Suggestions
Bryan Copley
CEO and Co-founder at CityBldr
Bryan Copley, Planning Commissioner at City of Redmond, WA
Bryan Copley is the CEO and Co-founder of CityBldr, a real estate technology company based in Seattle, WA.1 He was recently sworn in as a Planning Commissioner for the City of Redmond, WA in April 2024.3
Key Facts about Bryan Copley
- CEO and Co-founder of CityBldr, a real estate AI company1
- Planning Commissioner for the City of Redmond, WA since April 20243
- Has over 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur and investor in the real estate and technology sectors2
- Serves on the Forbes Real Estate Council and has advised several startups2
- Studied at the University of Washington2
CityBldr Overview
- Founded in 2016, CityBldr uses AI to analyze underutilized real estate1
- Offers software for real estate acquisitions and partnerships with brokerages1
- Has 20 employees and estimated revenue of $2 million1
So in summary, Bryan Copley is an accomplished real estate entrepreneur who recently took on the additional role of Planning Commissioner for the City of Redmond, WA while continuing to lead his company CityBldr.123
Highlights
In 2021 I had an interesting conversation with the bartender at Sun Valley Resort.
He loved working there - great customers, beautiful setting, and best of all he could ski for free all season when he wasn’t working - but he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to stay.
“There’s no housing. Most of the seasonal workers drive in every day, some 2 hours each way. Teachers are leaving too. They can’t afford to live here on the pay.”
I remembered that conversation when I read this article Rob Anderson wrote about running Canteen, a restaurant in Provincetown, Cape Cod, for The Atlantic.
Rob’s core insight - something every American needs to understand - is spot on:
“I realized: If I want to keep my restaurant open, the local housing crisis is my problem too.”
#affordablehousing
In 2023 CityBldr analyzed 50k office buildings across the US to determine how many penciled for multifamily conversion. We found ~700 (majority in NYC).
We decided to build a break even calculator that would predict the max price a developer could pay for an office, assuming conversion would yield future multifamily tenants paying market rents. The prices were below what most office owners owed on their buildings 😬
So this headline from Bisnow doesn’t come as a surprise. The bottom line is we need far less office in 2024 than we needed in 2019, and the vast majority of conversions don’t pencil without $6-7/ft rents (we’re talking <100 yielding over 200 units in primary markets on the West coast).
If you’re in the business of looking for pearls by painstakingly cracking open oysters, feel free to reach out. There’s a better way, and office buildings that can be converted to housing should be.
Over the last 40 years we built too many places to work, and not enough places to live.
