Michael Caretnay Bailkin is a co-founder and co-CEO of RPCV Ventures. In his career, he has served as a real estate developer, lawyer, business entrepreneur and financial services provider. He has also served in senior public sector economic development positions for the State of New York and the City of New York.

Real Estate Development

Bailkin acts both as a principal and a service provider for real estate projects. A focus for each is converting "inchoate" projects to those which are "shovel ready".

As a principal, Bailkin focuses on large scale urban "Master Development" projects. His approach is to identify underutilized property, add value through Master Planning, assembling property, zoning upgrades, infrastructure improvements and project incentives, and then sell or co-develop the enhanced land. These projects typically have a major catalytic impact on the host community. Examples include MetroTech, a 16 acre, 9 million sq. ft. multi-phase data technology project in downtown Brooklyn and Theatre Row, a two block adaptive reuse of dilapidated tenement buildings on West 42nd St. to an off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theater complex in Manhattan. Bailkin is currently working on large scale P3 projects in a number of cities, including Wharton Piers, a 4 million sq. ft. mixed-use waterfront destination project on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

Bailkin also acts as development manager for clients on both "Master Developer" as well as individual projects. Typical clients are institutions that want to expand their facilities and/or enhance and monetize their properties, developers or landowners of large scale parcels, and community development groups. 

He has also pioneered in organizing Community Development Corporations ("CDCs") and assisting them in finding and implementing projects. These include multiple CDCs in New York, such as the 42nd Street Development Corp, Greater Jamaica Development Corp, Flatbush Development Corp and many others. He also regularly partners with CDCs in projects that he is developing or managing, reflecting his belief that projects must generate benefits for both communities and developers to be sustainable.

Legal/Consulting 

Bailkin’s core legal and consulting practices are Economic Development Incentives and Zoning/Land Use. In his 55 years of practice in this field, Bailkin and his team have been responsible for more than $4 billion of Incentives and a similar level of tax-exempt financing. His Incentives practice is national with a primary focus on the New York Metropolitan Region and the Greater Philadelphia Region. Major types of projects include:

• MetroTech, where he structured and raised more than $500 million of project and infrastructure financing

• Financial services companies (such as Chase, Citicorp, Merrill Lynch, Lazard Freres, Lehman, HSBC, NASD, NASDAQ, AMEX)

• Media and entertainment companies (such as ABC, NBC, Conde Nast, Hearst, Reuters, Bloomberg, Warner Music, Madison Square Garden, Miss Universe)

• Operating companies (such as Phillips, MetLife, New York Life, Pfizer, Marriott Hotels, Schrager Hotels, Whole Foods)

• Health care and educational institutions (such as Brooklyn Polytechnic, New York College of Podiatry, New York Presbyterian, Montefiore)

• Local and national developers (such as Forest City Enterprises, Vornado, Related, Trump Organization, Extell, HFZ Capital)

• Public sector entities (such as the Cities of Denver, Paterson, Jacksonville, New York, and the Harlem Urban Development Corporation)

Bailkin provides unique value added services relating to the new federal Opportunity Zone (OZ) Program. While the primary benefit of OZ investors is deferrals and exceptions on capital gains, these tax benefits can be supplemented by capital and operating grants and loans provided from various federal agencies that can be accessed on a priority basis for OZ projects, and by a broad range of state and local programs.

He has also been responsible for some of the largest and most complex land use rezoning projects in New York City, such as MetroTech (16 acres); the Queens Plaza Renewal area (a rezoning of 36 blocks to convert M-1 (low density) manufacturing to mixed uses with densities as high as FAR 12); and the Pfizer Redevelopment Area (involving a 20-block redevelopment of the area around the Pfizer plant in Brooklyn for mixed use).

Specialized Project Financing/Opportunity Zones

Bailkin also conceptualizes and arranges specialized project financing. His focus is on subsidized capital, which includes soft or below-market loans and equity investments from public sector agencies, quasi-public entities and NGO's for P3 and/or Affordable Housing Projects.

He also packages and arranges foreign capital for U.S. projects through the EB-5 Program. This program enables foreign investors to obtain Green Cards by investing in job-generating projects in areas of high employment. It provides capital at below-market rates, usually in the form of mezzanine loans or preferred equity. Bailkin's approach focuses on structuring the EB-5 Investment and managing the professional and capital raising team.

Operating Businesses

Bailkin acts as a principal and service provider for start-up businesses. His focus is on businesses which have both a strong social mission and the potential for significant profitability. In the Peace Corps he developed a feed co-op to service a poultry farm extension program that he was working on. A current project is the development and operation of a hydroponics microgreen (fresh, and freeze-dried powders) start-up in the Philadelphia area. 

He also assists a broad range of startup companies to move from conceptual or initial stages to full operations. Services include analysis and/or development of a business plan, strategic enhancements, legal structuring and identification of legal issues, organizational and stakeholder development, raising risk, development and operating capital, and all related activities to assist new businesses in capitalization and start of operations.

Background

Bailkin graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors in Philosophy from Temple University and received his J.D. and an M.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Chicago. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1971.

He started his career as an associate with the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton. He then served in the public sector, initially as Deputy General Counsel for the Roosevelt Island Development Corp. (a subsidiary of the New York State Urban Development Corporation) and for the City of New York, where he held a number of senior budgeting and economic development positions, including serving on the team that managed the fiscal recovery of the City in the mid-70's, and structuring New York’s Economic Development Incentive programs in conjunction with acting as the City's lead negotiator for the Commodore Hotel (the first project to use such Incentives).

Bailkin was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Stadtmauer Bailkin LLP, a law firm specializing in Incentives and Zoning, prior to merging that firm into Akerman LLP, a national law firm, in 2007. He now practices at Akerman LLP, where he is a Senior Member of the firm's Economic Development Practice Group and is Co-Manager of the firm’s Opportunity Zone Practice Group.

Bailkin has served as a Board Member of the National Peace Corps Association ("NPCA"), where he developed the concept and plan for RPCV Ventures. He has also been Chairman of the Corporate Outreach Program at the Wharton School's Real Estate Center, a member of the Legislative Committee of the Real Estate Board of New York, a member of the National Policy Committee and the Inner City Committee of the Urban Land Institute, and a member of the Business Council of the United States Conference of Mayors. He has written and lectured extensively on real estate and economic development and was a contributing editor to Wharton's Journal of Real Estate Finance. He has been listed for many years (and continues to be listed) as one of The Best Lawyers in America and as a Super Lawyer in New York and listed as a “Best Practices” EB-5 practitioner by both IIUSA and EB-5 Investor Magazine. He was recently designated as a “Centennial Honoree” by the Fox School of Business at Temple University, as one of 100 people associated with Fox since its founding in 1918 that have made the most significant impacts on society.

Bailkin served in the U.S. Army in Panama, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in India (1963-65), where he started the first Urban Community Development Program in Asia.