Youth Leaders Group

Name Joe Profile

By Andrew Fang

Upon completing his undergraduate degree at Tufts University and taking some time to live and work in both Mexico and Korea, Nam Joe took a job as a paralegal at a Wall Street law firm. In 2000, after a year spent working in this position, he set off for Los Angeles to attend USC Law School with the intent of becoming a transactional lawyer. However, a casual lunchtime conversation with a law school classmate would alter the course of his career and lead him into the world of real estate development. It was during this conversation that he first heard about the MRED program at USC. Growing up in and around the great urban landscape of New York City, Nam had always been interested in real estate and real estate development from an aesthetic perspective but never considered the field as a viable career given the undefined path leading into it. After learning about the MRED degree, that quickly changed, and Nam was compelled to apply to the MRED program, eventually going on to earn his JD/MRED from USC.

Following his graduation from USC, eager to pursue a career in real estate development, Nam took a position with Pulte Homes, initially working in forward planning where his primary focus was ensuring that the Division's various projects adhered to city conditions of approval. It was in this capacity that he began to purchase offsite easements from adjacent landowners, which allowed him to transition into a role working in land acquisitions. Undertaking land acquisitions, Nam is able to effectively utilize both sides of his education where his legal knowledge helps him with contracting for property and working with attorneys and where the financial skills gained through the MRED aids him with underwriting transactions. Currently, Nam serves as a Director of Land Acquisition for John Laing Homes with responsibility for performing land acquisitions in various Ventura and Los Angeles County submarkets. Like others who work in land acquisition, Nam's daily dealings involve sourcing deals, performing financial analyses, preparing offers, overseeing due diligence, and preparing land packages for corporate approval, which could see him in contact and working with a wide variety of people, including brokers, landowners, engineers, attorneys, city officials, consultants and members of the community, on any given day.

Although currently specializing solely in land acquisitions, during the course of our conversation, it became clear that Nam's greatest interest lies in the creative aspect of development - the factor that initially drew him to the field. While some developers and builders are so bottom-line oriented to the point of building projects with the limited creativity of an assembly line, it is evident that Nam admires development that takes into consideration the character and needs of the surrounding community and has a positive effect on the people that both view and use it. He believes that money, although, obviously a necessary and major consideration in development, should not be the sole focus of development.

In working with John Laing, Nam has seen numerous occasions where financial goals are met and exceeded all while delivering projects with a high emphasis on design, quality and enhancing the communities in which they are built. He cites the company's Aria project in Inglewood as just one such example. There, in what was a very highly regarded and well-received project, attractive, new single-family housing stock was brought to an underserved community long ignored by large homebuilders, eventually aiding in the revitalization of the surrounding area.

Going forward, Nam hopes to continue learning the many different aspects of real estate development, beyond forward planning and land acquisitions, with the goal of one day running a development firm that undertakes creative and innovative projects.

Currently, Nam is actively involved with ULI through his participation in the YLG Steering Committee where he is Chair of the Public Service Committee and Co-Chair of the Partnership Forum Committee. He also stays involved with the USC Lusk Center and USC Gould School of Law, where he is a guest lecturer in the Real Estate Finance and Development Law class. In his spare time, Nam enjoys playing golf, reading, and traveling - these days mostly to weddings, which have recently taken him to Spain and Aspen.