IAM1164- Managing Principal Creates Affordable and Workforce Housing

As Managing Principal of Dantes Partners, Mr. Binitie directs the acquisition, development, management, and financial activities of the firm. Mr. Binitie has extensive tax credit financing experience (LIHTC, NMTC, and HTC) and has closed on financing from nearly every public capital source available including HOME, HPTF, NSP, CDBG, and NIF. Mr. Binitie maintains a narrow focus on creatively structuring deals that strive to address the need of his clients, community stakeholders as well as various government agency partners. By narrowly focusing on efficiently financing community development transactions, Mr. Binitie has been successful in adding value beyond the numbers. Mr. Binitie’s career is underscored by a commitment to creating and preserving affordable and workforce housing.

To this end, since founding Dantes Partners, Mr. Binitie and his team have closed over $750 million of unconventional real estate transactions that utilize low-income tax credits, new market tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, and various other forms of alternative financing. These efforts have led to the creation of over 2400 units of workforce and affordable housing. Mr. Binitie speaks regularly at industry-focused events.

Recent engagements include sessions with The Minority Resource, African American Real Estate Professionals, Bisnow, DC Building Industry Association, Georgetown University, University of Maryland – Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development, and the Howard University Real Estate Club.

Mr. Binitie is currently the Chairman of the DC Housing Finance Agency Board of Directors. He also serves as a Board Member for the DC Building Industry Association, and previously on City First Bank where he is a member of the Audit and Compliance Committee, the Business & Community Development Committee, and the Directors Loan Committee.

• CEO Hack: Discipline and persistence
• CEO Nugget: Focus on one thing and perfect the craft
• CEO Defined: A visionary, an inspiration, one who has strong convictions and is not afraid to lead

Website: http://www.dantespartners.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/buwa-binitie-3483b320/

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00:33 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

01:01 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. About Benite of Dante's Partners. Buwa, it's great to have you on the show.

01:11 – Buwa Binitie

Thank you.

01:12 – Gresham Harkless

Thanks for having me. Yeah, super excited to have you on. Before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Buu so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. As managing principal of Dante's partners, Buu directs the acquisition development management and financial activities of the firm. Buu has extensive tax credit financing experience and has closed on financing from nearly every public capital source available. Buu maintains a narrow focus on creatively structuring deals that strive to address the needs of his clients, community stakeholders, as well as various government agency partners.

By narrowly focusing on efficient financing and community development transactions, Buu has been successful in adding value beyond the numbers. Bua's career is underscored by a commitment to creating and preserving affordable and workforce housing. To this end, since founding Dante's Partners, Bua and his team have closed over 750 million of unconventional real estate transactions that utilize low-income tax credits, new market tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, and various other forms of alternative financing.

These efforts have led to the creation of over 2, 400 units of workforce and affordable housing. Buwa speaks regularly at industry-focused events and recent engagements include sessions with a minority resource African American and real estate professionals of the D.C. Building Industry Association and previously on the city's first bank where he is a member of the audit and compliance committee, the business community, development committee, and the directors loan committee, doing so many awesome things, super excited to have you on. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:58 – Buwa Binitie

Absolutely.

03:00 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on a little bit about your bio and all the awesome things you've been able to accomplish. What I wanted to do was just kind of rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

03:14 – Buwa Binitie

Sure, well, appreciate you again for giving me the platform to share my story. Hopefully, I'll be able to drop 1 or 2 nuggets for you and your audience members. Listen, I always say this, I got into the business out of necessity. I got into this business because I found myself at multiple points in my adolescence growing up, right after college, and in the middle of my career, thinking I was making good money and realized very quickly that I could not afford to live within close proximity to where I was working.

So living in New York, right after college, I had to commute over an hour from Jersey City to get to work because, you know, a New York City wreck was exhumed in the den. I'm sure it's still the case now. The same thing happened to me in San Francisco when I moved to San Fran from New York and found myself living in a hotel room for over 6 months. Because simply simply, you know, due to the fact that I couldn't find a place that was within, you know, within my budget, you know, and and I just thought it was a travesty.

So I'd always told myself that, you know, if at any point in time in the future I could solve any problem, it would be the problem of finding decent quality affordable places for people to live within close proximity to the job. So several opportunities fell on my lap that basically led me to where I now own a family of companies that are vertically integrated that all focus on the creation and preservation of affordable housing.

05:00 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I know you, I touched on it a little bit, you know, when I read your bio and you did as well too, could you take us through a little bit more on what you're doing with Dante's Partners and how you serve the clients you work with?

05:10 – Buwa Binitie

Well, first and foremost, our clients are our customers, right? So our customers are the individuals who ultimately, you know, rent apartment units and build them. So, you know, Dante's Partners, first and foremost, started up as a consulting firm, right? So we got into the business because we realized that there were a number of mom-and-pop outfits out there in the DMV area who, you know, all they wanted to do was just build.

They just wanted to construct the buildings, you know, get the construction projects off the ground and just focus on the craft. However, prior to securing the financing to build an apartment building, several tasks must be completed to activate the site. So I came across a niche in which I could provide project managerial services, giving my consulting background to a lot of those mom-and-pop outfits. Mind you, this was like a side gig for me.

So I would be the one who would create the pretty packages and throw a little jargon here and there to be able to convince the banks to extend credit to my client at the time. My client just wanted to focus on being in the field. So I was essentially their back-of-office guy to make them look and feel beautiful in front of, and quite a body in front of the bank. So I did that for a number of years. An opportunity came across my desk where a particular client could no longer move forward on activating a real estate project.

And have been around real estate for so long at that point in time, built, and done developer-for-hire work for other clients of mine. I decided to just say you know what I think I can be a developer. So I basically stepped into the developer role and frightened, anxious, excited all in one and worked extremely hard to activate, you know, basically, I, you know, hired the architect, hired the general contractor, you know, had to go secure the financing, and basically built my first new construction building out of the ground which is the building that still stands today.

So having tasted a little bit of what it took to get the project off the ground, even though it was arduous, even though it was extremely challenging, and lengthy. The reward at the end of the day was just beyond the dollars that flowed through my bank account. The reward at the end of the day is an individual who moved from, I believe it was Columbia, Maryland, or Laurel, Maryland to DC because she worked at the Washington Hospital Center.

And the moment she moved into her apartment building, the first thing she did was get rid of a car. After getting rid of a car, guess what happened? Insurance was no longer a bill that she had to pay. What happened after that gas was no longer a bill that she had to pay. She was walking to work every day to talk about an hour's commute. Now slaps into like, you know, 10, 15 minutes, right? Simply because of the fact that I have stuck to my mission.

So that's again, you know, a full circle turnaround to how I started out in the business where I wished that opportunity. If that opportunity had presented itself to me back then, I guess I wouldn't be where I am today. So I guess it's a good thing that I experienced something similar, but that's the reward. So since then, we've been focused heavily on building affordable housing throughout the DC area. That consulting company has morphed into a development company that has an office both in DC and New York. We're doing thousands of units in New York as well.

Same in DC, we now own a property management company that we started 5 years ago that operates our properties and caters to the customers who choose to live at our apartment building, as well as starting an investment firm 4 years ago that exclusively focuses on acquiring affordable houses. So we've got an arm that builds it and we've got an arm that acquires to preserve it. So those are basically, you know, the full host of services that we are currently providing today to ensure that, you know, DC and New York City remain affordable.

09:43 – Gresham Harkless

And do you feel like that's part of like your secret sauce, the ability to kind of, you know, have that expertise and have gone in that journey, continue to kind of sharpen the sauce, so to speak, and reach that higher heights, as you kind of said so well, do you feel like that is something that makes you unique and sets you apart?

09:59 – Buwa Binitie

Yeah, you know, The thing that I always tell folks is, I mean, using the analogy, right? The analogy, going back to hip hop references or what have, how many times have we heard artists going broke or not owning their masters or not understanding their publishing rights and so on and so forth? I think at the end of the day, the one thing that I would say that we've done and we continue to do is just really fully understanding the business in which we're in.

I think that it's like, I remember one time I was talking to a grocery operator, and I marveled at the way he broke down what product needed to be positioned in one hour on one shelf. Whether in the front or in the back of the grocery chain. Like there was a science to product placement in the grocery store that you're in. It's not happenstance. Right. That was what really triggered it for me to be like, oh, yeah, I need to really understand the business in which I'm in.

11:06 – Gresham Harkless

And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit. I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but What's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:18 – Buwa Binitie

I'm a very disciplined guy and I'm very consistent.

11:22 – Gresham Harkless

I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show, so boo, what does being a CEO mean to you?

11:31 – Buwa Binitie

Ha ha ha ha. You know, I chuckle at that question because if you've noticed, I don't refer to myself as a CEO. I refer to myself as an agent-principal of a company. I've actually shied away from that title for a very long time because frankly, I don't think I've earned it. Because a CEO to me is, you know, as a chief executive officer, right, is someone who, you know, who's a visionary, first and foremost, someone who has got very strong convictions. Strong convictions.

Someone who is not afraid to be uncomfortable, who is also not afraid to lead and galvanize an entire team to go to work every single day to achieve certain outcomes which I think are traits that I am finally accepting as an individual. So that's why I'm hoping that I'm waiting for one major transaction to close. I think when that major transaction closes, I think then and only then would I be comfortable referring to myself as a CEO.

But I think those are some of the things that, look, I've had the fortunate pleasure of working with some really great people. I think my issue is, that I don't even know if I am remotely close to their caliber, right, as leaders. And, you know, I know what those people bring, right? You know, they bring nothing but sheer inspiration to the team, encouraging them every single day to go out, work, fight, and win the war.

I used to travel to the end of the earth for the company that I used to work for because that's what I love to do I wanted the company to succeed. I'm seeing folks in my company doing that. I'll tell you, it's a little nerve-racking. But I think the moment I overcome the nerve-racking then I'll be much more comfortable calling myself a CEO. But 1 day, maybe the next time we talk, you can call me a true CEO. But for now, I'm working towards that.

13:44 – Gresham Harkless

But we truly appreciate that definition. I of course appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. Of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all those things you and your team are working on.

13:59 – Buwa Binitie

Sure. Look, we, you know, I think one of the things that we're very, very proud of is the fact that we're a Black-owned firm that's just basically trying to shift the culture a little bit in the real estate business. I tell people a lot that this is an industry that has 1% representation, and somehow within my firm, we have 98% representation. So we are out here doing some truly amazing things, and we hope the community sees and continues to support that.

More importantly, the community feels like, you know what if they can do it, we can do it as well. So it's not by any stretch of the imagination easy, but I think that the thing I would say is it's the adversities that we face as a community that really push us to become resilient and to become resilient and just persevere. So long as people realize that and they stay focused on their note star, they will achieve a constant state of happiness.

15:12 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. For people who want to get ahold of you and your team, what's the best way for them to do that?

15:18 – Buwa Binitie

I believe we're all of us on social media. Now my distance got my team is gonna kill me. I'm sorry, I'm a little old-fashioned so I'm not up to speed. But no, I believe we're, what do they call it? The Gram? I believe we're all over the Gram. Yeah, on the Gram. Yeah. We're all over the Gram as far as DiveTaste Partners is concerned Twitter and Facebook and everything else and LinkedIn. Obviously, you know, I've got a LinkedIn presence. That I do check. People tend to ping me a lot on LinkedIn. And to the extent that I can be of guidance to them and their career or their entrepreneurial aspirations, I'm more than happy to.

15:58 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. We truly appreciate that. To make sure your team doesn't kill you make it even easier. We're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're doing. But I truly appreciate you for, you know, obviously all the impact that you're having.

I think so many times we forget that when we follow our North Star or follow our mission and lean into our mission, not only do we inspire and make an impact ourselves, but we make an impact for those around us as well. Those that are paying attention to us. So I appreciate you for doing that. Of course, taking some time out today. I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:29 – Outro