’92 Crisis Offered Opening in Market

0

While Chinese investment firms have flooded the L.A. real estate market in recent years, Kin Hui, chief executive of Singpoli Capital Corp., seized the opportunity more than two decades ago.

Hui first purchased commercial real estate in Los Angeles in 1992, near the end of the savings and loan crisis that bruised the market nationwide. But where many saw great volatility, Hui saw opportunity.

“I analyzed the economic environment at the time and concluded that there were great opportunities to buy properties,” he said. “My strategy was to reposition undervalued real estate properties into positive assets.”

Hui is still active locally today. His small Pasadena investment firm owns four properties in the city, including an office tower at 2 N. Lake Ave. that the firm purchased for about $44 million in 2009. Singpoli also owns a mixed-use redevelopment project under renovation at Colorado Boulevard and Lake Avenue. When complete, the seven-story building, once home to the Constance Hotel, will include a 136-room boutique hotel, retail space, office tower and parking garage. The new hotel, the DusitD2 Constance Pasadena, is slated to open later this year.

Hui said that even with decades of experience developing projects in the L.A. area under his belt, he continues to be surprised by the lengthy approval process.

“The biggest surprise I had to face was dealing with organizations that represented small (but vocal) groups of people who wanted to oppose development,” he said.

That’s why he – like many of his Chinese peers – avoids investing in properties that would take years to get proper entitlements.

Still, opportunities to invest in projects like Colorado at Lake are valuable and much harder to come by in other parts of the world, Hui said.

“As compared to the properties in the global market – such as Hong Kong or Shanghai in China, and Vancouver or Toronto in Canada – I believe that the real estate in Los Angeles is very undervalued,” he said.

Hui said the L.A. real estate market continues to face challenges but still boasts strong potential for profit. It helps that the hospitality sector of the market is improving and the amount of foreign money invested in L.A. real estate is steadily growing.

– Cale Ottens

INVESTOR

Kin Hui

Title: Chief Executive

Company: Singpoli Capital Corp.

Location: Pasadena

Age: 46

No posts to display