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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Jason Yanes, an investor specializing in light industrial development, particularly around airports. Jason shares his journey from residential real estate to this niche, discussing the challenges he faced, the importance of teamwork, and his goals for future projects. He highlights the surprising cash flow potential in industrial real estate and offers insights into lead generation and market dynamics.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Jason Yanes (00:00)
Yeah, I think the biggest surprise is the numbers. So I’ll give you an example. if you take your typical residential rental property, think folks would consider what’s a good cash flow would be something, couple hundred bucks a month on a property that’s maybe 200,000, 300,000, let’s say. And so with this, it’s a little different.with these business units, based on the cost and what not, we’re gonna charge about $2,500 a month for each of units, which is pretty low and it’s pretty great, especially for folks who are maybe newer in their business looking for space for the business. And that side of things, and it still cash flows really well.
Michelle Kesil (02:23)
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Jason Yanes, who is an investor and now is working in light industrial development. So excited to have you here today, Jason.Jason Yanes (02:41)
Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Glad to be here.Michelle Kesil (02:44)
Yeah, absolutely. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re working in this new niche of the industrial development. So let’s dive in.First off, for those not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?
Jason Yanes (03:02)
Yeah, yeah. So the main focus now is light industrial real estate development and specifically development within airports. And so the idea is to develop ⁓ business units in or around airports. And if you look at existing airports, you will see a lot of industrial and like manufacturing type of buildings around that area. So developing those buildings as well ashangars for aircrafts and just general storage units. So those are the three main things being built ⁓ within the airport fence line or around it.
Michelle Kesil (03:46)
Cool. And what does that look like as far as your role? Like what are the steps that you take to get there?Jason Yanes (03:55)
Yeah, yeah, so there’s a lot of things involved in that. I’d say that the biggest thing is first just having a solid team to do whatever is necessary to get this project up and running. So ⁓ for me, my main goal or my main objective with this is ⁓ finding the capital, whether that’s the bank financing, private investors, it’s conversing with the different airports. ⁓to determine, is this a viable airport? Is there space? Does it make sense to, you know, kind of do something like this at this airport? And then my partner, he’s a numbers guy. So he’s really good at figuring out, all right, how much is this gonna cost? You know, he’s got the relationship with our builders and our suppliers. So he kind of gets all those numbers so we can figure out, okay, like how much we’ll need to finance this project? What are the expected returns? This and that. ⁓ And then once we kind of get that stuff,
know, Roland and we kind of both work on, who are we gonna pull in as tenants in terms of businesses that would need those specific units and, you leasing and things of that nature. So it’s kind of a dual effort
And we kind of just play into, you know, what each of our strengths are to get this, you know, these projects done.
Michelle Kesil (06:03)
Cool. And what markets are you doing this in?Jason Yanes (06:08)
Yeah, mostly ⁓ Pennsylvania. So I’m located in Philadelphia. ⁓ So looking at the different, you know, smaller regional airports in this area along the I-95 highway. So things like up in Lehigh Valley. ⁓ We even have one planned for somewhere out more west into Pittsburgh, ⁓ but primarily right now in the Pennsylvania area.Michelle Kesil (06:34)
Awesome. And yeah, how did you even hear about this? Nisha, come into it.Jason Yanes (06:42)
Yeah, so it was a very interesting story there. I’ve been in real estate for about six or seven years, and most of it ⁓ was more in the residential space. So I started out wholesaling and then had a couple of flips, ⁓ kept a couple of rentals, the Burr method, even had an Airbnb. So I kind started out in that avenue. And then had some hiccups, as I’m sure most people do.with some projects going completely sideways or having multiple evictions and whatnots. And so I kind of took a pause from that and was trying to think of, what are some different avenues that I can get into real estate? Like what other things haven’t I tried? Just to see maybe there’s something that’s out there that’s better for me or maybe I’ll have better luck. so outside of real estate, I’m a business consultant, right? And so funny enough,
I had just joined this other firm. And so basically we were just helping out small businesses, ⁓ just improve and just be better in general. And ⁓ one of my clients, one of their needs was they needed some land. So then I was kind of still using some of that real estate background into ⁓ helping out this client. So essentially what we did was ⁓ find someone with some land and actually subdivided that to
for this client to purchase because there was nothing on the market, there was nothing
And then we had another client we had to build a building for. ⁓ They basically were a dairy tank manufacturer. They just needed a building being built. we kind of had all the different components already laid out. we had our different methods for getting land. We had these metal buildings that we were able to ⁓ construct for different clients.
And so then me and partner were talking and we kind of had this idea like, okay, we’ve been doing this for clients. What if we, you know, do this as our own project? And then, you know, since my real estate background, I’m like, is something I would definitely like to pursue. So we kind of just thought about it and, know, we’re trying to figure out like what different avenues we could do. Cause you know, in certain areas, there’s a lot of industrial parks, if you will, where there’s manufacturer plants and, you know, buildings for contractors, you know.
auto body shops, things like that. But then we ultimately landed on doing those within airports. And that’s my partner, he flies planes. So he just knows the industry really well. And the reason why we also wanted to do that was because typically, you know, real estate around airports is a little bit cheaper just because of the noise. So we thought, okay, maybe that would be a good way to, you know, source of land that’s a little bit cheaper, just because in this area, the vacant land is
get pretty expensive, it’s really tough to find a lot that you can really build on and then do something that’s not going to be super high luxury. So that’s kind how we landed in this specific niche, light industrial development at airports.
Michelle Kesil (09:59)
Wow, yeah, interesting. Definitely have never had a conversation about that.Jason Yanes (10:39)
Yeah.Michelle Kesil (10:41)
what have been some of the biggest challenges with it.Jason Yanes (10:45)
Yeah, I think the biggest challenges maybe in the beginning was just even getting a hold of the right folks. It’s a lot of phone tag and just chasing to figure out who’s the right person to talk about, whether it’s selling land, whether it’s doing a ground lease at the airports, and then with the builders and different lots and whatnot. So first and foremost, just trying to get a hold of the right people. But now we kind of have that stuff figured out. But now the main challenge is just finding more.capital partners, private money investors. Since we have a couple of these in the works, we have the bank financing for the majority of the project lined up, but then it’s just that last little bit that we’re looking for some private capital. That’s tough just because we got multiple going on. So trying to find money is our biggest challenge for sure.
Michelle Kesil (11:41)
Yeah, absolutely. What do you feel have been some of the main keys that have made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow and run smoothly?Jason Yanes (11:56)
Yeah, I’d say one of the biggest things is transitioning from kind of doing everything myself to forming a team that can kind of work together and do each part better than just one person can do. Because I could definitely say that when I was doing more of the residential stuff, I was doing everything on my own, everything. And I’m sure a lot of other investors are that way as well. They handle, OK, let’s find a deal.You know, the quick math to see if it’ll work. Let’s do the the the project management to manage the contractors for any kind of innovations. Let’s do the financing. Let’s, you know, find our tenants. Kind of do everything. And it’s great, you know, a lot of folks can do that. But if you want to, you know, I guess scale or do bigger projects, it’s much harder to do everything on your own. You know, you’re not going to know everything and definitely need to play into your strengths and, you know.
form a team that can ⁓ work together really well and that each person can kind of bring something to the table to make the team succeed.
Michelle Kesil (13:09)
Yeah, absolutely. Are you working with like a team and partners? What does that look like for you?Jason Yanes (13:14)
Yeah, so I just have one main partner and so me and him are kind of the forefront of this project and then we have our other, you know, our other secondary partners like our builders, our financing guys, our bank people, know, folks that are in the aviation industry. So we have other, I would say, secondary partners that are, you know, assisting with kind of getting this project up and running. But from the actual, you know, project, it’s just me and my one partner.Michelle Kesil (13:43)
Awesome. What are you most focused on solving or scaling to next within the business?Jason Yanes (13:54)
Yeah, so…I have a goal for at least the next two years to at least get four of these built out. so, you know, just finding the correct investors for these buildings and then just being able to manage the construction and as well as getting them leased out and whatnot. Yeah, hoping to get four of these built out. And within four of these projects, there’s going to be essentially…
probably about 40 or so different business units and probably around the same number of storage units and then two to three airplane hangers as well. So ⁓ just a wide mix of ⁓ units and in uses. So that’s kind of the goal.
Michelle Kesil (14:46)
AwesomeAre you still investing in other types of real estate?
Jason Yanes (14:56)
⁓ I took a pause from the residential, so I still have a few properties that I’m just still⁓ But I haven’t done anything new within the residential space. I’ve just been solely focused on this light industrial side of things.
Michelle Kesil (15:55)
And how has that pivot been?Jason Yanes (15:58)
very interesting. It’s been ⁓ a bit of a learning curve, you know, ⁓ some of the, I guess, concepts are, are, you the same with real estate. It’s, know, you got to get, some land or buy a building and, and, you know, cashflow and whatnot and financing. So some of that, some of those, you know, terms and whatnot is still similar, but it’s a whole different game because it’s, you know, it’s, it’s going from.having rentals and leasing those out to regular folks to move in and live in to now, ⁓ you know, building these units and renting them out to businesses. And, you know, now you’re going to have to vet businesses a different way that you would, you know, a regular person when you, you know, you do like your credit check, background checks, but business a little bit different. ⁓ So it’s just kind of, you learning, just learning these, the new ways of working, new things that need to be considered to make sure this, you know, these projects are successful.
Michelle Kesil (17:01)
Yeah, absolutely. And how are you finding these projects? How does the lead generation work?Jason Yanes (17:09)
Yeah, so Blue Generation is pretty simple actually. And I know that’s usually the toughest part, finding the deal. But for this one, it’s actually not that tough because since we’re focusing on the airports, there’s actually a lot more airports out there than most people think there are. There was certainly more than I thought there were. When I thought about airports, I mostly thought about your bigger international ones like, the one in JFK, Philadelphia.DC, those large airports, but there’s a lot of smaller regional airports. ⁓ And so it gave us at least a good starting point to look at, okay, we’re starting the airport, all these airports, let’s look around there. around the airport, there’s actually a lot of, ⁓ usually a lot of land that they aren’t using. So for an airport, their main goal is to get planes to
to fly in and land and take off and sell jet fuel. That’s essentially like how they make their money and get their funding. So, real estate is not their main focus. if you look at a lot of airports, you’ll see like on the borders of the airports, there’ll be other sort of businesses, maybe aviation related, maybe just industrial related, but there’s always a lot of extra room and space for other businesses. it’s essentially just reaching out to these airports, seeing what they have available, and then, you know, seeing
seeing what we can make work. So that part has not been the difficult part whatsoever, which is very unlike the residential side of things, what I’m used to.
Michelle Kesil (18:49)
Totally. What do you think has been the biggest surprise in this niche for you?Jason Yanes (18:57)
Yeah, I think the biggest surprise is the numbers. So I’ll give you an example. if you take your typicalrental property, think folks would consider what’s a good cash flow would be something, couple hundred bucks a month on a property that’s maybe 200,000, 300,000, let’s say. And so with this, it’s a little different.
with these business units, based on the cost and what not, we’re gonna charge about $2,500 a month for each of units, which is pretty low and it’s pretty great, especially for folks who are maybe newer in their business looking for space for the business. And that side of things, and it still cash flows really
And then with the aircraft hangars.
I didn’t realize how much folks pay for rent to store their planes and jets. It’s quite a lot. For example, one of the aircraft hangars that we’re planning would be a 10 aircraft hangar, so about 10 planes would fit in there. And if someone had a Gulfstream G700, if you’re familiar with jets, it’s a pretty big one. It’s about 100, a little bit over 100 feet long.
And just for that jet itself, they typically pay about almost $7,000 a month just to store that thing. So, you know, if you can imagine if an aircraft hangar had, let’s say, five of those and five smaller others, those numbers can be pretty astronomical in terms of how much it costs to kind of build that and maintain that building. So I think just seeing the cash flow potentials.
Especially since there’s just a wide variety of ⁓ uses for these buildings. That was kind of the biggest surprise. Pleasant surprise, I’ll add.
Michelle Kesil (21:00)
Yeah, absolutely. Is there like any sort of mentorship or education you’ve done on this or you’re just figuring it out as you go?Jason Yanes (21:11)
⁓ Yeah, definitely noor education. It’s kind of figuring it out, but also like my partner, since he has some background in aviation, like he has his license, can fly planes. He just kind of knows that industry ⁓ a bit. So we kind of just pull from our, ⁓ just our previous experiences, like his airline experience and my previous real estate experience and kind of just spit balling, figuring things out as we go.
Michelle Kesil (21:40)
Yeah, amazing. That’s a cool opportunity.Jason Yanes (21:43)
Yeah.Michelle Kesil (21:45)
Do you have any goals for where you want this business to head to?Jason Yanes (21:50)
Yeah, mean, the sky’s the limit with this. I mean, there’s so many airports out there. yeah, I I want to, I mean, if I can get 100 units, you know, within the next five years, I think is doable. But then that’s a pretty steep goal I want to set for myself to see if we can get these nationwide, hopefully.Michelle Kesil (22:12)
Amazing, that’s exciting.Cool, so before we wrap up here, if somebody wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you and connect with you?
Jason Yanes (22:25)
Yeah, yeah, have a couple, so it’s a little interesting because I have mypage and my website for my residential side of things and that’s just stallionacquisitions.com and that has all my social media links and whatnot, contact information and that site. And then for this, my industrial development, so the firm that we’re kind under is called Approach Advisors, so approachadvisors.com
is the way you can contact me.
⁓ And then we’re essentially we’re calling these these these projects airports call them takeoff business park ⁓ But still working on the website and the socials for that so that stuff’s not ready quite yet But yeah, the main two areas to find me would be stallion stallionacquisitions.com ⁓ or approachadvisors.com
Michelle Kesil (23:16)
Perfect, well, appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. Thank you for being here.Jason Yanes (23:22)
Absolutely, thank you for having me.Michelle Kesil (23:24)
And for the listeners tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Jason who are building real businesses, and we’ll see you on the next episode.
