Carlos Mesa, a 1993 graduate of the School's Minority Real Estate Program, is using his skills to be a positive force in the community.

Photographed by Sammy Davis

Carlos Mesa, a 1993 graduate of the School's Minority Real Estate Program, is using his skills to be a positive force in the community.by Margaret BolesCarlos Mesa is sitting in a small trailer on the lot of his most recent project, the restoration of a 118-year-old home one mile from the USC campus. Although dilapidated and dependent on stilts, the home provides the street with a sense of character that contemporary developments do not provide. Although it is easier and often cheaper to knock down homes like this and start a building from scratch some people choose to restore them instead. Out of concern for the community and preservation of the past, over the next nine months, Mesa will not only restore the building back to its historical beauty, but he will also turn it into an affordable housing complex for senior citizens.

Mesa's commitment to develop the inner city comes from genuine respect for the people who live there. "When I first graduated, I worked for a couple of months in the inner city of San Diego as a paramedic. One morning, I was having breakfast in a diner when a man came up to me and said, 'You saved my life a couple of months back; I want to thank you.' He shook my hand and left the diner. That really meant something to me. Then, when I got up to pay, the waitress told me the check had already been taken care of. This guy looked like he could barely afford to pay for his own meal, and he had bought mine. I always think of that when I'm asked why I choose to work in this area."

In his role as Vice President of Windjammer Construction, Mesa has developed a niche in the Southern California real estate market as a developer of low-income housing. Developers like Mesa rely heavily upon gap financing to complete projects such as this one because the amount of money it costs to restore such a structure compared to what the rents are going to support creates a gap. "The gap money comes from tax credits," explains Mesa. "However, attracting this credit is not easy. The Community Redevelopment Agency is looking for projects that target the low-income community. The wider the pool of people that your structure is able to serve, the higher scoring you receive from the agency."

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