Five Questions With: Dustin Dezube

A longtime real estate professional in Providence, Dustin Dezube built up his rental agency and property management company, now known as Providence Living, by catering to students mostly around College Hill before later diversifying his portfolio.

Dezube’s latest move is the $1.6 million acquisition of the former Karma nightclub building and a neighboring parking lot, with plans to transform the two-story building into apartments with ground floor retail.

Dezube bought the properties from Johnson & Wales University, where he received a degree in 2007. Another one of his businesses, Providence Architecture, a firm he co-owns with architect Kevin Diamond, is behind the design for the $3 million redevelopment project.

PBN: What are your plans for the former Karma property, and why did you want to get involved with the 101 Richmond St. building that was last owned by Johnson & Wales University?

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DEZUBE: I was very excited to see the building come on the market because it brought a lot of things together for me. As a Johnson & Wales University alum, I spent a lot of time walking by the building. I’ve always admired its historic character, beautiful brick walls and large windows.

I’m also passionate about adaptive reuse – breathing life back into vacant underutilized property. I plan on renovating the building into 19 residential apartments and two retail storefronts. One of the retail bays will even have a large private outdoor patio.

PBN: How did you become involved in real estate? What has it been like and how many rental properties do you now have in your portfolio?

DEZUBE: It was a little bit the case of being in the right place at the right time. I’ve always been interested in real estate, and when I returned to Providence in 2009 to start medical school, I found numerous opportunities to begin investing in real estate.

I purchased my first multifamily in Federal Hill in 2010 and slowly expanded my real estate portfolio, one property at a time, while I finished medical school and started my residency up in Boston.

From my first foray into real estate, I’ve always enjoyed being able to design and create meaningful space and it meshed well with my entrepreneurial spirit. In 2016, I decided to turn my interest in real estate, which until that time had been a passion project, into a career.

For me, real estate remains about creating meaningful space. Development is a complex puzzle where success oftentimes depends upon coming up with creative solutions that enable a variety of stakeholders to succeed. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to grow my portfolio to over 280 residential units and roughly 70,000 square feet of commercial space spread out over 60 locations, with over another 140 units in various stages of conceptual planning.

PBN: How is the market for rental properties in Providence right now? Is the supply meeting demand?

DEZUBE: The rental market remains very strong, and there’s a clear shortage of housing in Providence with the demand for rental units currently outpacing the supply. It will be interesting to see how some of the new larger developments that have recently been completed or that are still underway will impact supply. I think that they’ll help Providence grow as a city, while at the same time serving to keep housing more affordable.

PBN: What are some of the biggest challenges as a real estate developer and landlord in Providence?

DEZUBE: I think one of the biggest challenges as a real estate developer and landlord is the widespread perception that development is “bad” and that landlords are “greedy.” Responsible development is the cornerstone of urban planning and ensures that Providence’s current needs are met – namely lack of housing – without compromising the ability of Providence to meet its future needs. There are also numerous secondary benefits realized through development, from job creation to augmenting Providence’s property tax base, which is a major source of revenue for the city.

PBN: As part of your business, you’ve leased to many college students in Providence. What are the pros and cons of renting out apartments to the student population in the city, given the yearly turnover that occurs and other unique aspects of renting to college students?

DEZUBE: While at this point less than one-third of my units are leased to college students, when I first started out, college rentals were the bulk of what I was doing. I’ve always really enjoyed working with the student population in Providence and feel that the student and university presence help make Providence such a great city.

There have been challenges, though. Turnover is certainly much higher. The majority of units do turn over each year, and moreover, most of turnover happens the same last week of May. It’s made for some long nights, but thankfully I’ve surrounded myself with a fantastic team of people who are committed to taking on challenges and learning from them how to improve the way we operate.

I’ll also say that I think there’s a lot more stigma associated with college students than warranted. While there’s certainly been some bad actors over the years, having done so many student rentals really lets me focus on the denominator rather than the numerator.

Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.