In a city where high-end residential developers are pricing many families out of their homes, Erik Bolog is hard at work helping longtime residents stay in Washington.
As a managing partner for Tenacity Group, a Washington-based condo conversion company, Bolog works to help low-income renters become first-time homeowners.
“Home ownership is the best vehicle for people to create wealth,” said Bolog, a lawyer with the firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice for 15 years before joining Tenacity. “[But] tenants are typically missing two things: $20 million and the know-how to get from A to Z.”
When high-end developers attempt to buy an existing apartment building in Washington, current tenants are first given the opportunity to buy the property themselves. But since the apartments are often occupied by low-income renters, they can’t afford the hefty multimillion-dollar price tag. That’s where Tenacity comes in.
The company helps tenants buy the apartment buildings, converts them to condos and sells them back to the original renters at an affordable price — which is often several hundred thousand dollars below market value.
Eight real estate-focused companies, involved in everything from construction to financing, merged in 2003 to make Tenacity a full-service condo conversion firm. Bolog had worked with several of those companies at his former law firm and joined Tenacity to spearhead the merger.
Today the company has done about 50 condo conversions and helped thousands of residents stay in the city.
“We look at ourselves very much as the Wal-Mart [of the real estate industry],” Bolog said. “We are in the low-end market. We provide work force housing. Our concept as much as possible is to never leave a tenant behind.”
But the company is also turning a substantial profit. Because only about half of the renters typically opts to buy the converted condo, Tenacity sells the remaining units for market value. Tenacity, which has also done projects in Maryland and Northern Virginia, has plans to grow beyond the Washington region and is already looking at possible projects in Los Angeles and Boston.
“There is a way where companies like Tenacity can actually do good by doing right,” Bolog said. “We get a very reasonable price for ourselves and our investors, while at the same time providing a service for families.”
BUSINESS
» Current job: Managing Partner, Tenacity Group
» Lastjob: Partner, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
» Number of e-mails a day: 100
» Number of voice mails a day: 50
» Essential Web site: TvExt.tv
» Best perk: Building a business with my two best friends; time for my kids
» Gadgets: Q, laptop and awesome IT department
» Education/credentials: J.D. Washington College of Law (American University)
» Last conference: C.E.O. for Cities
» First job: Summer Camp Counselor
» Original aspiration: Making a difference
» Career objective: Doing well by doing good
PERSONAL
» Date of Birth: 4/13/65
» Hometown: New York
» Sports/hobbies: Coaching my kids’ athletic teams (Eight teams this academic year)
» Transportation: Sport Utility Vehicle
» Favorite restaurant: Inn at Little Washington
» Computer: Dell Computer
» Favorite clothier: James
» Vacation spot: Bachelor Gulch
» Role model: Nathan Lubell (Grandfather)
» Quote: We say what we mean and we mean what we say
» Reading: Freakonomics; Barn Burning, Barn Building
» Worst fear: Threats of terror becoming acts of terror
