Chok Lei of Clear Mountain Capital | The Cedarview in Storrs | Garden Communities
Courtesy of Clear Mountain Capital
Trends in PropTech
Today, I’m joined by real estate executive Chok Lei to discuss his work with The Cedarview, a multiphase rental apartment development near the University of Connecticut. The 250-unit community is set upon a former nine-hole golf course, and will provide necessary housing for the students, faculty, and permanent residents of the college town. Chok describes how his team is providing a product that the town needs, but also is keeping in-line with the rural, natural character of Northeastern Connecticut.
Chok shares how he was influenced to pursue a career in real estate development from a young age一the only issue is that he’s seeing the same homebuilding process his grandfather followed. We talk about trends in proptech, which is innovation and use of technology within the property sector, and more broadly, the real estate industry. To Chok, it’s more than a buzzword. Proptech is a movement bringing the real estate industry into where it needs to be today, and also where it needs to be going forward, in order to address housing issues that we're seeing across the country.
I ask Chok about the exciting opportunities in the development space right now and what he keeps in mind when he’s investing in construction tech. He highlights startups in the proptech space that are making waves in the homebuilding space, and shares his predictions for the future of real estate development.
“Having been a developer, it’s, it’s frustrating to me to see that there’s been so much technology that’s been implemented that has revolutionized certain other industries, and yet so many things in the real estate world have not even been brought up to that level. There’s no automation. Everything’s done by hand. We’re building things the same way we built them a hundred years ago. And the way I look at PropTech is that it’s not, it’s not a buzzword. It’s really just, how do we bring this traditional asset class into where we need it to be today and also where it needs to be going forward in order to address some of these housing issues that we’re seeing across the country, shortage of housing, inability to build homes quickly. And a lot of these things can be solved through the utilization of PropTech.”
Courtesy of Clear Mountain Capital
About Chok Lei
Chok Lei is a real estate executive who has served in leadership roles for multiple investment firms, most recent of which is COO at Clear Mountain Capital, a New York City based company that develops real estate and invests in technology that will transform the industry. He is also a professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning. He previously worked at Pretium Partners and began his career at JP Morgan.
Episode Timestamps
2:42 – How is your family involved in your real estate endeavors?
8:27 – How would you say you have thought through and developed a robust strategy to be able to make money and do well, despite large amounts of downs and ups in the economic market?
11:49 – Let's talk about this project, The Cedar View. Tell us about Storrs, Connecticut and the site for The Cedar View.
14:39 – Talk to us about the development strategy for this site and what are the stages that you have to go through in order to execute it?
17:19 – Are there water-based issues in terms of stormwater management or flooding or rain management that you had to take into consideration as you laid out the site and where to develop?
21:28 – So this project is in an opportunity zone. Could you tell us about what opportunity zones are and how you are utilizing this very lucrative form of funding?
24:44 – Help our listeners understand what they would be seeing as they would walk through the site from the initial entrance.
28:31 – What is PropTech and why are you investing?
31:13 – Tell me about some of the areas within the real estate industry that you think are particularly interesting to you for investment in innovation.
37:17 – For investment through venture capital in construction tech, what does that actually entail? What is the day-to-day process like and what actually happens when you make an investment?
Connect with Chok Lei:
LinkedIn (Chok Lei)
LinkedIn (Clear Mountain Capital)
Clear Mountain Capital
Courtesy of Clear Mountain Capital
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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