Chapter Leader Focus - Madison DiNapoli
Madison DiNapoli is an acquisitions and asset management professional who is passionate about placemaking and community revitalization. As a member of the acquisitions and development team at Presidio Bay Ventures, she leads multiple deals within the firm’s robust portfolio of development projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and gets the opportunity to explore her passion for development daily.
Currently, her focus is on ground-up life science and office development in San Francisco and on the Peninsula. The deal that is currently keeping her busy and most energized is Charleston Plaza, a struggling shopping center in Mountain View. She finds the recent acquisition particularly exciting because she sees a huge opportunity to transform an underutilized big-box retail center into a vibrant mixed-use campus that will serve the entire neighborhood in several ways. “We are taking a nearly vacant retail center and repositioning it into a mixed-use, lab/R&D campus,” she said. “It has been an interesting learning experience to work with a variety of different tenants and to learn intimately about the pros, cons and opportunities presented by “big box” retail.”
What DiNapoli finds most rewarding about her current role is the sense of placemaking that she and her team can inform through development. “We have the chance to create something new that fits today’s users,” she said. “We thoughtfully take into consideration all angles of a new development from the investor level down to future tenants and the surrounding community. We create value by building destinations where people want to spend their time, which in turn ensures that they will be activated for years and generations to come.” Another interesting element of her work is the opportunity to interact with a variety of people and disciplines, all of whom are required to bring these places to life. “I love to see the hard work and collaboration that goes into envisioning, designing, and building a new property – the amount of people that must be on the same page to get it done is truly incredible,” she said.
DiNapoli got involved with NAIOP SFBA when she participated in the Young Professionals Group Program (YPG) in 2018. Upon graduation, she joined the Alumni Committee and was appointed Co-Chair of the newly created Engagement and Connectivity Committee in 2020. The goal of her the new Committee is to serve as the liaison and a resource for cross-committee collaboration. “I value the number of opportunities to connect with others in the industry as well as the sense of community NAIOP provides,” she said. “There is always an event to attend, a new topic to learn about, and always plenty of great networking opportunities.”
In terms of advice for young people just getting started, DiNapoli strongly believes that relationships are what makes the business work. “The best piece of advice I have for emerging professionals is to ask people out to coffee or lunch,” she said. “You really learn the most by connecting with people one on one and it often leads to new opportunities”
A native of Los Angeles, DiNapoli graduated from USC, but soon found herself in San Francisco after college friends started moving here for tech jobs. Given her entire extended family lives in the Bay Area, it made the decision an easy one. These days she lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco with her husband Chris and their labradoodle, Palmer. When not working, she can be found watching the Warriors, riding her Peloton or exploring new restaurants in San Francisco.
