Paul Ognibene, the CEO and founder of Urban Spaces, LLC, a Cambridge-based real estate development firm, has established himself as one of the most trusted and reliable prognosticators of real estate trends in the greater Boston area. Over the past several decades, he and his firm have quietly been responsible for many of the urban trends that we’ve already experienced and will lead the way for all of us in the future. The trend-setting work of Paul Ognibene includes, among many other examples, the innovative 1047 Commonwealth Avenue in Allston, the largest development of micro-units in the United States, and the forecasting and jump-starting re-birth of Brighton with the development of The Lancaster. And Paul Ognibene is doing it again with BRIX, now under construction as the first major condominium development in burgeoning downtown Salem. Salem had yet to exhibit the obvious trends of a hot market when he recognized the potential of drawing both empty-nesters and young professionals from both the North Shore and Boston to one of the Commonwealth’s most beautiful and historic cities. Currently, Paul Ognibene and Urban Spaces are working in the public sector also, and he’s created a new entity, the Boston Partnership for Community Reinvestment (“BPCR”). The BPCR is emerging as a valued mass-production vehicle for developing and constructing affordable housing in some of Boston’s most distressed communities. Simultaneously, this work is creating an economic development engine by providing construction jobs to residents of those impacted communities. Paul Ognibene, in addition to looking forward, is trying to give back which will be another trend that will mark urban development more and more in the post-pandemic future. It would behoove anyone or any organization to hear more about his views as hecontinues to influence the world in which we’ll soon be living. Paul Ognibene regularly shares his thoughts at various real estate symposiums and, to see his work, please visit Urban Spaces. It will be worth the trip.
