's. 00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:49.099 Yeah. Oh, yeah. But really kind of did a lot 00:22:49.099 --> 00:22:52.819 of stuff. Drawing, art, design, structure, building. 00:22:52.819 --> 00:22:57.299 That's great. Music. And I don't think I think 00:22:57.299 --> 00:22:59.920 society limits people too much now. I agree. 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:03.900 You can do you can be. completely multifaceted. 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:08.220 Yeah. And I love a lot of things. Art, music, 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:11.839 literature, academics. I love that, man. And 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:15.519 you have to be willing and wanting to incorporate 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:17.940 that into your personality and what you do. You 00:23:17.940 --> 00:23:21.960 know, people look at your line of work as blue 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:24.579 collar and, you know, trucks and getting our 00:23:24.579 --> 00:23:27.019 hands calloused. But people don't realize that 00:23:27.019 --> 00:23:29.819 there's also a very huge there's a creative side. 00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:32.519 It's it's it's it's an art. It's an art. Yeah. 00:23:32.579 --> 00:23:35.400 Yeah. And I'm glad we can talk about that on 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:37.319 here to showcase. You know, and I like telling 00:23:37.319 --> 00:23:41.859 people that, you know, I so I run a general contracting. 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:46.559 So, you know, I run everything. But. If I'm walking 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:48.619 around with a client and some dude's in a hole, 00:23:48.740 --> 00:23:51.079 mud hole, struggling, let's hand somebody my 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:53.339 coat, jump in the hole, help the dude out, and 00:23:53.339 --> 00:23:57.059 then get out. I am as comfortable with people 00:23:57.059 --> 00:24:00.779 in a hole, in a mud hole, or at the top of a 00:24:00.779 --> 00:24:03.859 mountain, smoking the world's best cigar and 00:24:03.859 --> 00:24:06.000 drinking the best whiskey or bourbon. We gotta 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:08.940 hang out. I'm like, this guy's ear grade. I love 00:24:08.940 --> 00:24:12.460 this. Jim, a couple quick questions, and we'll 00:24:12.460 --> 00:24:16.119 let you get out of here. You mentioned this project 00:24:16.119 --> 00:24:18.660 here that we're talking about. You got two parcels, 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:21.240 a couple of homes. What's next? You got another 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:23.319 one picked out after this, or where do we go 00:24:23.319 --> 00:24:25.880 from here? I am looking at some other property. 00:24:26.220 --> 00:24:30.799 The land bank floats lots by me. I just looked 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:34.599 at one in Eastwood the other day. I'm looking 00:24:34.599 --> 00:24:37.359 at, I've had some people contact me directly 00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:41.140 to build some homes. So I'm talking to some people 00:24:41.140 --> 00:24:43.299 down in Long Island right now about building 00:24:43.299 --> 00:24:47.079 some homes up here. It might be something where 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:50.099 I only do two. I might do two a year. I might 00:24:50.099 --> 00:24:53.720 do, I don't know, 2 ,000. And I wanna incorporate 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:58.480 it into everything that I do. Just because I 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:02.539 run a business and... and fully invested in that 00:25:02.539 --> 00:25:04.599 doesn't mean I can't do other things. Absolutely. 00:25:05.059 --> 00:25:06.940 You know, again, my wife thinks I'm crazy. I 00:25:06.940 --> 00:25:09.640 get up at 4, 4 .30 in the morning. I'm almost 00:25:09.640 --> 00:25:12.799 60. I work out for an hour and a half and then 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:16.000 go to work and come home and do things, practice 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.660 my trumpet and, you know, go to bed at 10 or 00:25:18.660 --> 00:25:20.460 11 o 'clock at night and do it all over again. 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:22.039 That's incredible. You're amazing, man. That's 00:25:22.039 --> 00:25:25.559 incredible. Go ahead. Yeah, no, I just want to... 00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:28.599 The last thing I had for you is... You know, 00:25:28.599 --> 00:25:30.319 you're definitely inspiring a lot of people to 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:32.799 look at this. So can you just talk a little bit 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:34.880 about the opportunity for them? You know, how 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:37.220 would they go about reach out to the land bank 00:25:37.220 --> 00:25:39.240 looking for these sorts of things? Yeah, they 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:40.980 want to do that. Yeah, absolutely. You can look 00:25:40.980 --> 00:25:43.799 online at Syracuse Land Bank, Greater Syracuse 00:25:43.799 --> 00:25:47.079 Land Bank, find out information about them, find 00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:49.759 out information about building in the city. You 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:53.420 can talk to zoning, planning the building department. 00:25:53.740 --> 00:25:57.119 There's a lot of stuff available now. that wasn't 00:25:57.119 --> 00:25:59.279 available decades ago when I was younger. Yeah. 00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:02.359 And I never thought that I would start a business 00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:05.619 and do everything at the age I am. You know, 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:07.920 there are times where I used to just say, I'll 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:09.819 just kind of check in and check out, and that'd 00:26:09.819 --> 00:26:14.740 last for a day or two, maybe two weeks. And I 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:16.940 just want to be somebody that motivates other 00:26:16.940 --> 00:26:20.759 people. You know, we jump to music. I love teaching. 00:26:21.429 --> 00:26:24.230 I figure I'm better than 98 % of the trumpet 00:26:24.230 --> 00:26:26.930 players in the world. I've got a brother who's 00:26:26.930 --> 00:26:29.690 world -class trumpet player. So I know what the 00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:34.250 best of the best is. And just really want to 00:26:34.250 --> 00:26:36.690 push people to do whatever they want to do. And 00:26:36.690 --> 00:26:38.549 it doesn't just have to be in the building. Yeah. 00:26:38.950 --> 00:26:41.269 That's great. That's great, Jim. I'm trying to 00:26:41.269 --> 00:26:44.690 let the adults talk here, but I do have a couple 00:26:44.690 --> 00:26:48.579 quick questions. Yeah, go for it. And this is 00:26:48.579 --> 00:26:50.420 just gonna be me dumbing it down for the everyday 00:26:50.420 --> 00:26:52.599 person. We were talking earlier about affordable 00:26:52.599 --> 00:26:55.059 housing, and in Ithaca, that's a very big hot 00:26:55.059 --> 00:26:58.400 button issue. I mean, it is everywhere. I guess, 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:02.299 and it's a broad question, but what are some 00:27:02.299 --> 00:27:04.599 of the answers to getting affordable housing? 00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:06.720 Like, where does it start? Where does it begin? 00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:10.539 Is there anything we can do as citizens to push 00:27:10.539 --> 00:27:14.039 this process? Well, this isn't affordable housing. 00:27:14.339 --> 00:27:16.740 So the typical affordable housing would be 80 00:27:16.740 --> 00:27:22.079 % of area median income or less. This is really 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:25.420 just market rate housing. Kind of for the person 00:27:25.420 --> 00:27:28.619 that's got a family, is caught in the middle. 00:27:28.819 --> 00:27:30.920 I mean, when I went to college, again, long, 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:35.240 long time ago, my parents had no money to give 00:27:35.240 --> 00:27:36.819 me when they went to college because they made 00:27:36.819 --> 00:27:40.250 too much money. So I want to keep the cost down 00:27:40.250 --> 00:27:43.230 to a reasonable cost, market rate what the market 00:27:43.230 --> 00:27:46.789 can bear, and make that available to everybody. 00:27:47.109 --> 00:27:49.490 Anybody can buy the properties. That it's not 00:27:49.490 --> 00:27:52.589 going to be dictated by either your wallet because 00:27:52.589 --> 00:27:54.789 you're, you know, you make a ton of money and 00:27:54.789 --> 00:27:57.490 you're going to spend five, six, eight hundred 00:27:57.490 --> 00:27:59.890 million, two million dollars on a house, or you're 00:27:59.890 --> 00:28:02.630 not going to get any grants to be able to assist 00:28:02.630 --> 00:28:05.769 you. I just want to look at kind of the everyday 00:28:05.769 --> 00:28:08.569 person that's looking for a home. That's getting 00:28:08.569 --> 00:28:12.930 priced out of the market with bidding wars on 00:28:12.930 --> 00:28:15.990 regular properties. That's great. Stuff that 00:28:15.990 --> 00:28:18.109 should be market rate that unfortunately has 00:28:18.109 --> 00:28:20.470 gotten out of control. And now the most important 00:28:20.470 --> 00:28:23.069 question. Who were your biggest musical influences? 00:28:24.029 --> 00:28:27.309 Well, I love Dizzy Gillespie. I had a feeling. 00:28:28.029 --> 00:28:32.289 I love Gillespie. I love... All the earlier Clifford 00:28:32.289 --> 00:28:35.769 Brown, earlier trumpet players, Maynard Ferguson. 00:28:36.750 --> 00:28:40.990 I love jazz, classical, Maurice André. I play 00:28:40.990 --> 00:28:44.529 the gamut in music. I do classical jazz. You 00:28:44.529 --> 00:28:48.109 know, I've played with some rock bands. And it's 00:28:48.109 --> 00:28:50.869 really, there's earth, wind, and fire, classic 00:28:50.869 --> 00:28:55.549 horn section. So the, it's really, I think there's 00:28:55.549 --> 00:28:57.809 a huge value to a lot of things in everybody. 00:28:57.910 --> 00:29:00.430 I agree. I love artisanal stuff. You know the 00:29:00.430 --> 00:29:03.170 coffee I came in from I got it from recess. I 00:29:03.170 --> 00:29:06.930 love people that that I I want to support people 00:29:06.930 --> 00:29:09.990 in the area Yeah, and and you know you do the 00:29:09.990 --> 00:29:12.190 best you can. Oh, you're amazing. You're tower 00:29:12.190 --> 00:29:15.390 power Yeah, love town. My dad grew I grew up. 00:29:15.450 --> 00:29:17.670 I had some buddies that played with them Really? 00:29:17.789 --> 00:29:20.769 Yeah in the in the 80s, you know, I I had dudes 00:29:20.769 --> 00:29:23.849 that I was in Chicago and They're guys that came 00:29:23.849 --> 00:29:25.769 through that became friends of mine that played 00:29:25.769 --> 00:29:28.829 with us. Jesus. Tower of Power is, you know, 00:29:28.930 --> 00:29:32.869 Chicago gets kind of, they're like the face of 00:29:32.869 --> 00:29:35.289 horn bands. And Tower of Power within the music 00:29:35.289 --> 00:29:37.430 industry, people know who they are, but I think 00:29:37.430 --> 00:29:39.849 they're just completely underrated. So underrated. 00:29:39.869 --> 00:29:42.390 Tunes like What is Hip. What is Hip. There's 00:29:42.390 --> 00:29:45.269 some great Barry Sax parts. Trying to think, 00:29:46.170 --> 00:29:50.880 digging on James Brown. The Tower of Power live 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:55.089 album changed my life. Gives me a different perspective 00:29:55.089 --> 00:29:58.130 of you. Well, there you go. I'm a musician, too. 00:29:58.210 --> 00:30:00.450 I had played in bands in the past, so as soon 00:30:00.450 --> 00:30:02.190 as you said you played music, I was like, I know, 00:30:02.210 --> 00:30:05.589 I'm gonna like this guy. Yeah, and I love classical 00:30:05.589 --> 00:30:07.930 stuff, too. But I like big horn classical stuff. 00:30:07.930 --> 00:30:10.009 Of course, yeah. Good music's good music. I love 00:30:10.009 --> 00:30:11.910 where you're sitting in a horn section and the 00:30:11.910 --> 00:30:14.029 people in front of you have to put a music stand 00:30:14.029 --> 00:30:16.690 that's plexiglass in front of them because you're 00:30:16.690 --> 00:30:20.400 playing too low. Yes. Or behind them. Yes. But 00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:23.240 no, I appreciate you guys having me. Well, we 00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:25.740 love having you. Absolutely. Anytime, Jim, anytime 00:30:25.740 --> 00:30:28.079 you want to come back and chat it up, like I 00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:31.059 said, we're here to, on a very similar mission, 00:30:31.220 --> 00:30:33.359 it seems like, the more we talk. And I love that. 00:30:33.420 --> 00:30:35.700 I love your values, especially for this area. 00:30:37.019 --> 00:30:39.599 Jim, we've got some plugs. We've got a website, 00:30:39.640 --> 00:30:41.099 anything like that, where folks might look at 00:30:41.099 --> 00:30:43.759 these things? No, no website. I'm going to put 00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:49.029 something up. So the business is Apogee. design, 00:30:49.029 --> 00:30:51.789 build services. I have a consulting business, 00:30:51.950 --> 00:30:55.289 too, Apogee Consulting Services. I consult with 00:30:55.289 --> 00:30:57.269 the land bank and working with the regional market, 00:30:57.470 --> 00:30:59.609 other people in the area. That's awesome. But 00:30:59.609 --> 00:31:01.869 I'll put something up and make sure that it gets 00:31:01.869 --> 00:31:04.390 out there. Great. That's great, Jim. And then, 00:31:04.390 --> 00:31:06.190 you know, we're talking about the Syracuse Land 00:31:06.190 --> 00:31:08.069 Bank, but a good little tip for other folks that 00:31:08.069 --> 00:31:10.549 might be paying attention is they have these 00:31:10.549 --> 00:31:12.730 sorts of land banks. Sometimes they're cities, 00:31:12.869 --> 00:31:15.170 sometimes it's a county thing, but all over New 00:31:15.170 --> 00:31:17.250 York, and I'm assuming in other parts of the 00:31:17.250 --> 00:31:19.789 country, if you don't live in Syracuse and you 00:31:19.789 --> 00:31:22.069 want to explore this opportunity, look for your 00:31:22.069 --> 00:31:24.549 local land bank, because it's a hell of a resource. 00:31:24.910 --> 00:31:28.970 Yeah, absolutely. And my sense is that if this 00:31:28.970 --> 00:31:31.769 works locally, I think the funds that the land 00:31:31.769 --> 00:31:35.650 bank here, and this is my understanding, it could 00:31:35.650 --> 00:31:39.720 be a bit off. The funds they're using are land 00:31:39.720 --> 00:31:42.380 bank initiative funds that haven't been used 00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:45.319 by other land banks. So if this works, you know, 00:31:45.319 --> 00:31:47.819 it's a small kind of getting back to the large 00:31:47.819 --> 00:31:50.039 piece of pie. This is a small piece of the pie 00:31:50.039 --> 00:31:53.180 that other land banks can and potentially will 00:31:53.180 --> 00:31:56.819 use in New York. So I don't know. I like thinking 00:31:56.819 --> 00:31:58.940 that this is kind of a pilot program for the 00:31:58.940 --> 00:32:00.660 state. You're helping to prove the model. That's 00:32:00.660 --> 00:32:04.400 for sure. Absolutely. Jim Williams, thank you 00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:08.000 so much for joining Good News York. Uh, I think 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:11.420 that's it for the week, right? I don't generally... 00:32:11.420 --> 00:32:13.079 Yesterday I thought it was Thursday. Yeah, I 00:32:13.079 --> 00:32:16.000 know. Today it's actually Thursday. Yeah, have 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:18.099 a happy Memorial Day week and be safe out there. 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:19.700 We'll be back Tuesday. Yeah, that's right. We'll 00:32:19.700 --> 00:32:21.759 be off on Monday. And our episodes always air 00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:24.359 at GoodNewsYork .com, 5 p .m. Monday through 00:32:24.359 --> 00:32:27.039 Thursday. And you can subscribe to our podcast 00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:30.640 anywhere, podcasts. In every podcast app there 00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:33.119 is. Just look for Good News York. Awesome. All 00:32:33.119 --> 00:32:34.259 right. Peace out.