Weekend Interview: Aria CEO Joshua Benaim On Risk And Resilience In Multifamily Development

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Commercial real estate development is not for the faint of heart — especially in 2025.

But when compared to performing one of the most-acclaimed Italian operas solo in a Roman monastery, it doesn’t seem so hard. At least, it feels that way for Aria Development Group CEO Joshua Benaim.

“I don't think I would have had the guts to do real estate without having to sing opera,” Benaim told Bisnow in an interview. 

“I'm a very risk averse investor, and I certainly wouldn't have had the courage to start my own company had I not had the experience of singing opera when you could fail at any moment. You have this incredible vulnerability, and you're putting your heart into what you love,” he said.

Since its founding in 2009, Aria has capitalized more than $2B in developments and is on track to reach over 4,000 lifetime multifamily units. 

Today, the New York-based multifamily developer has 2,000 units under construction, including three high-rise projects in Miami, plus adaptive reuse and ground-up apartment projects in New York City. It also just signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a master-planned community in Nashville.

In D.C., Aria recently completed the Florian, a 388-unit apartment building near Truxton Circle that was inspired by an Italian palace. And it’s in the planning stages of a 23-story residential tower on the site of an office building in Ballston.

Benaim said he has been able to advance multifamily projects during a market slowdown by maintaining close relationships with investors and lenders, finding sites that other developers overlook, and responsibly managing the firm's portfolio. 

“It's taken a lot of discipline, a lot of resilience,” he said. “We've asset managed the heck out of all of our properties. We've given a real focus on execution, on leasing, on management and maintenance.”

Benaim spoke with Bisnow about the company's strategy for developing in a difficult capital markets environment, his outlook for D.C. and other markets, and his favorite opera.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Bisnow: You just completed the Florian, your sixth multifamily development in D.C. Tell me how it went. What makes it unique? 

Benaim: The inspiration started probably about eight to 10 years ago when we found this site that felt like it was really close to Bloomingdale and Eckington and Shaw that people loved, but it had the zoning from NoMa to build a really important, big building.

And one of the things that Aria loves to do is take underappreciated property and transform it into beautiful, cash-flowing multifamily buildings, and especially in cases where we can enable people to live large on a budget. So in this case, you could live for less than $2,000 a month in a beautifully designed apartment building. We work with Morris Adjmi Architects, and he drew inspiration from a palace in Italy, a Renaissance palace in Ferrara called the Palazzo de Diamanti. So if you look closely at the facade, you'll see these diamond studs that are based on the design from this Italian palace, and we wanted to translate that into a more contemporary context. So that's what we did with the Florian. And we've leased about 100 apartments so far.

Bisnow: You mentioned your strategy as a company, taking under-utilized and sometimes distressed assets and repositioning those. Tell me about that thesis and how you go about thinking about what you’re going to develop, what areas you're going to look at developing in and what kinds of products you're looking at developing.

Benaim: We try to find a location that has the potential to be a special, beautiful location. It has to be walkable. It should be close to academic opportunities. It should be close to jobs and business and, possibly most importantly, it should be close to really delicious food and drink. So we often try to find our sites with our stomach. And in this case, we kind of love the Big Bear Cafe, Red Hen, and then everything that's coming out of Union Market. 

But we also are extremely rigorous about how we acquire property and assemble property from a financial standpoint. So we're looking closely at the potential, at the valuation. Is this a great location to have the potential to be great real estate? And then — Can we get it? For some reason, it's overlooked by people. They thought, “Okay, this is the wrong side of this.” Or they didn't see the potential in combining individual pieces of property together to make something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. 

We also recently acquired a really exciting site in Ballston in Arlington, Virginia. During the last couple of years, it's been very difficult, as we've all seen, to capitalize real estate. And so we had the opportunity to jump into this piece of land that had a little office building on it — with credit tenants. But it also had entitlements for a 23-story building, and the plan was to build a new entrance to the Ballston Metro right on our corner. And it turns out that we've learned from public hearings and disclosures by Arlington County that they have assembled all the capital and they're getting ready to build the new Metro entrance for Ballston West.

Bisnow: I wanted to talk about that project in Arlington and the entitlements that are there for multifamily. Tell me about how that's going. What's the timeline on that? How is the process?

Benaim: We're really excited about that project. We've gone into schematic design, and we've started to lay out a beautiful building that will be, I’d say, a luxury residential project, although we always try to incorporate some elements of attainable luxury in our business plan. But it's incredibly walkable to Ballston Quarter. There's a vibrant retail and food and beverage scene. I was amazed by how you can see IBM Accenture, the Virginia Tech Research Institute, George Washington graduate campus, Marymount, and a variety of academic, government, defense, corporate demand drivers within just a couple block radius. 

So we hope to do what we've done both in D.C. and in other cities, which is develop a building that really suits its location and suits the customer base that you know will appreciate this project.

Bisnow: Do you have details on those plans yet? 

Benaim: We're working with Hickok Cole, a really prominent regional architect. 

I think it is going to be 23 stories. It's going to have really beautiful views. And my only requirement is that it has to be architecturally significant and be a beautiful addition to the skyline. And make a ton of money.

Bisnow: Have you secured financing for that development?

Benaim: We bought it all cash, and so we're very well positioned to develop the property. We've also recently closed on our most recent discretionary vehicle, with a couple of incredibly illustrious world-class investors as our partners. So we feel we're really well positioned to capitalize the project.

Bisnow: You’ll be able to capitalize it with that discretionary vehicle? 

Benaim: We could. We're in a position to think strategically about how we want to finalize the capitalization, and we've been fortunate to have some really great partners as well as some excellent lending relationships that have kept going with us through this most recent real estate slowdown. We have over 2,000 units under construction around the United States. And it hasn't been easy. But I think that's been the result of long-term relationships and doing right by our partners and lenders.

Bisnow: The Ballston property, is that a tear-down and build-up situation, not a conversion?

Benaim: We think it's likely to be a tear-down and build-up. We think that's the highest and best use for that particular project. We also love adaptive reuse and conversion, and we've done two or three of those projects, one in the DMV and one outside. And we're working on one in New York City right now, in Midtown, that would benefit from the Midtown South rezoning. I love that business, but I also really appreciate ground-up development when the conditions are right and the zoning is right.

Bisnow: Office-to-residential is a hot topic, and looked at by many cities as you know, a problem solver for their downtowns, including D.C. What have you learned from your office to residential conversions, the two that you've done, and what lessons have you taken from those?

Benaim: It is possible and is financially viable if you do it creatively and you do it in the right location. And I think with regard to this new crop of adaptive reuse projects, we're waiting for our pitch to get the exact right project. But the challenge of bringing these projects to life and bringing in creative amenities and the right kind of units, I think, is a worthy challenge, and one that as developers, we have to step up and take on head-on because it's essential for bringing life back into downtown in the D.C. area as well as around the country.

Bisnow: Are you looking into launching into new multifamily projects that you don't have already underway?

Benaim: We just signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a project in Nashville that's a master-planned community that involves both multifamily and townhomes and some retail and a little park component. We're currently under construction on a handful of high-rise projects in downtown Miami, which we found to be an excellent market. And we're in the earlier stages of an adaptive reuse project in New York City as well as a ground-up rental in New York City that are also exciting residential projects in areas that desperately need more housing and more multifamily.

Bisnow: We've seen a downturn in financing and uptick in construction costs over the last year and a half, and with construction costs, even before that, going back to the early days of the pandemic. How have you weathered this capital environment and the market environment right now?

Benaim: It's taken a lot of discipline, a lot of resilience. We've asset-managed the heck out of all of our properties. We've given a real focus on execution on leasing, on management and maintenance. We have our own management company, Aria Residential, which is kind of our same ethos of development applied to how we operate these properties. That's taken a lot of focus, I think, building projects that are distinctive, that stand out, that aren't just cookie-cutter replicas of everything else on the market. 

There's always one or two of these markets that are running hot at any given time. But I feel like we're in part of a great comeback moment. And I think D.C. is in a great comeback moment and certainly has that potential. And we're big, long-term believers in D.C. When you have that much talent and you have that much brain power, whether it's not just government, whether it's technology or education or research, science, medicine, biotechnology, defense, finance, all concentrated in one place. Good things are going to happen in the long run.

Bisnow: In D.C., we have reported on new multifamily buildings facing some distress. In NoMa, there are a few that had issues with their construction loans, have sold at foreclosure auctions or have been foreclosed on. What do you make of this distress in this market in particular? 

Benaim: In real estate, there are always cycles and you have to have staying power. You have to be able to power through these cycles, even if, in the long run, you're in the right place. There's a famous saying that it's very hard to tell the difference between being early and being wrong. So sometimes it's a delicate balancing act in real estate. You have to have vision. You have to see what's coming and what the future looks like for certain areas. Because in order to do really well, you have to get into those areas, and then all of a sudden, somebody has to build the Apple store next door, or they have to build a new headquarters, or a new college campus. The area has to grow and develop. So on the one hand, you have to have this vision. On the other hand, you have to always be aware that there are real estate cycles, and you have to have a robust capitalization and be able to weather the storm.

Bisnow: I want to ask you about what you see for the future. Do you see market forces changing in 2025 if at all?

Benaim: Gosh, it's hard enough to predict the past. Look, I'm optimistic. I think when you believe in what we do, which is creating homes for people and building housing, that's really essential, that's an important foundation to carry you through whatever the economy throws at us. So we're ready for disruption. We're ready for change, but we are going to stay true to our mission.

Bisnow: We have a new administration in the White House. We have a lot of changes already coming in these first few weeks, and some have a significant impact on D.C., including the in-office mandate and this latest round of voluntary resignations that the White House is offering. Are you concerned about the market in D.C. and what's ahead with all these changing dynamics? 

Benaim: We happen to be big believers in in-person work and interaction. We do it ourselves. We feel that you don't get the passion, you don't get the mentorship and the continuity of intellectual curiosity that comes from being with other humans. So we really do believe that. And we practice what we preach on that. Change is really the only constant in the real estate business. So we've weathered the sequester in D.C. We've weathered multiple changes of administration. We've weathered the pandemic. You know, in the last five years, New York City was written off as dead. I wouldn't bet against great cities and their resilience. That hasn't turned out so well. But it's going to take a lot of work, a lot of effort and passion to navigate through all the change that is impacting our world.

Bisnow: We ask our weekend interviewees two questions to close out. The first is to give us a bold prediction for the rest of the year.

Benaim: Florian will be 100% leased — just kidding. The Florian will approach 100% leased. Yeah, I got 12 months. I think we could do that. This will be a better year.

Bisnow: The next question is a little easier, so we'll give you a break. Describe your weekend routine?

Benaim: My weekend routine consists of a lot of family time, celebration of the Jewish tradition of Shabbat, as well as time with my kids, my wife. Some singing opera, a fair amount of exercise, and possibly even an afternoon nap, if I can arrange it. I enjoy reading for pleasure and trying to learn something new.

Bisnow: So you buried the lead. You're an opera singer?

Benaim: I'm also an opera singer. That's how I learned how to do real estate. But that’s another big part of my life. So, part of my ethos of how we do real estate at Aria comes from my experiences singing opera in Italy, for example. And I remember some particular experiences where I was singing The Barber of Seville in Rome, and we stayed in this monastery, pilgrimage building. And it was just me, white bare walls and a giant cross, and that was the entire room. I mean, it was a tiny sort of monastery cell. But it was such an amazing life experience to go, to be filled with adventure and singing, and also to have this incredible communal pasta that was served every day at lunch.

So when I think about buildings that we create where we want to give people access to that kind of expansive life, with great amenities, where they can share food with their friends and have an amazing roof deck, like the Florian — a pool, a room to cook in, a chef's kitchen and lounge and outdoor fire pit — but also, how can we make it affordable? How can we strip it down to some of the essentials with beautiful and elegant finishes, but we have to make a way for that to be more accessible for people at a reasonable price point. So that's been part of my mission in real estate, to bring that vision to life.

Bisnow: So how did your opera career lead to your real estate career?

Benaim: I had worked in finance and a little bit in real estate at the start after college. But I don't think I would have had the guts to do real estate without having to sing opera. I'm a very risk-averse investor, and I certainly wouldn't have had the courage to start my own company had I not had the experience of singing opera when you could fail at any moment. You have this incredible vulnerability, and you're putting your heart into what you love. That led me to decide to try to make my own company, to pursue the principles I believe in with regard to real estate, with regard to urban design, and how to make homes for people and how to do business and treat people right. I would never have had the guts to go for it without the experience of that palpable risk and adventure of opera.

Bisnow: Do you have a favorite opera?

Benaim: I love Rigoletto. I love Giuseppe Verdi. Italian melodrama, romantic melodrama is my favorite genre. But I love a lot of different kinds of music. I love classical and rock and world music. I'm a huge music fan. And I try to put music into my projects. Goethe said that architecture is frozen music. So that’s something to aspire to. And the Florian, that's my best shot at meeting that aspiration.