Other families may have debated sports or politics, but at the dinner table in Brookline where Gilbert Winn grew up, the talk was all real estate, all the time.
After all, Dad was none other than prominent Boston developer Arthur Winn, who was already on his way to building a nationwide housing empire when Gilbert Winn was just a boy.
“I had 18 years of real estate experience around the dinner table,” recalls Winn, now 36. “I always found the art of the deal really fascinating.”
“I knew it was about hard work and finding a unique opportunity,” he said.
Three decades or so later, Winn now has the chance to pursue some killer deals of his own, taking over the helm of Winn Cos. as of Jan. 1. Letters and press releases announcing Winn’s new role as chief executive are set to go out today. Arthur Winn retired in 2009, coming back over the years to work on specific projects; this year marks the retirement of Samuel Ross, who has been the company’s CEO for a decade and a half.
Winn’s elevation to the top job comes after a break from real estate at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied psychology and history, followed by a decade and a half learning the real estate business.
A history buff, Winn’s favorite book is Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker,” an epic biography of Robert Moses, New York City’s master post-war builder – and dealmaker.
After a couple of years down in New York working with development giant Related Cos., Winn headed back home to Boston to work for Winn, learning the family business empire inside and out in different posts.
He takes over a company that his father built into the largest manager of affordable and military housing in the country and the fifth largest apartment management company overall. The Winn empire boasts $2.5 billion in real estate holdings and manages a staggering 92,000 apartments and homes in 23 states, most of them affordable.
The real estate giant got to where it is today through a combination of development savvy and shrewd use of government tax credits and other subsidies aimed at spurring construction of affordable housing.
Moving Ahead, Moving On
Far from resting on his father’s laurels, Gilbert Winn is determined to make his own mark. He wants to broaden the company’s portfolio by building more market-rate housing, with ambitious new projects underway on the East Boston waterfront and in Washington, D.C. And he wants to keep the company’s massive affordable housing portfolio growing, with hopes of pushing the number of apartments under management past the 100,000 mark.
“In the next couple of years, we will certainly surpass that number,” he said.
When it comes to development, Winn is bulldozing ahead, with a dozen new projects up and down the East Coast that are in various stages of the approval or construction process.
A centerpiece of those plans is Clippership Wharf, a 400-unit apartment and condo complex that has the potential to be the company’s flagship project in Boston right now. Winn hopes to kick off construction of the long-awaited project later this year, having shifted from an all-condo project to a mix of offerings, in which apartments will make up the majority of the units.
City Hall has signed off on the project (though negotiations continue), and the timing could not be better, with both rents and condo prices rising steadily. The new development is also strategically placed near the Maverick T station.
It would also probably take some of the sting out of Columbus Center, an ambitious but ultimately doomed air-rights tower proposal in the South End that Arthur Winn spent years doggedly pursued.
“We are excited by all the action taking place right now on the waterfront,” Winn said. “We think it’s a great site and we believe the market will create itself.”
Winn is also working on plans for a 108-unit apartment complex exclusively for veterans on Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton near Brighton Marine Health Center.
A New Direction
But the Boston projects, as ambitious as they are, are dwarfed by the size of the 1 million square foot development Winn is chasing right now in Washington, D.C.
The $300-million mixed-used development would include 800 apartments, mostly market-rate, as well as 100,000 square feet of retail and 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of office space. Winn’s goal is to line up all the permits by next year and launch work soon after.
“My father was always interested and always great in development work,” he said. “I got that from him, and I will always carry it with me.”
This bevy of new development projects is part an overall decision to take on some market-rate apartment projects after almost focusing almost exclusively on government-subsidized affordable housing.
“More and more we are looking at market-rate development,” Winn said. “We don’t want to lose the attention on affordable housing, but at the same time we realize we need to branch into other areas of real estate.”
Yet while new big new developments are what most often make the headlines, the majority of Winn’s business involves managing apartment projects around the country. Winn has no plans to shift gears there and hopes to boost the number of apartments under management from 92,000 today to over 100,000 – and beyond. To do so, he plans to use a mix of acquisitions of smaller firms or their housing portfolios.
“We are not going to rest on our laurels,” he said.
Email: sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com
