Will Blodgett, who co-founded national affordable housing firm Fairstead, has launched a new real estate investment company.
Called Tredway, the business will invest in, acquire, and develop new affordable, workforce, and mixed-income housing across the country. It plans to be active in preservation deals as well as new construction projects.
“I felt a calling to go seek my own challenge, climb my own mountain, and focus on maximizing impact,” Blodgett says. “Everything that we’re going to do at Tredway is going to be viewed through the lens of is this project promoting upward socioeconomic mobility.”
The move comes after he was part of building Fairstead into one of the nation’s most active and largest owners of affordable housing. Blodgett left Fairstead last year and, at 39, is starting his second real estate business.
It’s named after early housing reformer Alfred Tredway White. “He was ahead of his time, and he was a huge proponent of upward social economic mobility,” Blodgett says, adding that the three pillars to achieve that are education, health care, and housing. The last component is where he’s focused his attention.
Blodgett says he was born into a humble home on Chicago’s South Side, and many of the kids he grew up lived in public housing. When a public housing development was torn down, his friends were often moved to remote areas, where they lacked access to key services. It was heartbreaking for Blodgett, too. He missed his pals, who supported him when others bullied him for his stutter.
He didn’t know at the time that he would go on to work in affordable housing, but he knew he wanted to help his friends.
“The housing that we’re going to build and invest in and preserve will not only be high quality but high opportunity, meaning you can get to a job quickly, efficiently, and affordably. You have access to great education and health care in your neighborhood,” he says.
A proud product of Chicago’s public schools, Blodgett went on to Yale University, where he played football, and then MIT Sloan School of Management. Before going to business school, Blodgett worked briefly at the New York City Housing Authority and then later in the affordable housing division of Related Cos.
This year, his focus will be setting up Tredway for success.
The company recently added industry veteran Neil Mutreja, senior vice president of acquisitions and development, to the team. Mutreja is responsible for identifying new sourcing and investing opportunities in existing and ground-up affordable and mixed-income properties while expanding Tredway’s footprint nationally.
He joins Tredway after serving as senior vice president at TM Associates, where he specialized in the acquisition, renovation, and construction of affordable housing developments throughout the Mid-Atlantic.
