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Young Park
Title: President and Founder, Berkeley Investments
Age: 67
Experience: 25 years
Young Park looks at tired commercial properties in places like Malden, Somerville and Charlestown and sees opportunities for loft apartments and tech offices. It’s a strategy that his Boston-based development company, Berkeley Investments, carried out in Boston’s Fort Point after acquiring 13 warehouses from Boston Wharf Co. in 2004. Since then, rents have skyrocketed and the neighborhood’s brick-and-beam buildings have become a destination for startups. More recently, Berkeley is looking for value on the urban edge. It acquired a data center building opposite the Malden Center MBTA station as a potential destination for tech companies, plans to build 171 apartments after acquiring two commercial buildings in Sullivan Square, and is looking a site near Somerville’s Union Square for an approximately 400-unit apartment complex.
Q: Where did you grow up and what brought you to the Boston area?
A: I was born in Korea and grew up in Paris, until I came here to go to MIT. My parents, who were Korean, thought that MIT was the best school in the world and absolutely had no other choices, and I didn’t know enough to say no. For a kid who went to a Dominican boarding school, it was a bit of a shock, but I adapted I guess. I went to MIT for urban planning. After graduating (and obtaining an architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design), I worked both in France and the Middle East as an urban designer and planner. The biggest project I worked on after graduate school was the urban design for the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. That was pretty exciting. I spent three and a half years going back between Paris and Riyadh working on the master plan. The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs retained this French company called SCET International. It corresponded perfectly to my background. Then I had a planning company for a few years, and most of our clients wanted to do real estate. I started Berkeley in 1991.
Q: What did you see in Fort Point that made it a good investment in 2004?
A: Anyone that has an interest in large-scale design really had to look at this area. And particularly given what was going on with transportation network, you have to realize that the reason why the Channel area and Seaport had been neglected was because you couldn’t get to it. Once the Big Dig occurred and the tunnel to the airport was completed, you knew this area would be the next big development opportunity in the city. Our timing was good, but a lot of other people realized one of the byproducts of the Big Dig was opening up this incredible opportunity. We were lucky to have that opportunity and to have the wherewithal to be able to purchase half of the assets of the Boston Wharf Co.
Q: What’s the typical capital structure of a Berkeley Investments deal?
A: We have an internal fund and we generally act as the sponsor for all of our deals. We co-invest and look for financial partners. That’s the typical deal, and we’re rewarded by obviously the return on investment, but also a promote structure, a share of the added value above and beyond a preferred rate of return.
Q: What are the plans for a multifamily tower at 7 Channel Center?
A: A few years ago, (that property) was probably on the edge of the Fort Point Channel. And now with the resurgence of the area and particularly Broadway and the T stop, I think the Channel Center is very much in the middle of it. It’s probably the epicenter of the next phase of development. Most people who work in Channel Center used to think of South Station as the place to catch the Red Line. Now most people look to Broadway. Now that you have all these new restaurants, it’s a much more pleasant walk. If you combine it with what’s happening with GE, this is a fantastic area for future developments.
Q: How about Widett Circle?
A: It’s another one of these fantastic long-term opportunities. The question, is how soon will those become real? We’d rather take advantage of the existing opportunities than bank on long-term deals. That whole corridor along Albany Street is likely to develop before Widett Circle. It would require a real public-private partnership to resolve the transportation issues.
Q: Do you consider Berkeley Investments to be more Boston-focused than you were a decade ago?
A: Probably. We used to be very much a regional if not a national player. We had a lot of assets in the Eastern seaboard, and now we are focusing almost exclusively on Greater Boston. Although we’re still active in Providence, that’s a market where we’ll probably just manage what we have.
Park’s Top Five Ski Experiences:
- Skiing down from Zermatt, Switzerland to Cervinia, Italy for lunch. Heavenly pasta!
- Making fresh tracks in Back Bowls at Vail after a powder dump.
- Trying to keep up with Brazilian partygoers in Valle Nevado in Chile.
- Feeling the burn on Outer Limits at Killington.
- Watching our 10-year-old twins carve perfect turns at Beaver Creek.
