Businesses that have sustained through the ages have shared the same secret which is great leadership. The leaders have the potential to motivate the employees and make them not only see but believe in the vision. Moreover, with the constant changes around us, they equally lead innovation in the company. Similarly, Nadyrshah (Nick) Dhanani is the powerhouse, vision, and face behind the Dhanani Private Equity Group. He is the CEO, Founder, and Chairman of the Dhanani Private Equity Group (DPEG) who has built the business brick by brick from day one.

Nick’s journey started from a convenience store where he worked as the night cashier and after gathering years of experience, he started purchasing and operating his stores. Soon he started investing in real estate leading to the establishment of DPEG in 2013. For almost a decade, Nick started buying land and developed convenience stores on them. This soon transcended into a successful endeavor leading to the addition of retail shopping centers and most recently, he has started developing multifamily properties. Along the way, Nick’s vision led him to grow his team and company to over $500mm in assets under management. 

 

Income-producing assets- The ultimate goal

 

Initially, DPEG’s journey began based on Nick’s vision to help his friends and family build long-term wealth, preserve their capital, and essentially help them to use money as a tool to bring in more returns. Though having profitable returns is essential, DPEG believes that putting the hard-earned money to work and building on it by investing in income-producing assets is the ultimate goal. In order to fulfill this goal, DPEG offers multiple ways for clients to build wealth and those include investing in developing multifamily properties, land speculation, ground-up development of shopping centers and convenient stores, technology start-up investments, and acquisitions of shopping centers. DPEG also shares experience in developing hotels in the past and the team equally seeks new and unique investments that raise profit. 

DPEG develops and acquires properties in high-traffic locations and along with a strong management team, can bring its investors an IRR between 20-30% per project. This approach has been the same since day one despite the changes in the private equity industry. “The reason our approach remains the same is that we’ve believed in our investment approach for so long and it has worked wonders for our investors,” explained Nick. Over the years, he has experienced that the private equity industry can improve in terms of bringing awareness and education to the general public. DPEG believes in the mantra of not only helping the clients build wealth but also sharing the tactics, knowledge, and experience with them even with those that do not invest. 

 

Crucial elements for Success

 

DPEG’s offerings have been always praised by its clients. For the DPEG team seeing the clients happy with their investments is one of the most rewarding aspects. Nick adds, “The DPEG team and investors are essentially a family that looks out for one another and we enjoy the journey together through its ups and downs.” The most challenging part of DPEG’s journey has been the early years where the company had no established track record. Back then Nick was not aware of how important a track record is in real estate and private equity. “When you’re working with deals large enough in the tens of millions of dollars, you need to show you can perform before the public invests with you,” said Nick. It was the trust of family and friends in the initial first few projects that helped the team overcome the hurdle. Having overcome the challenges, the team of DPEG has not looked back and the word has spread around the city of DPEG’s growth as every single one of its projects has made a profit.

In such crucial moments of uncertainty, the leader’s mindset plays an important part. Nick’s astute leadership skills helped people in believing the vision of DPEG and set the company on the journey to success. He believes that leadership comes from top-down and success is a byproduct of the entire team sharing the vision of its leadership team. He continues, “I also believe that operating a lean team where everyone wears multiple hats helps the company grow quicker.”

 

Exploring the Unique opportunities

 

COVID-19 pandemic was one such instance of uncertainty and harsh business climate. Amid these circumstances, the DPEG team was agile in implementing new strategies to offset the pandemic’s impact. The company provided rent relief to tenants for most of 2020 which helped keep them in business. Furthermore, the team worked with the investors to ensure their investments were safe as the team believed that practicing patients with a long-term vision, real estate investments would always come out on top since they were investing in an income-producing asset.

Over the years, DPEG has experienced explosive growth in real estate investments and developments. Nick confirms that the company is on track to close over $200mm+ in sales in 2021 alone. DPEG’s first multifamily exit in June 2021, which provided investors with a 1.7X multiple and 30% IRR, Dhanani Private Equity Group investor database has grown from 400 individuals to over 750 within a few months. He adds, “Our very first multifamily development, Territory at Greenhouse, was such a huge success that it helped fuel more growth and projects for our company.” In the ever-changing economy, especially in a post-COVID world, DPEG is exploring unique opportunities to develop certain projects and also acquire others. 

 

Bright future ahead

 

Under Nick’s leadership, DPEG has grown from convenient store development to hotels, retail shopping centers to now multifamily developments ranging in the $50mm budget range. In recent years there has been a lot of competition in the private equity companies which demonstrates the demand for investor returns is the most crucial as it has ever been. Despite the rise in competition, DPEG remains one of the leading private equity firms and has a loyal client base that is ever-expanding. The team aims to keep forging the path ahead to push the growth along with the investors by continuing to diversify the portfolio. 

With Dhanani Private Equity Group having a record 2021 year, the future looks brighter than ever. The company also has 4-5 additional projects lined up going into Q1 2022 with 4-5 multifamily developments in the pipeline. Nick sums up, “The future is looking extremely promising at Dhanani Private Equity Group and for our investors.”

Optimistic perspective: “Dhanani Private Equity Group started by developing small projects such as gas stations, convenience stores that were co-branded with national fast-food chains. By 2012, the company was worth $20 million and today, as 2021 comes to an end, the company has over $700 million in assets under management.”

Quote: I believe that mindset plays a huge role in the success of a company. Leadership comes from top-down and success is a byproduct of the entire team sharing the vision of the leadership team.

 

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