Herby Duverné
Founder and CEO, RISE Together
Age: 52
Industry experience: 10 years
Former Massport security official Herby Duverné is charting a new course in commercial real estate with his Boston-based development firm, RISE Together. Duverné approached industry veterans Jim Grossman of construction manager Suffolk and Brian Anderson from Apex Development to join him as partners at the minority-owned investment company. RISE Together is part of a team seeking the nod from Massachusetts Department of Transportation to redevelop parcel 25 on Boston’s Kneeland Street, proposing 302 housing units and 300,000 square feet of R&D space. RISE Together recently received approval in Haverhill to redevelop a vacant downtown commercial building at 86 Essex St. into 42 apartments and is seeking final approval to redevelop a commercial site at 7-11 Curtis St. in East Boston into 23 apartments and six condominiums.
Q: How did you hear about the opportunity to acquire the downtown Haverhill property?
A: That is a 7-story old factory building that has been vacant for years, and we felt that it was the right space to do what we needed to do. The location is awesome because of the proximity to the [MBTA commuter rail] station, which is great for commuters. One of the things our team does is we knock on doors. A lot of times, partners bring us opportunities and deals. This was one of those cases where a partner who we worked with in other places brought this opportunity to us. This is an interesting project. It’s a new market for us.
Q: What percentage of your projects are the result of off-market deals?
A: I would say more than half of our transactions are off-market, and that’s where we prefer to be: in an off-market space where the deal is not out there, so we can have better conversations with the owners. We don’t mind doing that. At RISE Together, we value relationships and feel that they’re not a zero-sum game where some lose and some win. It takes time to build relationships, but this is how we find some of our best deals: pounding the pavement, and connections with contractors we’ve worked with.
Q: Will RISE Together be raising funds from community members if it’s part of the selected team for MassDOT parcel 25?
A: In all of our projects, RISE Together has a philosophy of inclusiveness and flexibility where we want to make sure the values are shared throughout. So yes, we will be getting funds from people and at the same time we will have some of the partners and myself will be invested in that. What’s extremely important to me is we want to collaborate with the organizations in the city to ensure more Black and Brown people who have not been participants in investment be a part of that. We’ll be working with some of the players that I know. We want more people to get involved as well with this wealth generation.
I was born in Haiti. I moved to New York and spent one year, and went to school and Boston and worked in Boston most of my life. The reason MassDOT and Massport have these [minority participation] models is because we have not seen the progress in Boston that we should have had when we talk about real estate development. This model is almost forcing that foundation to happen. With this program in place, we have now partnered with Hudson Group and Brookfield Properties and Bo Menkiti and are looking at opportunities.
Q: How many projects does RISE Together you have in predevelopment and where?
A: Our South Boston development [a hotel at 330 C St.] is still in the works. We have a number of different parcels in Charlestown that we’re working on with the BPDA, knowing their Imagine Boston 2030 vision of what they want the area to be. We’ve been working with the community there and we’ll have some updates soon.
Q: Will you pursue compact living-style units in future projects?
A: I will tell you we are not, but we’re thinking about other ways to mitigate the issues of housing. One of our partners is talking about co-living. That model is very big in Atlanta and San Francisco, but not in Massachusetts.
Duverné’s Top 5 Places to Visit in Boston:
- Franklin Park
- Dudley Café in Nubian Square
- The Fenway
- Bunker Hill Monument
- North End
