Finding Opportunistic Opportunities with Dan Feldman

Andrew Kirsh (0:00)

Hi, I'm Andrew Kirsh, co-founder of Sklar Kirsh. On this podcast, I interview industry leaders. You'll hear their real-time opinions on today's market, their background, unique career highlights, and guidance for newcomers to the industry. This is The Kirsh Connection. Welcome to another edition of The Kirsh Connection. I am here with Dan Feldman, the president of Sunroad Enterprises, and also the president of the San Diego Padres fan club.

Maybe that's not true, but I think you are.

Dan Feldman (0:34)

I would not say I'm president of the Padres fan club. I'm a fan. I'm incidentally still a big fan of the Chargers too, as you know.

Andrew Kirsh (0:42)

I do know that. Well, first of all, welcome to the show. Thank you for coming on to the show. We're doing it remotely.

The old school way of doing podcasts.

Dan Feldman (0:54)

Is old school doing it by Zoom? Because old school is probably the same person. And then we went old school back to new school, which was by Zoom. And now it's back to old new school, which is when you actually have a person come in.

Andrew Kirsh (1:05)

That's how we're doing it. But we like to do it. But you're in San Diego, I'm in LA, and it's still good to see you. It's good to see you. So obviously we could talk a lot about Padre Dodgers, but you know what? We'll leave that for another time. We don't want to bore some of our audience.

Let's talk about Sunroad. In case my listeners don't know what Sunroad Enterprises is, just give us a high level.

Dan Feldman (1:33)

So high level, we're a privately held company, basically two main divisions. One of them is auto dealerships. So we own and operate 16 what we call storefronts, which represent different brands here in San Diego, and about 22 in Mexico.

We've been in the car business since 1984, and we really like that business. Low tech, high barriers to entry. And then the other side of the business is real estate. And I would say that as a company, we are opportunistic and entrepreneurial. So it's not like we have a, you know, I purposely have a blank wall behind me. It doesn't say thou shalt only build class A multifamily in four markets. So in our 50 years, we've developed, owned, and operated hospitality, restaurants, marinas, industrial. We currently own in a partnership a couple million square feet in San Diego. We've developed several million square feet of class A office. As a matter of fact, class A office was kind of our bread and butter. From when we started in 1977 until the early 2000s. And then in the past 20 years, we really transitioned pretty heavily into multifamily.

Both buying and acquisition and rehab.

Andrew Kirsh (3:03)

So basically, there is nothing you don't do. You do everything.

Dan Feldman (3:07)

We are opportunistic.

We like to say that we are like surfers. If the wave is over here, we follow that wave. And if there's no wave, well, you can't surf. We go to a different wave.

Andrew Kirsh (3:18)

Typical San Diegan talking about surfing. By the way, By the way, I've never surfed.

Dan Feldman (3:24)

Just so you know, lived in San Diego since I was five years old. Not more than half a mile from the ocean. Never been on a surfboard.

Andrew Kirsh (3:32)

We could change that next time I'm down in San Diego. Not that I'm a big surfer. I retired from surfing many years ago. That sport is just, it's too hard. It just, I don't know what it is. I can't do it.

Let's start with the automotive industry because we don't have a lot of guests that are in that industry and they will flip over to real estate. I remember going to, I mean, we're both in YPO and I remember going to YPO, I've been in YPO for now, what, 11, 12 years. And I would say about 10 years ago, there would be speakers that would convince you that within 10 years, no one would be driving a car. Now, we see Waymo, I think, is Waymo down in San Diego?

Dan Feldman (4:16)

Just got its permit, like its full permit maybe a month ago or so. So yeah, but I've been seeing them in San Diego, in a Waymo, Robo taxi, they're all, they're percolating.

Andrew Kirsh (4:25)

Yeah, I mean, in Santa Monica, I would say one out of every five cars is a Waymo. Given your exposure in the automotive industry, are you, does that, is that a discussion within your organization? Are you concerned or what's your take on driverless cars?