Atif Qadir of Commonplace | Building for Impact

Transcript

Announcer  00:02

Welcome to American Building, a weekly recorded show whose mission is to share an alternative perspective of what we build in America, and why. Together we discover how the work of the real estate industry connects to every American. In season two, we focused on how buildings changed as a result of the pandemic. In this season, we're revisiting conversations from previous seasons, to see where Americans put their heads down at night. Together, we will discover the many definitions of home across the New York City metropolitan area, which includes over 23 million Americans. 

Announcer  00:43

Each week, we'll visit a new building and explore complex and confusing issues related to housing access to see what they can teach us about ourselves, and our country will meet those who work to develop in thoughtful and impactful ways, who build neighborhoods to be more sustainable, affordable, accessible, or inclusive, who labor to create thriving communities, and transform the lives of generations to come. Through their stories, we will humanize often polarizing topics. Profound, surprising, and hilarious. This show is for developers and builders with boots on the ground, and for innovators trying to find ways to improve our industry, for the policymakers and public employees. And for any person who is walked by a building and wondered why. And now your host award winning architect turned developer and startup founder or Atif Qadir, AIA.

Atif Qadir  01:53

This is American Building. And I'm your host, Atif Qadir. I'm the founder of Commonplace. Join me as it take a drive by the skylines and strip malls, crosswalks and rail crossings, balconies, buildings and boroughs to discover a new generation of housing let's build common ground

Atif Qadir  02:32

I'm going to let you in on something people call me a TIF ad if a thief and other variations of my actual name, which is Alt F, long, a aspirated T, short i My name means sympathetic or kind in Arabic. My mom chose that name. My paternal grandmother that's my dad's mom wanted to name me XO hair that ended up being my middle name after she lost the coin toss. So the story goes. People call my company reddest. Just dissed our e d i s t and other variations of its actual name, which is redist. R, long E. Then Dist. It's an acronym for real estate development incentive search tool. It's a software product that aggregates and provides information on economic development incentives for the real estate industry. That's what I started building as the pandemic began back in 2020. I was looking to capitalize my own deals better. I'm an architect and a real estate developer focusing on impactful projects in New Jersey. 

Atif Qadir  04:02

For me, that includes constructing workforce housing, and redeveloping historic buildings. These are projects that create homes and jobs, improving my community through economic development. The problem then, as it is now, was equity was hard to find for projects like these, and debt was even tougher. Economic development incentives are meant to fill in gaps in financing deals, and about $100 billion of them are given out every year across the country as estimated by the Brookings Institution. And yes, I did say $100 billion. After I talked to the over 250 real estate developers that piloted the product, I came to realize that there were certain types of companies that felt the pain of accessing capital, most acutely. Developers who focus is on affordable and workforce housing developers who work on small to mid sized projects, developers working in underserved communities, they often faced enormous difficulties and assembling funding.

Atif Qadir  05:18

Additionally, developers from minority backgrounds had systemic obstacles, often due to a lack of relationships, track record, or net worth. What they needed was help finding equity, debt, and incentives to complete the entire capital stack. This could not be solved by developers using my product to learn about incentives they could be eligible for. Even helping them apply for incentives didn't truly solve their problems. Interestingly, as I talked to capital providers who sought to distribute capital and a mission driven manner, I learned they too struggled. They often had a hard time aggregating and qualifying deals that met their investment criteria. This disconnect between impact developers and capital providers was the biggest aha for me. So I've evolved my approach. 

Atif Qadir  06:22

Reflecting that the name of my company is now commonplace. I am building common place to be a marketplace connecting impact developers and impact capital providers who are driven by a social mission. commonplace specifically promotes development and investment that looks beyond pure return metrics to impactful themes of affordability, and inclusivity. My team does that by helping developers tell their stories, and access new capital relationships, and by helping capital providers find quality leads and better distribute their funds. We operate at the intersection of brokerage, media and technology. Through all of this, I have been laser focused on helping real estate industry professionals like me, who are positively impacting their communities. But now I am doing that with a name that is a lot easier to pronounce commonplace. Learn more@commonplace.us.

Atif Qadir  07:38

Thanks for joining me today on American uilding. If you enjoyed this episode, and want to hear more, subscribe on your favorite listening app. And don't forget to rate and review and friends. I've teamed up with writers for the New York Times and Wall magazine to launch a digital media platform to tell the fascinating stories of the impact developers and capital providers. I work with a commonplace. Check it out@commonplace.us