Berkeley State of the Market

Patrick Kennedy is the owner of Panoramic Interests, a development firm that has been building housing, live-work space, and commercial property in the Bay Area since 1990. The firm has focused on dense, mixed-use, mixed-income, infill developments, typically financed with private funds. All of the multi-family housing projects include below market rate units. The firm’s projects incorporate the Smart Growth principles designed to discourage auto use, mitigate sprawl, encourage local business, and enhance the pedestrian streetscape. Mr. Kennedy grew up in the East Bay, and attended Claremont McKenna College, majoring in Economics and English. He is a former member of the Carpenters Union and Steelworkers Union, and the California Bar. After college, he worked as a contractor, and then attended Harvard Law School and MIT, graduating with a J.D. and a Masters in Real Estate Development. Early development work included building his own house, and renovating several small commercial properties. His hobbies include open water swimming and ultra-light backpacking, both of which have furnished surprising insights into his work in development.

Nhan Nguyen Le is the CEO and Founder of Valiance Capital, a Berkeley-based real estate investment firm specializing in value-add and ground up development in student housing and multifamily. Valiance is a vertically integrated owner-operator with over 1,000 beds under management in Berkeley. With an AUM of over $300 million, aggregated across a 26-property portfolio with a growing pipeline in Berkeley, Valiance is one of the most active and leading market participants. Valiance’s in-house property management division, The Berkeley Group, is amongst the leading specialized student housing management firms in the market, with a nearly perfect 100% year-over-year occupancy, over the past 12 years. Recently, Valiance and The Berkeley Group has become the proud student housing partner of Cal Athletics. Nhan graduated from UC Berkeley and currently lives in Elmwood, Berkeley. For more information visit: www.valiancecap.com

Amir Massih is President, Northern California for 4Terra Investments. 4Terra Investments is an innovative and entrepreneurial multi-family development company focused on the western United States. The executive team is comprised of highly qualified, multi-disciplined industry professionals with combined experience of more than 70 years in the apartment development sector. Their expertise in acquisition, entitlement, development and construction of virtually every type of multifamily and mixed-use product is responsible for the creation of more than 30,000 units.

Alan E. Dones is a licensed contractor, a long-time entrepreneur, an outspoken advocate of equal opportunity in employment and contracting, and an accomplished musician/producer. Dones is principal of ADCo, LLC and managing partner and co-founder of SUDA, LLC, a firm specializing in large-scale, innovative, public agency projects and mixed-use development. SUDA has completed several landmark projects in Oakland, CA and is currently pioneering international development projects in Africa. In 1988, Alan Dones co-founded and served as CEO of Rondeau Bay Construction, Inc. (RBC), an engineering and construction firm based in Oakland, CA. Under his leadership, RBC grew to include offices in five major US cities and completed over $70 million of construction projects. Alan is active in a number of local and national organizations. He has worked with agencies throughout the United States to revise and enhance their small business and W/MBE policies. Currently, he is a member of the City of Oakland’s Workforce Investment Board; member of the Alameda County Health Care Foundation; and member the East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Commission. Formerly, Dones served as president of the Northern California Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors; vice-chairman of the Oakland City Charter Review Committee; board member of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce; delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business; and member of the Legislative Committee for the Engineering and Utility Contractor’s Association. As a member of the Military Conversion and Reinvestment Commission, Mr. Dones was instrumental in promoting legislation and drafting revisions to the language of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) that enhanced the ability of Women and Minority owned firms to compete for DOD and conversion related contracts. Mr. Dones has authored several articles on minority business issues in local and National publications. He has co-authored a measure on the 1996 ballot in Oakland, California to amend Oakland’s City Charter mandating Affirmative Action programs, combating disparities in City employment and contracting. This initiative had national significance in that it is one of the first voter responses to counter the impact of the controversial anti-affirmative action California Civil Right Initiative (CCRI). Alan Dones is executive producer and co-founder of Strategic Media Alliance, LLC (SMI) ― an international production company based in Oakland, CA. His musical credits are many. Alan co-authored the 1981 hit single, “Be Yourself” with world-renowned bassist, Nathan East. The song appeared on singer Debra Laws’ first solo album, “Very Special” and rose to the top-ten mark on Billboard’s R&B charts [listen]. In 1981, Dones co-authored, “Go For It”, performed by Bill Summers & Summers’ Heat and featured on their classic Jam the Box album. Alan has produced, written and performed with many of the Bay Area’s top artists, including Rodney Franklin, Ray Obeido, Larry Batiste, Jennifer Johns, Hannibal Means, Patricia Banks, Harvey Scales, David Daniel, and The Nemonics. He performed for more than a year in the award-winning and highly acclaimed San Francisco musical review, “Soul, Style & Sass.”

The Office of the Director provides department-wide leadership, management oversight, and policy direction for overall operations and implementation. The office oversees information technology projects, special projects and research, budget and fiscal oversight, regulatory compliance and reporting, and purchasing, payroll and accounting services for the entire Department.

Riaz Taplin has been thinking about workforce housing for most of his professional life. Growing up in a real estate family, Riaz detoured early in his career from the family business to develop his own style by founding a design/build firm and developing over 50 ultra-luxury residences in the Bay Area. Completing his last project just before the great recession, Riaz refocused his vision to workforce housing in Oakland. Over the next decade, Riaz built a portfolio of over 1,300 units in the workforce housing category. In the process, Riaz consistently worked to innovate market-rate approaches to workforce housing, also known as naturally-occurring affordable housing. In successive projects and ventures, Riaz explored co-living, adaptive reuse micro-units, student housing, and traditional ground-up construction – all of which led to the firm’s custom workforce housing solution – the ABD Studio. Today, Riaz leads Riaz Capital, a vertically integrated workforce housing developer and institutional-grade sponsor with a core team of over fifty professionals managing a portfolio of over 1,300 units, and with over 1,000 residences in the pipeline. Riaz is a board member of the Oakland Promise, the urban planning think tank SPUR, and co-chair of the American India Foundation SF Bay Area board. He earned a B.A. in Economic History from the London School of Economics.

Utilizing her partnership development, stakeholder engagement, project management, facilitation, and research skills, Elizabeth draws on her past cross-sector experience to design city policies and programs to ensure socially and environmentally responsible economic growth. Before joining city government, Elizabeth led IHS Markit’s Economic Strategy Solutions regional competitiveness consulting practice and launched the corporate Sustainable Customer Solutions initiative to help clients leverage IHS’ information, analytics and insight to achieve their own sustainability objectives. In the last decade, Elizabeth has also founded her own consulting firm (Cross Sector Strategies); designed regional industry cluster development strategies at the Economic Competitiveness Group; and advised many business associations, academic institutions, philanthropies, and non-profit organizations on a broad range of economic and workforce development topics. While her current focus is local, Elizabeth’s work experience spans the globe: she has worked on industry development and policy research projects in multiple US states, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In Berkeley, she leverages the leadership and knowledge of California’s life science industry leaders to foster local job creation, innovation and community well-being.

With a career that began in the construction industry in 1995, Ricardo brings a wealth of experience to his role. Before joining WEST Builders, he spent 9 years working for a renowned national design-build firm. In 2003, Ricardo became the first paid employee at WEST Builders, and since then, he has been responsible for leading the overall project development. This includes managing client relations, estimating, pre-construction, and ensuring successful project delivery. One of Ricardo's key strengths is his ability to cultivate industry partnerships, which are crucial for the continued growth and success of WEST Builders and its Clients. With his extensive experience in the construction industry and his dedication to client success, Ricardo Zamorano is an integral part of WEST Builders' continued growth and achievements. During his time away from work, he enjoys mountain biking and hiking with family and friends.