FORUM CEO Rishi Kapoor was featured in Bisnow article titled “My New Normal: Location Ventures Founder Rishi Kapoor”
From the article:
“Location Ventures CEO Rishi Kapoor leads a multifaceted real estate company that handles investment, development, management, and sales and marketing for residential and mixed-use properties, mostly in South Florida.
The company has a development portfolio worth more than $500M, which includes a boutique condominium, a new coworking concept, multifamily projects, some luxury single-family homes and, soon, an urban mixed-use project for young professionals that combines coworking and co-living in one place.
Bisnow: Describe your work-from-home life and what you are doing in your spare time.
Kapoor: About three weeks ago, I returned to the office at our new headquarters in Coral Gables. At the onset of COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders, I was working from my home in Coconut Grove. My work-from-home setup was pretty comfortable with a large desk and two screens, where I took most calls and meetings. For a change of scenery, I would sit by the pool with my laptop for a bit. I used the first few days at home to thoroughly evaluate our current projects and develop digital tools with our team, to ensure there were no internal interruptions and to adapt the sales process to current circumstances. Much of my time was also dedicated to overseeing the ongoing construction of our luxury condo project, Villa Valencia, and new coworking concept, FORUM.
Bisnow: What is your company’s return-to-the-workplace plan?
Kapoor: We recently relocated to the new Location Ventures headquarters in Coral Gables, with some members of our 25-person team based at FORUM, our new coworking concept in the neighborhood. As part of our return to the workplace, we’ve implemented health and safety measures based on CDC guidelines, and have been actively gauging the comfort levels of our team. In terms of day-to-day operations, client and vendor communications, we are still tapping technology, like Zoom video conferences, to connect.
Bisnow: What is the state of your business at the moment?
Kapoor: There are so many different facets to our business — whether it is monitoring the state of construction or developing marketing materials for a new project, we were fortunate to stay busy during this time. Construction at our boutique condo project, Villa Valencia, has continued through the pandemic, and we are on track to deliver by summer 2021. We also launched a financing program for serious buyers, something we are very proud to offer at this time.
FORUM, our new, elevated coworking concept in Downtown Coral Gables, is also leasing, which is exciting. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen an uptick in leasing inquiries and tour requests, showing signs that people are ready to re-engage and re-evaluate their office setup in a safe environment. We’re also actively putting the finishing touches on the interiors, conducting inspections and finishing landscaping on one of our single-family homes, 8325 Cheryl Lane, which we will be listing soon. We’re looking forward to having that property go to market this summer.
Bisnow: What are you most hopeful about right now?
Kapoor: I am most hopeful about the lessons we have learned over the past couple of months and how we can apply them to our company moving forward in terms of workplace culture and staying connected, our investment strategies, and what our end users will be looking for in our current and future developments. The pandemic has actually reinforced that our projects are offering what the market is looking for, so we’re feeling confident that we’re in the right space.
Click Here to read more from the Bisnow interview.
