Sean Pichon of PGN Architects and Omar Karim of Banneker Ventures | 2220 MLK Avenue in Washington, D.C. | So, There is a Housing Crisis
Courtesy of PGN Architects and Banneker Ventures
Black Homeownership
For our first episode in Season 3 of American Building I sit down with Sean Pichon of PGN Architects and Omar Karim of Banneker Ventures. We explore the projects they are working on together in D.C., such as 2220 MLK Avenue, while also diving into topics such as the nationwide housing shortage and home ownership for Black Americans.
Sean and Omar go in depth about their project in Historic Anacostia at 2220 MLK Avenue, an update to a local church which adds affordable housing to the neighborhood, and how they are approaching community pushback. We also break down how the residential asset class is defined, housing and lending programs, and how these projects impact communities.
Turning to headline news, The New York Times recently released a statistic that only 5% of developers are not white males. This headline drives our conversation as Omar details how he sees this statistic play out, especially when interacting with lenders.
Listen to this week's episode of American Building to hear more about DC residential projects, defining impact, and how institutions are distributing money for BIPOC developers.
“There’s a huge social impact to a lot of projects that we work on. For example, we’re taking a historic resource and we’re giving it a new foundation for future community use. We look at that as a huge impact not only for the community that it exists in, but it’s also an economic driver for future families to be able to set a foundation on having quality home environments and safe neighborhoods. So any project that we’re doing that’s promoting safe, quality housing that’s affordable to people of all means, is a benefit to not just the community that they’re in, but the communities at large.”
Courtesy of PGN Architects
About Sean Pichon
Sean is a founding partner at PGN Architects, which was recently acquired by Michael Graves Architecture and Design. The firm's design work focuses on affordable and market rate residential projects and mixed use projects along with renovation and historic preservation. He is a board member at Eastern Market Main Street, an economic development focused nonprofit. He began his career at Skidmore Owings & Merrill and is a graduate of Howard University.
Courtesy of Banneker Ventures
About Omar Karim
Omar Karim is the president of Banneker Ventures, a real estate development, construction and property management company. The firm focuses on residential and institutional projects. Omar is a lawyer who began his career at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel and is a graduate of Howard University.
Courtesy of PGN Architects and Banneker Ventures
Episode Timestamps
7:00 – What do you think of when you hear the word ‘home’?
8:48 – Omar, what was your path into a career in development?
10:30 – I understand the person that was your mentor initially said no to you working with her. Could you talk about what that process was like?
12:32 – Sean, give me the lay of the land in terms of the types of projects that you and Omar are working on together, and some of the details of them.
16:12 – Sales and acquisitions of church property have been particularly active. In terms of those properties, converting to residential, there can sometimes be community pushback. In the case of 2220 MLK Avenue, what was the community's reaction and why?
20:13 – Omar, I'm really interested in what your experience has been when raising capital, particularly debt for your multifamily properties. Perhaps 2220 MLK Boulevard is a good example?
22:36 – Colette Coleman wrote for The New York Times recently about the racial disparity in developers across the country, where only 5% of developers that were a part of this research, were not white males. So I'm really curious, what is your experience like on the ground with a lender?
24:28 – Sean, I want to get an understanding from your perspective for the projects that we've been talking about and how they stack up against your definition and your metrics of impact on the projects you're working on.
26:36 – Similarly, Omar, how do you define impact and how do you measure it for yourself on your projects?
31:43 – Omar, how do you guys think of and conceptualize the lack of supply of housing and how that's impacting communities in DC and around the area?
35:01 – The homeownership gap by race is also really stark, in that the homeownership rate for white Americans last year was 73% and for Black Americans, it was 44%. When you hear statistics like these, in the context of you as a real estate professional, what are some of the things in terms of anecdotes or experience that you have experienced that you might offer as a perspective to some of our listeners?
44:57 – I'm curious from your perspective, Sean, in an effort to change the rate of Black homeownership and the initiatives that are necessary to change it, what are some of the things that you believe should be a part of a plan going forward?
Additional Resources
Connect with Sean Pichon and Omar Karim:
LinkedIn (Sean Pichon)
Michael Graves Architecture & Design
PGN Architecture
LinkedIn (Omar Karim)
LinkedIn (Banneker Ventures)
Banneker Ventures
Courtesy of PGN Architects and Banneker Ventures
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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