Sam Dickinson of Keeler Markwood Group | The Peekskill Brewery in Peekskill | Developing and Redeveloping
Courtesy of Keeler Markwood Group
Development Strategies That Survive
This week, I am joined by our guest Sam Dickinson, principal at Keeler Markwood Group, a Westchester-based development company focused on ground-up and value-add opportunities in the Greater New York area. We discuss the Peekskill Brewery, a major renovation, and redevelopment project that Sam’s firm had been working on in the Hudson Valley. More broadly, we will talk about how a good development strategy and design can make the difference between foodservice venues that survive and those that fail to make the cut.
Historically, the Peekskill Brewery project was the Myers Brothers Storage warehouse -- a four-story metal and stone building. In 1998, the building was taken by the city for tax evasion and has since been purchased by Keeler Markwood from Tap P Realty Corp. Keeler Markwood Group spent three years looking for an acquisition opportunity in Peekskill. The Brewery was attractive being a beloved business and central hub for those coming up from the city on weekends to go hiking and enjoy nature.
Join us on this week’s episode as we discuss with Sam his company’s development strategy for this particular property, the optimization of location for the Peekskill Brewery project, as well as Sam’s advice for new developers on getting projects approved. Listen in as we discuss these topics and much more on today's episode of American Building.
“I think it’s easy to fall in love with a location and see a town that looks like it has interesting opportunities. I’d rather find out early and do my homework and talk to people that are active in those markets. Spending a little time watching the meetings and talking to people that are active is super helpful. There’s a number of towns in Westchester now that are coming out with form-based codes and so they’re effectively rolling out the welcome mat to developers and those are the types of places where it’s going to be a lot easier to get your project approved. And so if you can find places that you like that have interesting opportunities, those are a lot easier, obviously.”
Courtesy of Keeler Markwood Group
About Sam Dickinson
Sam Dickinson is a founder and principal at Keeler Markwood Group, a Westchester-based development company focused on ground-up and repositioning opportunities in the Greater New York area. Additionally, he was one of the founding team members and partner at Conatus Capital Management in Greenwich, Connecticut, where besides equity analysis and trade execution, he helped set up the company's risk management framework. Beyond being a commercial real estate developer, Sam started his career as a chartered financial analyst at Goldman Sachs Asset Management from 1999 to 2002.
Courtesy of Keeler Markwood Group
Courtesy of Keeler Markwood Group
Episode Timestamps
2:28 – You began your career in hedge funds and spent 20 years as a trader. Could you explain to us what you did and how your interest in real estate grew over that time?
14:06 – What were the first couple of days like working in the real estate industry? What did you do?
25:11 – Let's talk about Peekskill, New York. How does it compare to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?
30:31 – Tell us a little bit more about the development strategy for this particular property and how you came to decide on that strategy, because it sounds like the brewery had some intentions of what they wanted, too.
33:00 – How did you get involved with this particular deal?
40:00 – Taking a step back from this deal, talk to us about how mixing uses in your redevelopment projects work and why you think it's a good idea.
45:57 – Looking back over the four years and the various projects that you've worked on, what are some of the pieces of advice that you would have for new developers on getting projects approved?
Connect with Sam Dickinson:
LinkedIn (Sam Dickinson)
LinkedIn (Keeler Markwood Group)
Keeler Markwood Group
Courtesy of Keeler Markwood Group
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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