Ron Schinik of New Blueprint Partners | Vancouver Innovation Center in Vancouver | Redeveloping Manufacturing
Courtesy of New Blueprint Partners
Redeveloping Manufacturing
I’m joined by Ron Schinik, the CEO of New Blueprint Partners, a New York-based company focused on redeveloping manufacturing facilities into mixed-use assets. Ron has a solid foundation in auditing and grew into the role of CFO at three companies centered around operational efficiency. We discuss why he decided to take the leap from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, and how his background in finance complements his current role as CEO.
We get into the details of the Vancouver Innovation Center in Washington State, which is what Ron calls the antithesis of the 1950s and 1960s suburbia movement. Previously owned by Hewlett-Packard, the 180-acre site features 700,000 square feet of ‘Frankensteined’ industrial and office space. Ron describes how the team is reimagining the property as a 20-minute neighborhood, which includes apartments, industrial and mixed-use buildings, retail space, and a downtown area.
Ron lays out major milestones on the project and gives an overview of the ambitious timeline. He highlights the importance of getting buy-in from the local community by having open, transparent conversations with people on the ground level. Ron also shares what kind of opportunities and challenges industrial manufacturing might face in the near future.
“You can be the greatest architect, the greatest accountant, the greatest whatever. But if you do not communicate with people on the ground level, you are not going anywhere. If they don’t believe in what you’re telling them, if they don’t believe in your project, if they, whatever the case may be, you’re not getting anything done.
Getting to understand how to bring about changes in zoning and entitlement to the benefit of the community and yourself is really about getting down and dirty and speaking to people. Not being afraid to hear the criticisms.”
Courtesy of New Blueprint Partners
About Ron Schinik
Ron Schinik is the CEO of New Blueprint Partners, a New York-based company focused on redeveloping manufacturing facilities into mixed-use assets. Previously he was the Chief Financial Officer at Reich Brothers, Crown Capital, and Quick International Courier. He began his career in audit at EisnerAmper. He is a Certified Public Accountant by training and a graduate of NYU Stern and Queens College.
Courtesy of New Blueprint Partners
Episode Timestamps
2:17 – Explain to our listeners what auditing is.
8:04 – Tell me why you think that your background in financial services suits you well to be a developer.
14:59 – Tell us about Vancouver, Washington and the site itself for The Vancouver Innovation Center.
18:19 – What were some of the opportunities that you started seeing on your first site walkthrough?
22:05 – You had a joint venture partner on the Reina project, Sidewalk Labs. Help our listeners understand what roles they played in this project.
26:26 – Lay out the major milestones on the project and give us an idea of the process of execution.
31:34 – In terms of the debt, were there any public financing programs or incentives that you were able to take as well?
33:48 – If listeners were to drive into Vancouver a number of years down the road, what would they be seeing?
40:13 – You are pursuing projects like The Vancouver Innovation Center in markets across the country. What are the common threads in your strategies amongst all these projects?
45:07 – From your experience on the entitlements process, what do you see as the challenges and opportunities in zoning?
52:40 – What do you imagine as some of the things that real estate developers should know about when it comes to opportunities and challenges, particularly for industrial and manufacturing in the United States?
Courtesy of New Blueprint Partners
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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