New Gen: What You Don't Know About One of the Nation's Top Affordable Housing Players
Michael Clark will be attending Bisnow's Escape Ascent retreat this November in Miami. For a list of attendees, click here. To apply to attend, click here.
Photo: Day after wedding in Tulum with wife Charmaine
Title: Partner, GHC Cos
Company: GHC has two business lines: GHC Housing Partners is the country's second-largest affordable housing firm, with about 20,000 apartments in its portfolio. Mike is also the managing partner at GH Capital, a private investment arm with more than $500M of equity under management. The company owns about $2B in affordable housing, market rate multifamily and self-storage in total.
Most recent deal: Took an older 124-unit senior housing complex owned by a church in the Mission District in San Francisco and turned it into one of the nicest buildings in the Mission, all while preserving affordability for the seniors for 20 more years. GHC took the market rate units and has attracted a young tech demographic to create a mixed-age building, the first of its kind in the area.
Grew up: All over LA
Current home: Splits time between NY's West Village and West Hollywood
School: Double major in economics and accounting, with a minor in real estate at University of San Diego. Graduate degree from Columbia University's Graduate School or Real Estate.
Surprising schooling: During the downturn, Mike went to French culinary school and got an intermediate cooking degree and wine certification. "In 2008 I had no idea which way the world was heading and it was a time to wait and see in the real estate markets so I decided to do something fun instead of sitting around looking at deals I couldn’t figure out.”
Side gig: Michael has been an adjunct professor at Columbia's real estate program since 2006, where he is currently focused on teaching real estate private equity
First job: Babysitter. Mom made him get a CPR certification when he was 12 to watch his newborn sister. He made flyers and passed them around the neighborhood using his certification as the advertisement. Charged four times the going rate and people gladly paid. “I learned at an early age the psychology behind decision-making is everything."
First real job: Director at Jamieson Group, a redevelopment consultancy. The “group” was really just a senior partner and me, but it sounded better to call it a group.
Family: Married for nearly two years to Charmaine, the design director for Alexander Wang
Favorite restaurant: Decoy in West Village, NYC.
Vacation spot: Tulum, Mexico
Movie: Braveheart
Hobbies: Reading science and tech on futurism.com.
Bucket List: Get into "serious" mountain climbing. Take a spiritual sabbatical in an Asian monastery.
Guilty pleasure: "I have been known to eat Captain Crunch when I am stressed out."
