Transforming Vacant Offices: Strategies for Successful Conversions

Navigating Challenges, Building Codes, Design and Construction Strategies, Adaptive Reuse Programs, and Success Stories

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  Marc Babsin

  In addition to 15 years of experience in real estate development, Mr. Babsin is an attorney and CPA. Mr. Babsin holds a BS in Accountancy from the University of Illinois, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a Master in City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.

  Emerald Fund

  President

  Strategies for Successful Office-to-Residential Conversions

  Marc Babsin

  President

  Emerald Fund

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  Lily Langlois

  Lily Langlois brings over 17 years of visionary leadership in public sector planning, where she has been the driving force behind some of San Francisco’s most transformative projects. From orchestrating large-scale development agreements to crafting innovative neighborhood strategies and area plans, Lily’s expertise has shaped the city's landscape. Lily holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

  City of San Francisco

  Principal Planner

  Insights into Regulatory Changes, Building Codes, and Financial Incentives

  Lily Langlois

  Principal Planner

  City of San Francisco

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  Isis Spinola-Schwartz

  Isis Spinola-Schwartz is a development executive with more than fifteen years of experience in real estate development, land use planning, and project and development management. Her experience includes the development of commercial and residential projects, multi-family garden apartments, university campus, and hotels. Her extensive Real Estate experience includes operations and development management of more than sixty buildings in San Francisco for Veritas Real Estate Investments, one of San Francisco’s largest multi-family real estate development companies. More recently Isis worked on conversions of existing housing stock into LIHTC residential units, adding more than 600 dwelling units to the affordable housing stock in the San Francisco Bay Area. Isis specializes in the development of processes that ensure the seamless implementation of real estate projects. Whether adding Additional Dwelling Units to historic buildings in urban settings, or bringing together diverse disciplines to implement complex urban infill residential and commercial projects, Isis uses her extensive experience and business contacts to develop and nurture great relationships that ensure seamless implementation from design development to occupancy. In addition to her experience in Real Estate, Isis is passionate about bringing innovative and sustainable solutions to the urban environment. She worked for the United Nations in the Sustainable Urban Planning offices in Vienna, Austria and is a member of the Katerva Cities and Mobility Impact Panel, (https://katerva.net/awards/award-categories/12-cities-and-mobility), which helps evaluate and accelerate disruptive sustainable innovations from around the world. “I am excited about working for Forge Development Partners because the company is developing state of the art solutions to today’s urban living. The development of workforce housing that is sustainable and affordable is not only critical, it should also become the norm in today’s world. I look forward to working with this dynamic team and its partners to bring the projects currently on the board and many others to San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.

  Forge Development Partners

  CSO

  785 Market St: Office-to-Residential Conversion

  Isis Spinola-Schwartz

  CSO

  Forge Development Partners

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  Courtney Miller

  Courtney Miller is Principal of Ecobuild Architects, a residential/ commercial firm serving the Greater Bay Area providing unique solutions for residential/ multi-family, office, and retail environments with a special focus on high performance, nature-inspired design.

  Ecobuild Architects

  Principal

  Courtney Miller

  Principal

  Ecobuild Architects

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  Faraaz Mirza

  Faraaz Mirza leads DLR Group’s San Francisco office. He has 25 years of experience working in the Bay Area with a large focus on multifamily housing. He is a recognized leader in the design of high density, urban infill projects. His award-winning projects capture and reflect the dynamism and culture of the Bay Area. His projects include Arterra in Mission Bay, Marlow and Rockwell on the Van Ness corridor, and Vida in the Mission District.

  DLR Group

  Principal

  What Types of Offices Are Feasible and Key Strategies

  Faraaz Mirza

  Principal

  DLR Group

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  Timothy Reyff

  Tim is a Construction Professional with over 25+ years experience. In Tim's role with the Carpenters Union he works at Carpenters Local 22 in San Francisco. Tim also is a Job Tracker and Marketer in San Francisco.

  NorCal Carpenters Union

  Field Representative

  Moderator

  Timothy Reyff

  Field Representative

  NorCal Carpenters Union

Redefining the Classics: Adaptive Reuse Opportunities Across Asset Classes

Exploring Conversion Viability, Zoning, Financing, and Key Factors Behind Successful Conversions

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  Seth Lang

  As SVP of Development and Partner at Riaz Capital, Seth oversees land acquisitions, construction, design, and entitlement. With over 9 years of experience in the real estate business, Seth leads with a people-first mindset and manages the many moving pieces so the organization can deliver on its vision of quality workforce housing at an affordable price. Prior to Riaz Capital, he earned his B.A. in Economics and then worked in public accounting at Deloitte and Touche LLC, where he focused primarily on commercial real estate and learned the business inside and out. Seth found the accounting world engaging but not particularly innovative. At Riaz Capital, he discovered he could be both commercial and innovative.

  Riaz Capital

  Partner and SVP of Development

  Hotel-to-Workforce Housing Conversion

  Seth Lang

  Partner and SVP of Development

  Riaz Capital

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  Bora Ozturk

  Mr. Ozturk is a highly experienced real estate investment executive with over 29 years of investment management, marketing and finance experience. He is the co-founder of March Capital Management and has been the Managing Principal since inception. Since co-founding MCM, Mr. Ozturk has successfully raised four equity funds without using any third-party consultants. He has shepherded these dollars into successful strategies, which have consistently returned outstanding IRRs, even during economic downturns. In addition to raising capital, Mr. Ozturk’s key functions include high involvement in acquisition, due diligence, entitlement, permitting, architectural design and contract negotiations. Prior to co-founding MCM, Mr. Ozturk began his career as a management consultant at Monitor Deloitte and as a brand manager at Unilever. He soon went on to manage 500+ employees in the private, retail and business banking channels at Wells Fargo. Mr. Ozturk holds a Master of Business Administration from Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from METU. He was born and raised in Turkey and fluently speaks Turkish and French.

  March Capital Management

  Principal & General Partner

  1912-Built Historical Building Converted into Housing

  Bora Ozturk

  Principal & General Partner

  March Capital Management

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  Jack Sylvan

  Jack Sylvan is founder and principal of SDG, LLC, a San Francisco-based investment, development and advisory company delivering exceptional value to investors, partners and clients on complex and innovative mixed-use development opportunities. Jack has 25+ years of real estate investment and development experience on transformational, multi-phase, extremely complex mixed-use real estate projects in the San Francisco Bay Area leading acquisition, entitlement, negotiation of complex transactional and public-private partnership agreements and development activities. The projects represent more than 16 million square feet of mixed-use, commercial office, life science/biotech, multifamily, retail, historic rehabilitation, arts and community space, and hundreds of acres of parks, streets and infrastructure. Prior to forming SDG, Jack served as Senior Vice President of Development for Forest City Realty Trust and Brookfield Properties where he built and led the local development team responsible for all aspects of entitlement and development of three of San Francisco’s largest redevelopment projects -- Pier 70, 5M and Stonestown Galleria -- representing 8 million square feet of residential and commercial space. Prior to this, Jack spent 8 years in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office overseeing large public-private real estate development projects including leading the planning and negotiation process for the approximately 8 million-square-foot Treasure Island redevelopment project, where he successfully negotiated agreements with the private development partner, an affordable housing consortium, and the historic agreement with the U.S. Navy for the transfer of the property. Early in his career, he spent time with CB Richard Ellis/Sedway Group providing real estate consulting and financial analysis to private and public clients.

  SDG

  Principal

  Industrial-to-Retail Adaptive Reuse

  Jack Sylvan

  Principal

  SDG

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  Cecily Barclay

  Cecily T. Barclay is a partner with Perkins Coie LLP in San Francisco, where she represents landowners, developers, and public agencies on matters involving complex land use and entitlements, real estate acquisition and development, redevelopment, and local government law. Her work is increasing focused on adaptive reuse, as well as redevelopment and development of mixed-use retail centers, hotels and resorts, life science campuses and residential communities. Ms. Barclay is the prior national chair of her firm’s Real Estate and Land Use Group and has authored California Land Use and Planning Law (Solano Press 39th ed.) for over 20 years. Ms. Barclay serves on the Publication Oversight Board for the ABA’s State and Local Government Law Section and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School.

  Perkins Coie

  Partner

  Moderator

  Cecily Barclay

  Partner

  Perkins Coie