"A Dreamer Who Gets Things Done"

Developer Ali Sahabi Gets Public-Private Impact Award From Los Angeles County Business Federation

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the past three decades, Public-Private Partnerships and cooperation have helped transform much of Southern California by promoting sustainable and resilient communities, inspiring clean and green technologies.

Left to Right: Sandra Gonzalez, State Director at Office of U.S. Senator Butler; Ali Sahabi, COO Optimum Seismic; Tracy Hernandez, BizFed Founding CEO

For ongoing efforts demonstrating a lifelong commitment to social and economic balance in many professional endeavors, Ali Sahabi has been selected by the Los Angeles County Business Federation (BizFed) to receive its first Public-Private Impact Award for bringing together business, government and non-profit leaders to advance sustainability and resilience in business, public policy and the non-profit sector.

"On behalf of the ever-growing BizFed family of diverse business networks, I congratulate Ali Sahabi on receiving our first annual Public-Private Impact Award. Ali has been an outstanding advocate for public-private partnerships and investments during his many years as an active BizFed leader. We applaud his work championing sustainable development and greater resiliency for businesses and homes," said Tracy Hernandez, Founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, widely known as "BizFed."

BizFed unites more than 240 business organizations representing 420,000 employers with 5 million employees throughout Southern California.

"The creation of this award reflects BizFed's dedication to fostering collaboration between public and private sector entities. We're proud to honor leaders like Ali Sahabi, whose work has fortified California's infrastructure and set new standards for what can be achieved through innovative public-private partnerships," said David Englin, BizFed President.

The award presentation at the 10^th annual BizFed Freshman Policymakers Reception at The Commons at the Universal Studios Lot on Sept. 4 highlighted four specific examples of Public-Private Partnerships by Sahabi that have made significant accomplishments in Southern California and beyond. These Public-Private Partnerships include:

Dos Lagos Mixed Use Development
By working cooperatively with leaders in the City of Corona to form a Redevelopment Project Area and coordinating with numerous Federal and State regulatory agencies, Sahabi achieved a dream many thought unrealistic to bring a $1-billion investment to the community as he transformed an abandoned 543-acre silica mine into a thriving, sustainable mixed-use community known as Dos Lagos.

"Ali Sahabi came to me with this crazy Idea of what he wanted to do with this vacant land. Making an old mining area into an entire live / work community," said Riverside County Supervisor Karen Spiegel. She added that Sahabi wanted to build Dos Lagos "to last, be sustainable and environmentally friendly." Sahabi would use the public | private development approach to the project by bringing together "community resources, business resources and his personal resources".

Sahabi is "a dreamer who makes things happen" emphasized Supervisor Spiegel

The project earned the California Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for Sustainable Communities, as well as American Planning Association and Building Industry Association awards, and other statewide and national accolades.

The Dos Lagos development became a pioneer in many ways. Dos Lagos was the first mixed use, master planned community in Western Riverside County. It included the first pedestrian promenade life-style center, the first LEED certified, Class A office building in Riverside County, first work / live lofts in the Inland Empire, the first environmentally planned golf course, and the first real estate development project endorsed by the Riverside Land Conservancy.

Workforce Development Program
As President of the San Bernardino County Chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California, Sahabi joined in a Public-Private Partnership to work with the County of San Bernardino and San Bernardino Community College District to advance a workforce development program that provided job skill training in the home building industry to formerly incarcerated individuals.

"We have an aging workforce in the construction industry and Ali Sahabi was really hands on in bringing our BIA San Bernardino County Chapter to work with the San Bernardino Community College District In putting together a really unique construction training program," said Carlos Rodriguez, Chief Policy Officer of the Building Industry Association of Southern California. "It was a 200 hour-training program that continues to work with formerly incarcerated members of our community who need a second chance."

Program participants earned a job-readiness certificate showing they had gained skills to meet the needs of regional employers. Collaboration between the public and private entities brought industry standards to the classroom so that students, the future builders and leaders of the region, were ready for the workplace on day one.

Green Valley Initiative
Beyond brick-and-mortar accomplishments, it is the lasting impact Sahabi's work has had on others that stands out as exemplary. His vision and actions have influenced a generation of builders, architects and government leaders. Sahabi helped transform much of Southern California by promoting sustainable and resilient communities, inspiring clean and green technologies, and demonstrating a lifelong commitment to social and economic balance in many professional endeavors.

Sahabi has been a strong believer in the need for regional cooperation to improve the quality of life in California. He initiated a regional movement towards sustainability through his nonprofit Green Institute for Village Empowerment, or GIVE, and the launch of the Green Valley Initiative in 2007, which is credited with sparking some of the region's most forward-thinking projects.

Sahabi led a regional push in the early 2000s for clean and green technologies, renewable energy and sustainable development that can still be seen growing today throughout Southern California. He was instrumental in bringing the U.S. Green Building Council to the Inland Empire. He has supported a broad range of causes not only in the industry but also organizations that promote important issues of community, social justice, public health and welfare, as well as primary, secondary and higher education.

"The Green Valley Initiative was way ahead of its time – a truly livable community where you could work, play and live in one community and it would be sustainable, waste free, energy efficient and really set a model for the rest of the country," said Terry Tamminen, President / CEO, AltaSea. "Ali realized that it had to go beyond just his footprint. It had to be all of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties – the Green Valley."

Through his efforts, Sahabi managed to get dozens of government agencies, the private sector and NGOs together for the first time to focus on the question of "how do we want to make our communities truly sustainable in the future?'

"When Ali came up with the idea for the Green Valley Initiative and had already been developing sustainable communities in the region, it was so new, especially in Southern California which was the model for urban sprawl. But he now had a roadmap for a sustainable community. Something that set the tone for development in throughout California and then I think throughout the nation and the world," Tamminen added.

Resilience Advantage
The Resilience Advantage webinar series highlighted educational programming conducted over five years by the U.S. Resiliency Council in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Business Federation (BizFed), Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and program sponsor Optimum Seismic, Inc. U.S. Small Business Administration also partnered with USRC to support this educational programming as a co-sponsor.

"The first thing we came up with was to develop an educational series called the Resilience Advantage, a years long effort around topics of resilience that would be meaningful to all of the stakeholders in the built environment," said Evan Reis, SE, Executive Director and Co-founder of the U.S. Resiliency Council. The Resilience Advantage was really Ali's idea to have a series of videos, webinar and interactive panels where we could focus on resilience and bring together as large an audience as possible."

Sahabi's advocacy work and his participation "really made him a great partner for the U.S. Resiliency Council," said Reis. "He's one of the few individuals I know who understands the public sector and the private sector in such a comprehensive way, and there are few people I know who are better at creating a relationship between very diverse groups of stakeholders."

These educational programs were designed to enable business owners to make better plans and informed decisions about how to protect their businesses, buildings and employees from earthquakes. The programs also covered how to quickly recover from damage to minimize business interruption, and how much improved resilience may cost initially and ultimately save.

Resilience Advantage showed how advances in the understanding of seismic issues can make businesses and buildings better able to withstand and recover from what can be devastating impacts during major earthquakes. Earthquakes can have devastating impacts on vulnerable buildings, people and the economy, but they don't have to be disasters. Investing in resilience is good economics and sound business. The webinars showed how actions by businesses can help them become more resilient now and in the future."

Expert panels also examined specific ways make buildings safer and more resilient. The result of these actions can provide numerous benefits: prevent death, injuries and property losses, preserve jobs and workforce housing, and protect vital services and local economies. Examples were shared of how resilience planning can lead to concrete actions that assist buildings and communities withstand shocks, avoid serious damage and recover more quickly from California's greatest natural hazard – earthquakes.

Sahabi has extensive involvement in multiple professional, civic and nonprofit organizations including the California Apartment Association, California Building Officials, California Manufacturers & Technology Association, Los Angeles Metropolitan YMCA, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles County Business Federation, and U.S. Resiliency Council. He is also involved in numerous local apartment associations, chambers of commerce, and Realtors associations.

Sahabi earned a Master of Real Estate Development degree from the University of Southern California School of Urban Planning and Development, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Pepperdine University.

Sahabi and his wife, Aida, live in the Los Angeles area with their two children, Leila and Edward.

Media Contact: Tom Robinson, 3236050312

Ali Sahabi accepts the Public-Private Impact Award