The Jason and Pili Project Presents: Scott Choppin: Urban Pacific Group | Multifamily Foundation

Scott Choppin is the founder of the Urban Pacific company, a real estate development company in Long Beach, CA. Urban Pacific, founded in 2000 by Scott Choppin, focuses exclusively on urban infill and workforce housing communities throughout California and the western US.

 

Over the last 18 years, the company has developed nearly 1,700 units of unique to market urban housing communities throughout the Western United States. Presently, Urban Pacific has created a new urban housing innovation called UTH, which provides middle-income multi­generational housing to urban families. While providing this UTH model housing, they also produce market superior yields on invested equity.

Historically, Urban Pacific’s UTH projects have delivered 29% IRR yields on equity.
As well as real estate development, the company provides project and development services to major commercial businesses across the nation through its subsidiary, Urban Pacific Realty Advisors.

 
What exactly is Scott Choppin's real estate superpower?

" [My] real estate superpower. So my best, the best part of what I do is in that early acquisition, like think of it creating the deal, right. So I see a piece of land. I go, what goes there? What problems do I anticipate? So I have a background, you know, I'm not professional, but I've always been a musician my entire life. And I've just made my own music. I don't call myself a songwriter or anything like that. But the creative process to me is almost exactly a mirror of what I do in the early parts of the real estate development deal. I'm looking at all the different pieces and I put them together in unique ways to create value. And so that creation in the real estate development space is how I'd answer that question." -Scott Choppin

So, what makes this urban housing innovation so different in the California housing market? In the market right now, you see two types of housing: government-subsidized affordable housing and luxury housing. Scott Choppin has developed a townhouse housing model for the "forgotten middle-class."

Scott explains that these blue-collar families are stable. He refers to them as "sticky" because their social networks, as well as their professional life, is all close by. They are not super commuters. According to Scott Choppin, this is a stable demographic to build for.

"You know not to repeat myself, but I think that's the continuous competitive learning. I mean, I think that's so applicable to any place and real estate development is a very obscure business with zoning and putting the deals together. So it's not mainstream. So if you were to, you know, somebody wanted to start a career on that, you know that learning process would be highly valuable, but then it doesn't stop. Right? You've got to keep going. You've got to see what's new, how you can use new tools, new technologies to remain competitive. And I mean, let's admit the real estate business is not the most forward-looking on use of technology. We're sort of like old school, ancient technology still is fairly commonplace. So I'm a big proponent of learning and then using new technologies to advance and to be more competitive than everybody around us, who we, of course, compete with, you know, day in, day out."-Scott Choppin