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Primestor Investment Management (PIM) is the culmination of years of planning and preparation to direct investments aimed at developing and acquiring transit-oriented, mixed-use real estate opportunities for minority and underinvested communities that have often been neglected as more affluent neighborhoods received investment. Investments that PIM makes will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into urban and minority communities that are often dense, fast-growing, and have limited access to transit, housing, and essential services.
We’ve kept tabs on Arturo Sneider and Primestor Development for years. After the company launched the investment adviser last year, it was time to check in. Primestor has a three-decade track record of developing, managing, and leasing transformative projects that have community at their heart. But Primestor Investment Management is something else entirely.
“Creating an investment adviser to manage private real estate funds is a completely new and different business for us, but we did a lot of research and realized our business was at the right stage to build out this new platform,” explains Sneider, the CEO and co-founder of Primestor. “We believed this was essential because we view the market we operate in as an emerging market in the US.”
Sneider understands the market’s confusion. The term “emerging market” often brings to mind foreign countries, but that thinking needs to evolve. Primestor’s focus on Latinos is quite intentional. The CEO says Latinos are an emerging market that benefits from discipline, a strong work ethic, and a long-term commitment to family and community.
The rest of the world has been slow to accommodate, let alone entice, this rising demographic. Sneider believes that Latinos must be an integral part of cultivating their own economic advancement so they can be strong leaders in their own interests, irrespective of what may be happening around them.
“When the mainstream market pulls back, we can’t find capital to go into markets, precisely at a time when we should be investing the most,” the CEO explains. “When prices drop, you want to be buying, but we couldn’t get anyone interested. That’s why we decided to raise our own discretionary fund.”
Primestor’s business mainstay continues to bring new life to communities that can benefit from it the most. The $280 million Evermont project in South Los Angeles includes 180 affordable and senior housing units, a SEED LA college prep school, a metro hub with training and office facilities, and a Target. It’s a project that has been on Primestor’s radar for decades, and Primestor has finally brought it to life.
“That site sat empty after the Rodney King riots of 1992,” Sneider explains. “It’s been over thirty years, but I hope this [project] will help spur investment in the neighborhood.”
The backbone of Primestor’s efforts is hiring local residents to fill jobs, from construction to retail to operations opportunities. Local hiring is mandated in Primestor leases, giving community members first access to desperately needed job opportunities.
In the community of Norwalk, Los Angeles, The Walk has just begun. The sustainable retail development will also include 360 residential units (combining market rate and affordable housing). The site will be connected to City Hall, the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk headquarters, and a 20-screen AMC theater.
In another exciting project, the former site of LA County General Hospital will feature retailers and provide access to essential services, such as medical care. The $1.8 billion project is expected to take about a decade to complete, but once finished, it will materially improve the community.
Sneider is incredibly successful, but he’s managed to succeed while serving marginalized and minority communities. The CEO says it’s about defining success differently from the way many others might.
“Success and the idea of giving back are inherently intertwined,” Sneider explains. “Success for us includes keeping our communities vibrant, hiring folks so they can work around their families and friends, and creating a healthy ecosystem. We didn’t start to become some big developer. We started to create a movement of change.”
There are signs that the change is happening. Sneider is a student of culture and is encouraged to see young people embracing their bilingual heritage, unlike members of his generation who felt pressure to assimilate as quickly as possible. He sees more people wearing fútbol jerseys celebrating their country of origin and identity. The Latin pop explosion of the late 1990s, a major but ultimately short-lived phenomenon in broader US culture, has given way to artists like Bad Bunny spending months on the top of the Billboard charts. Latino culture has gone mainstream.
Against the backdrop of this change, Sneider is quick to point out that Primestor isn’t focusing on the Latino community out of a sense of charity. Quite the opposite.
“We’ve led and done study after study when it comes to marginalized communities,” Sneider says. “Whatever you might think, communities don’t want handouts. We don’t want charity. We want a chance to find our own path forward and express our own abilities. That’s what I hope we’re doing: Providing opportunities for ourselves because we are this community.”
Carlton Fields LLP is a national firm representing a broad range of industries and clients. Its development team consists of attorneys and government consultants who are familiar with all aspects of the development process and understand that legal issues require customized solutions and careful negotiation. We are pleased to support Arturo Sneider and the team at Primestor Development and look forward to sustaining and expanding its longtime relationship with our shareholder, Robert P. Friedman, and his team in the years to come. With its extensive real estate portfolio, Primestor’s diverse team and mission to revitalize urban areas and empower communities align with our own values and culture, making our partnership that much more dynamic.
