Chris & John
- Jul 2, 2020
- 2 min read

Ep 67: Development, Food Halls, and Opportunity Zones with Jason Hsaio

Today’s guest is Jason Hsaio, a developer, investor, realtor, and Managing Director of Shaw Investments, a multifamily developer and syndicator. Jason bought his first property in college and has since closed over $22 million worth of real estate. In this episode, we discuss development and what drew Jason to it, and the differences between development deals and pre-existing single or multi-family deals. We also talk about entitled land, and Jason shares his process of his Food Hall Evolution project and why it’s interesting from a commercial real-estate perspective. Finally, we dive into properties in opportunity zones, and Jason explains why he chose to get involved, how his deals are progressing, and the performance of those deals over a 10 year timeframe versus typical developments. Tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

Jason introduces himself and his company, Shaw Investments.
How Jason got into development and what attracted him to it as a challenge.
The importance of Jason’s first development deal and what it taught him about the process.
The biggest difference between development deals and pre-existing single/multi-family deals.
Know what you don’t know and how Jason found the right people for his team.
What entitled land means and Jason explains the process of entitlement.
Jason’s food hall development and why it’s interesting as commercial real estate.
Jason talks about the beginning stages of his food hall project and where the idea came from.
The value of approaching an unconventional deal with creativity and vision.
Jason talks about opportunity zones and why he chose to get involved.
How Jason’s deals in opportunity zones are progressing and what he is working on.
How Jason is rethinking mixed-use and retail properties during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Performance of opportunity zones versus typical developments over 3-10 year timeframes.

Tweetables:

“I need to know who to talk to put the pieces in place to be successful… you should know enough to know what you don’t know and get the right people in place to address those [things]” — @jason_c_hsaio [0:11:43]

“In this market, this late in the cycle, good deals or great deals are made, they’re not found anymore” — @jason_c_hsaio [0:24:25]