Cedric Bobo discusses a recent program for Black student-athletes to transition into the industrial real estate market.
Diana Olick | CNBC
When Darius Livingston graduated from the University of California, Davis, two years ago, he knew his football profession was over. Like most of his former teammates — and nearly all of college athletes — he wasn’t going pro.
As a substitute, Livingston went into industrial real estate, due to lessons he learned from a paid internship program that teaches young students of color the basics of finance, with a specific deal with real estate investing.
This system, Project Destined, is a social impact platform founded by former Carlyle Group principal Cedric Bobo.
Bobo made a reputation for himself in real estate investing after which decided to pay it forward. He launched the finance program in 2016 primarily for prime school students. Then he broadened it to high schools, seeing the chance for each internships and jobs before and after graduation.
Desirous to diversify their workforces, a few of the largest real estate development, finance and management firms have signed on to fund the internships and mentor the scholars. That features names like Boston Properties, Greystar, Brookfield, CBRE, Equity Residential, Fifth Wall, JLL, Skanska, Vornado and Walker & Dunlop.
This system has trained greater than 5,000 participants from over 350 universities worldwide and has partnered with over 250 real estate firms.
And now, it’s gearing a few of its efforts specifically toward Black student-athletes.
After doing a pilot program recently with student-athletes from UC Davis, Bobo has announced a partnership with the Black Student-Athlete Summit, an expert and academic support organization, to supply paid, virtual internships to 100 student-athletes from nine Division I schools. It includes 25 hours of coaching.
“Program participants can even join executives to guage real-time industrial real estate transactions of their community and compete in pitch competitions to senior industry leaders,” in response to a release announcing the partnership. “The internship includes opportunities for scholarships and networking.”
Livingston went through the UC Davis pilot in his last semester of school, then got internships with Eastdil and Eden Housing. He’s now an acquisitions and development associate at Catalyst Housing Group, a California-based real estate development firm and a financial backer of the brand new partnership.
“I feel, for me, it was really a realization that I probably won’t be a first-round draft pick, and that is OK,” explained Livingston. “It’s really being exposed to other opportunities. That is why I’m so blessed to have Project Destined come along and expose me to the industrial real estate industry and the mindset that I need to be an owner within the communities that I live in.”
That right of ownership has long been Bobo’s mantra and was the crux of his pitch as he announced the brand new arm of his program to lots of of scholars on the Black Student-Athletes Summit at USC. He wants them to grasp that they will create change in their very own neighborhoods by owning and managing real estate. More necessary, he wants them to know that ownership is feasible.
“Our program is just not nearly how we see you all,” Bobo said of the actual estate executives who were readily available for the announcement. “It’s the way you see yourselves.”
While the graduation rate for Black student-athletes is improving slowly, plenty of students who were showered with resources in class find themselves struggling once they finish their athletic endeavors and get out within the workforce.
“A whole lot of these kids might imagine they are a first-round draft pick, and that could be a percent of a percent of a percent of a percent, so it’s really being real with yourself and knowing that you simply deserve far more than what you are simply exposed to, and that is just sports,” Livingston said.
Financial support for this system comes from real estate firms including BGO, Brookfield, Catalyst Housing Group, Dune Real Estate Partners, Jemcor Development Partners, Landspire Group, Marcus & Millichap, Virtu Investments and The Vistria Group, amongst others.
“The expansion of this platform is a natural evolution of this collective effort and can provide tangible pathways for 1000’s of Black student-athletes to pursue future careers in industrial real estate,” said Jordan Moss, who can be a former student-athlete at UC Davis and the founder and CEO of Catalyst.
Project Destined also has been working with the NBA and the WNBA to offer skilled athletes more options after they’re finished with their athletic careers.
Livingston said he thinks athletes make the very best employees.
“We play to win,” he explained. “It is the competitive nature. We would like to outwork our opportunities.”