That set Drever off and running. And some of those families still invest with Drever today.
Drever operates through three different entities: DCM, Crossbeam Holdings and Drever Mitchell Torres LLC. He and his family always invest alongside investors through the myriad funds set up to invest in particular properties.
Drever has used this model successfully through different incarnations: in Seattle in the 1970s to redevelop 16 multifamily communities; in the 1980s with Resolution Trust Company assets (Drever acquired more than 18,000 units from the RTC); and in California and Florida in the 1990s, when he merged with a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT), Walden Residential Properties. In the 2000s, Drever stayed relatively quiet until 2009, when he merged his investment vehicle, Concierge Asset Management, with Crossbeam Capital, an apartment investment advisor to the insurance industry.
With Drever Capital Management's Parallel Fund II and Crossbeam's Apartment Fund II, Drever is once again buying multifamily properties and apartments.
At the center of the investment philosophy is the "doing well by doing good" mandate. Indeed, on page five of the Parallel Fund II's sales brochure, additional profit builders for its communities are:
A tutoring program and service projects for school-age children.
Complimentary health care screening.
Health and wellness seminars.
Onsite police and fire educational sessions.
Two annual community involvement projects for its team members and residents.
These social initiatives are on top of the de rigueur sustainable improvements: Energy Star appliances; environmentally friendly flooring; devices that conserve potable water; drought-tolerant landscaping and irrigation reduction upgrades; and LEED certification, which provides third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving sustainability.
These socially responsible tactics up the ante from anything Drever has done before. "It's exponential impact investing," Drever says. "It's huge."
Creating housing communities as opposed to mere housing complexes is what Drever is all about these days. Perhaps it's because he's aging and wants to leave a bigger mark, or perhaps it's because he sees the financial value in sustainability, or perhaps he sees something else in this ethos.
Drever, who was on his way to see his grandchildren in Disneyland after an interview for this magazine, talks a lot about family-his, his investors', and even the families of his rental property residents.
"It's why we called ourselves 'concierge,'" he says. "We cater to the housing needs of the workforce." In other words, they are like family, too. Which means if the economy picks up and there is increased job growth and employment, Drever's properties' values will rise in kind.
Police should expect more calls.