Multifamily Stalwart Fairstead Reportedly Laying Off 10% Of Workforce

Developer Fairstead has reportedly cut 10% of its workforce after enlisting an outsourcing firm in India.

The developer has carried out two rounds of cuts to its 700-person workforce, announcing layoffs in February and last week, The Real Deal reports. Former employees told the publication they had been training workers at Indian company Enhancor, only realizing after being laid off that they had been training their replacements.

“At first I thought I was crazy, but then I learned colleagues from other departments had stated they’d been replaced as well after training employees,” one source said, speaking to TRD on the condition of anonymity.

Fairstead, a New York-based firm that owns multifamily properties in 28 states, is “making realignments to match current and future business needs,” a spokesperson for the company told Bisnow in an email. 

“2022 was the company’s biggest year of growth and we have a higher headcount than we did a year ago,” the spokesperson said. “This is a reality of any high-growth company.” 

Fairstead recently opened two new offices in Colorado and Florida and is hiring for more than 40 open positions, the spokesperson added. 

Fairstead declined to comment on the layoffs or claims that it is outsourcing operations to India. Reviews posted on employee feedback website Glassdoor align with the claims, TRD reported.

“Layoffs have been handled horribly,” a current employee posted last week, per TRD. “Moved some jobs to India to some company called Enhancor. … It’s a dumpster fire.”

Some former employees also claimed that Fairstead has failed to make back payments or compensate the laid-off workers for unused vacation days.

Fairstead describes itself as “purpose-driven” and “dedicated to building sustainable communities across the country.” In the past year, the firm has filed plans to replace a 66-unit multifamily property in Alexandria, Virginia, with a 529-unit mixed-use building where more than half the units would be affordable.

Earlier this year, it continued its multifamily expansion with the $90M purchase of a 210-townhome community in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. Fairstead is also looking to sell a mammoth Harlem complex totaling 1,802 units for $400M.

But scandal hit the firm last August when Will Blodgett accused his Fairstead co-founder Jeffrey Goldberg of stealing tens of millions of dollars from him, The Real Deal previously reported. In December, Fairstead sued Blodgett’s new firm, Tredway, calling it a “copycat company” and claiming that it stole information from Fairstead.

Multifamily firms like Fairstead have been relatively insulated from the distress in other commercial real estate sectors, namely office and transaction services. Brokerages in particular have begun to cut costs by letting go of workers. Walker & Dunlop is laying off 8% of its staff, it announced this week, after previously reported layoffs by CBRE, JLL and others.