The ever-changing real estate landscape of Boston requires developers to be resourceful and agile as they adjust to countless challenges such as new energy and building codes and a tough financing market. While historically Boston has seen a group of big-name players leading the development game, a new crop of firms have started to make their impact known. In this series, BLDUP speaks with Boston’s Next Generation of Developers to discuss how they got their start, what makes for a good project, and their thoughts on the future of development in the city.
In this first installment, we highlight Herby Duverné, Founder of RISE. As a minority-owned development and construction firm, RISE’s team delivers a fundamentally different type of equitable development model: one that is committed to generating a combination of strong economic and social returns that foster growth opportunities to lift and enrich entire neighborhoods.
BLDUP: RISE has grown from a construction management firm to developing some of the most impactful projects in the Boston pipeline, what led to the transformation of the business?
Herby Duverné:
- RISE’s depth of experience in development and permitting, combined with the team’s agile mindset, brings the expertise of a large firm and the innovative cost solutions of a midsized firm together.
- RISE strives to be as efficient as possible in our business. Our business model takes an integrated approach. We source our opportunities internally, entitle internally with experienced staff, and on many occasions build the project ourselves with our construction division. This allows RISE to see the entire picture, eliminate the conflicts and misalignment that exist in the industry today and mitigate the risks associated with the build.
- This model has proven successful, and RISE has grown over the past five years, scaling while preserving the advantages and equitable development mission that drove our early success.
- These efficiencies show up on our projects as more affordability, deeper community benefits and living wage workforce participation.
BLDUP: What makes a “good project” or investment for RISE?
Herby Duverné:
- A good project is one that creates lasting impacts, one that is committed to generating a combination of strong economic and social returns that foster growth opportunities to lift and enrich entire neighborhoods. This equitable development model is the mission behind all of our projects.
- RISE not only believes in creating meaningful projects that reflect the surrounding neighborhood, but we are keenly aware of looking beyond just the makeup of the team to identify ways to create equitable development and drive true change.
- Our approach to equitable development addresses quality of life outcomes, such as affordable housing, quality education, living wage employment, healthy environments, and transportation. If we can address these for the better, we believe it is a worthy project.
BLDUP: What challenges do developers face in growing from small projects to larger developments?
Herby Duverné:
- While bigger projects are more complex, our nimble approach can be scaled for larger developments.
- RISE’s integrated Development and Construction Management company model helps identify risks early, control costs and succinctly manage the process. We have a unique position to see the industry challenges from multiple points of view but within the same company. This gives us an advantage in conquering these challenges.
- This allows our team to explore project economics early to ensure the best affordability percentages, freeing up more funding for community partnerships and saving time to implement smarter and more environmentally sound projects.
BLDUP: Thoughts on the future of Boston development given new regulations (energy efficiency, affordable housing, etc)?
Herby Duverné:
- This is where RISE has an advantage as a fairly new company. We built our company and foster our approach based upon these new regulations. These are not changes for us. This is how we look at our projects. This is how we do business.
- The preservation and production of Affordable Housing and housing creation is just one of many areas where we align with the Mayor.
- The need for more affordable housing is a driving factor in the development of every RISE project proposal. Many of our residential projects are already aiming for 20% affordable, before this became the City’s regulation.
- RISE has also made a significant investment in sustainable project designs, integrating sustainability and resiliency at all levels, and utilizing renewable energy and zero carbon design principles to mitigate the project’s environmental impacts.
- RISE was also recently selected by the BPDA and the Boston Society for Architecture (BSA) for the Mass Timber Accelerator Program, launched to promote mass timber building practices in New England. RISE will use these resources to incorporate CLT (cross-laminated timber), a more sustainable material and practice, into buildings that are nine stories in height or taller.
- Our cost model was built with these practices as the foundation. Our business operations are built around these approaches, we are extremely excited for the future.
BLDUP: How have current market conditions (rising interest rates, construction costs) affected your pipeline?
Herby Duverné:
- There will always be ebbs and flows in the market, and we are experiencing changing economic headwinds now.
- By scaling our small business mindset with our larger projects, we have found that we can keep costs down, despite the rising construction costs and supply chain issues over this past year.
- The integrated approach of the firm keeps the project processes streamlined and on time, keeping costs down. RISE has also traditionally worked with smaller subcontractors that are more cost effective. Many happen to also be M/WBE’s – which is a partnership priority for us as well. These internal savings and our external partnerships are then combined with direct material sourcing to ensure we can endure these current economic headwinds.
BLDUP: What projects are you most excited about?
Herby Duverné:
- We are really excited about the Sullivan Square redevelopment in Charlestown. The mixed-use project will deliver a holistic vision for the larger neighborhood, including a significant affordable housing component.
- RISE also announced the acquisition of Banner Park in Braintree, which will bring a movie studio to the East Coast.
BLDUP: What are your goals for the company in the next 5 years?
Herby Duverné:
- RISE wants to continue to deliver on our promises to the communities we are working within. RISE has created a new playbook for development by disrupting the traditional approach to projects and their relationship to the community. RISE embeds their team and invests in the community before any project is awarded, earning, and building trust while proving commitment with no strings attached.
- Our goal is continued growth and scale and bring to life the vision these neighborhoods have shared with us.
BLDUP: What do you think the CRE industry can do to better advance diversity, equity, and inclusion and attract more underrepresented minority students and women to the industry?
Herby Duverné: As a minority-owned developer, we are always seeking out new relationships with MWBE partners on our projects. Public policy tends to lead private sector change, however we believe that the true thought leaders across the city will take it upon themselves to strive for more. The city’s goals to incentivize and require companies to make this a priority will only help make for better projects and more dynamic, healthy, successful neighborhoods across Boston.
Link to original article: Boston's Next Generation of Developers: RISE | BLDUP