After emigrating to the United States from Nigeria, Buwa Binitie saw firsthand how hard it can be to secure housing. After going to college in New York City, Binitie had to relocate because he couldn’t afford to stay.
“After college, I realized how exorbitantly expensive it is to remain in the city and found myself relocating to Jersey City because that’s all I could afford, despite the salary I was making,” said Binitie. “I didn’t really think much of it because that’s what people do, I guess, once they start ‘adulting.’”
It didn’t stop for Binitie on the East Coast. When he relocated to San Francisco, he encountered the same issue and ultimately spent six months living in a hotel before finding a place that was affordable to live in.
“I just kept telling myself there’s something wrong with this picture, this should not be the case. I’m making good money. Why can’t I find a place to live?” said Binitie. “When I moved to DC, I lived in a bedroom, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to figure out a way to be part of the solution and not have others like me experience what I’m experiencing.’”
Binitie went and got his Masters in real estate finance and development and went on to start Dantes Partners, a real estate development company that focuses on creating luxury affordable housing in major cities, including New York City. The firm is now part of Dumas Collective, a real estate and social impact conglomerate that is committed to building and empowering the community.
When starting to build Dantes Partners, Binitie found that the affordable housing space was a niche field. For him, working with various municipalities to help solve the affordable housing crisis was a key building block to the business.
What was arguably more important to Binitie was breaking the paradigm that no effort needed to be put into affordable housing.
“It dawned on me that people just felt like they didn’t put any thought [into it]. Folks that were building affordable housing back then just thought, ‘Oh, you know, this is housing for people who don’t make enough money, they don’t really need much,’ and ‘let’s not extend any effort and time or thought to was producing decent quality safe housing, so let’s just give them whatever,’ and I just felt that that was a travesty,” said Binitie.
‘Luxury’ affordable housing
Dantes Partners brings new construction to the affordable housing space, with an emphasis on “luxury affordable housing,” giving units all the bells and whistles you’d find in a building that isn’t considered affordable housing. They focus on making the units safe and aesthetically pleasing while bringing amenities to the building that would not only enrich tenants, but build community within the space, including green spaces, onsite gyms and other amenities.
“We try to introduce elements that folks are not necessarily used to getting or they don’t think they’re deserving of it. That’s how we approach the common area. And as far as the units are concerned, let’s introduce some resilient materials into this unit,” said Binitie. “Let’s introduce stainless steel appliances, let’s bring in the granite countertop, let’s bring in really sturdy cabinets, door handles, bathroom fixtures, backsplash, and so on and so forth. Those are some of the things that we basically introduce and there are those materials out there that don’t necessarily cost an arm and a leg, but are resilient in nature that allow us to be able to provide decent quality, safe, aesthetically pleasing environments for our tenants.”
Some of the work that Dantes Partners has been doing in New York City has been working with the NYCHA PACT program to give NYCHA residents in Washington Heights, Harlem and Sugar Hill long-overdue repairs and upgrades to their homes. So far, about 85% of renovations have been completed across Audubon Houses, Bethune Gardens, and Marshall Plaza.
Binitie says that the NYCHA residents were skeptical about the projects at first, but since they have been underway, the tenants have really enjoyed the upgrades that were made in their homes.
“People’s units look remarkably different from where they were before. The common areas look great, we introduced color into the environment. All the landscaping is refreshed and now people can hang out, hopefully starting in the summer, in their own backyard and create that community for them,” said Binitie. “There’s nothing more gratifying than to see people who go from frowns and misgivings and skepticism to nothing but sheer smiles and hugs that we’re receiving right now.”
Currently, Dantes Partners is active in New York City and Washington DC, and Binitie would like to see the company grow further to help even more people and stand the test of time.
“The mission or the goal right now is to build a company that outlives me; it’s not something that you see often with minority-owned businesses. My goal is, what does that look like from the team that we built and continue to provide exposure to others that look like me into a space that there is very, very little minority representation,” said Binitie. “As far as projects are concerned, yeah, we love New York City. We would love to continue to do more and to produce more affordable housing in New York while at the same time looking at other cities that we know have similar affordable housing crises, and we do everything we can to help stand that tide.”
For more information, visit www.dantespartners.com.
