Photo courtesy of Caste Capital
Patrick Kimble
Founder and managing partner, Caste Capital
Age: 35
Industry experience: 12 years
Patrick Kimble learned the finer points of commercial real estate at BXP and The Davis Companies before founding a Boston-based development firm that’s starting to make its mark in the affordable housing sector. Kimble’s three-year-old development firm, Caste Capital, is partnering with Boston-based Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc. on an unusual new model for multifamily development in Boston. Following an open selection process by the Mayor’s Office of Housing, the firm’s proposal was accepted for a 119-apartment tower above the Boston Public Library’s West End branch. The project is one of the first to tap into the potential of city-owned real estate for housing creation.
Q: What are the next milestones in the West End Library housing project?
A: We’re still going through the Article 80 [zoning] approval process and ultimately finalizing the capitalization of that project, and hopefully we’ll be starting construction in 2026. We’re planning to capitalize this like most affordable housing projects. Low-income tax credits and other public subsidies would comprise our capital stack. We’re exploring a hybrid building model: steel and mass timber. There is a slight cost premium [for mass timber], hence why we went from an all-mass timber to a hybrid model that is more cost-effective. The building would include a two-story library in the podium and 12 stories of apartments.
Q: What is the financing strategy for your Nubian Square rental and condo project at 10 Malcolm X Boulevard?
A: We are going through our Zoning Board of Appeal process and hope to get our approval soon. The financing is to be determined. Right now, we’ve been focused on our approvals, and once we get past the phase, we’ll lean into what the capitalization portion might look like. We’re looking at a phased execution.
Q: Are you seeking out sites approved for other uses, such as labs, to find overlooked opportunities?
A: Between myself and my team, we’ve been very fortunate to have quality deal flow and access to opportunities that are interesting. We’ll look at marketed as well as off-market opportunities. We’ve really leveraged our network to find the opportunities that meet our profile. For lab projects, we are exploring some of those opportunities that may no longer be viable and may be suited for alternative uses.
Q: Which geographic markets fit your acquisition strategy?
A: We really deploy a Gateway [Cities]-adjacent strategy within Greater Boston. We’re focused on Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan and Hyde Park, and to the north we’ve started to lean in on Chelsea and Everett. We’re flexible and super opportunistic when it comes to site and asset selection. For deal size in total dollars, we’ve looked at opportunities on the lower end of $5 million and for existing properties up to $50 million. We haven’t really focused so much on the brokerage aspect. We’re leaned on word-of-mouth and our networks, so that is typically how those opportunities are presented.
Q: What was your first CRE position and how did the opportunity arise?
A: Being a child of Boston, having the opportunity to start my career at a firm like BXP gave me a different vantage point in understanding how cities work and some of the players in terms of ownership groups. Finding an opportunity to learn from some of the smartest individuals in the CRE industry across the U.S. has been paramount and a catalyst to my trajectory in building out a career. I was exposed to [BXP] through a relationship of a family friend. From the moment I was exposed to the firm and that opportunity, they sat at the top of my very list coming out of college where I wanted to start my career. I was fortunate in that I graduated on a Saturday and started on a Monday. Then I had that opportunity to join The Davis Companies. Stephen Davis and the leadership team were phenomenal and very supportive of what I was trying to do and build here. My first project and investment was a partnership with Greatland Realty Partners on an office-to-lab conversion on Hartwell Avenue in Lexington.
Kimble’s Five Favorite Books:
- “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
- “Principles: Life and Work” by Ray Dalio
- “The Alchemist” by Paul Coelho
- “What It Takes’ by Stephen Schwarzman
- “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu
