Ben McAdams: Marrying public real estate and private capital

As mayor of Salt Lake County a decade ago, Ben McAdams was frustrated that there wasn’t $500,000 in a $1.3 billion annual budget for a promising early childhood education program (instead he helped craft one of the country’s first social impact bonds). But an effort he led to map the value of the city’s underutilized real estate yielded an impressive number: at least $15 billion, and up to $45 billion if properties are developed thoughtfully. “I found out there is actually money under our mattress,” McAdams tells David Bank on this week’s Impact Briefing podcast. “It's real estate that is just forgotten.”