This is the fourth in a series of profiles about the Nareit Foundation’s DTD 2025 grantees and grant program. The grant program falls under the Foundation’s DTD initiative, which focuses on increasing the visibility, awareness, and appeal of the REIT industry to more businesses, workforce talent, and communities. There are three priority areas: supporting pipeline/talent development, expanding procurement and business development, and helping everyday investors understand REITs and how to invest in them.
In 2025, The Nareit Foundation awarded grants to nine nonprofit organizations. This piece profiles Project Destined and how it’s addressing the DTD initiative’s priority of helping REITs build and maintain a robust pipeline of knowledgeable and skilled individuals from different backgrounds who bring new perspectives, creativity, and talent to their companies.
In the face of a rapidly changing commercial real estate (CRE) industry, attracting, developing, and retaining skilled talent remains a top priority—and challenge—for REITs. As REITs transform and refine their business operations to meet the needs of today and tomorrow, the demand for professionals equipped with financial acumen, analytical expertise, industry awareness, and advanced skills sets has never been greater. Recognizing this, Cedric Bobo, CEO and co-founder of Project Destined, is partnering with the Nareit Foundation to help meet these needs by offering specialized training, hands-on learning, and career pathways to the next generation of the REIT workforce.
After two decades in real estate investment, including 10 years at The Carlysle Group, Bobo wanted to pay it forward. In 2016, he launched Project Destined, a social impact platform that trains college students in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and real estate.
Bobo has recruited some of the largest players in real estate, which are eager to expand their talent pipelines with high-potential employees who can bring traditional and cutting edge skill sets to their companies. These companies support Project Destined by funding classes, internships, and mentoring students. The organization has more than 250 companies and associations as business partners, including Nareit and individual REITs.
Project Destined now boasts 20,000 alumni from more than 350 colleges and universities globally. Furthermore, over 100 new students are trained online every Saturday morning. Bobo’s goal is to train 10,000 students annually.
Building a Bridge
Through strong leadership, a robust curriculum including expert adjunct professors, and sponsors, Bobo’s mission is to create a new generation of real estate leaders and property owners.
In addition to teaching students about real estate, Project Destined provides a network of industry professionals and access to mentors to guide them during the program. Simultaneously, industry professionals are connected to a talented pool of aspiring young professionals.
Bobo says that the key to the program’s success is providing specialized training that goes far beyond real estate fundamentals.
“By asking our partners about their challenges and creating responsive, targeted educational programs, Project Destined ensures it’s providing precisely the talent pipeline companies need,” Bobo explains.
In 2024 alone, Bobo built 100 customized programs around a sponsor, a series of speakers, and on-site opportunities. He says Project Destined partners want students that are trained with applicable skill sets that will help future proof their businesses and workforces.
That’s exactly what the partnership between Project Destined and Nareit does.
The Nareit grant is helping Project Destined expand its REIT Bridge Program, so that it can provide more students with direct exposure to the REIT industry. The program includes a six-week speaker series, site visits, and a multi-week course focused on REIT analysis and research—all of which are designed to align with each REIT sector’s specific hiring needs. The goal of the project is twofold: to show students that the REIT industry offers accessible opportunities and career paths for professionals from all backgrounds while also directly connecting REITs with future employees and leaders who have the knowledge, skills, and creativity that REITs need to compete in today’s CRE landscape.
“Project Destined continues to deliver on what our members need most: a reliable pipeline of enthusiastic and ambitious high-potential talent who want to both work in the industry today and shape it for tomorrow," says Ayris T. Scales, senior vice president of social responsibility and global initiatives at Nareit. "The combination of Bobo’s rigorous program, adaptable model, and specialized training support Nareit’s efforts to raise awareness of REITs and increase young professionals access to REIT careers. Helping members create robust pipelines also meets a critical long-term need: strengthening succession planning across the industry."
Nareit Brings Important Relationships
Nareit is valuable because it brings together a range of REITs across different sectors, Bobo points out.
“It lets us bring students to meet the REITs, and it also lets us hear what the REITs need in terms of hiring. Then we create new programs,” he explains. “That’s the beauty. We get tremendous insight through Nareit and its partners, and we can grow and build more specialized programs and provide skill sets relevant to their businesses, which expands their talent pipelines.”
Project Destined adapts its programs by directly engaging with corporate HR leaders to understand their specific hiring challenges. Bobo and his team speak with them frequently. The organization then builds tailored courses around the specific talent requirements of the various REIT sectors.
The REIT industry has 13 different sectors,” Scales says. “For Cedric to adapt what he's doing to meet the individual needs and challenges is impressive because each sector is different. Office REITs are responding to different dynamics than retail or data centers, which in turn are dealing with different dynamics than self-storage or gaming....I love that he's able to be responsive in that way.”
For example, when Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) provided insight related to the industry’s need for data center operations talent. Bobo is now developing a data center operations course targeting military veterans. When AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE: AVB) highlighted the sector’s need for construction management professionals, Bobo created a specialized construction management program.
In another situation, Bobo developed a net lease investing class after learning about the specific needs in that area from VICI Properties Inc. (NYSE: VICI), an entertainment and experiential real estate REIT.
“The course is led by a Columbia Graduate School professor, and we're going to invest in scaling the program,” Bobo says. “More students will get jobs in the net lease sector, where there are lots of opportunities. That’s a robust environment today, but we never would have known about it without engaging with Nareit.”
Bobo points out that these are all real recruitment problems that REITs face today. He wants REITs to view Project Destined as an extension of their HR groups, enabling them to interact with talent that they could otherwise not find.
“If you make it easy for them, they’ll keep using you and see it as an opportunity—not simply something charitable,” he notes.
Critical Partnership
Bobo says the response to Project Destined’s REIT Bridge program has been robust, with more than 400 applications received each semester for around 20 slots. Because it's difficult to turn away that many students, the organization will train between 70 and 80 students in the REIT Bridge program in 2025.
That education leads to successful REIT careers. Bobo didn't have a REIT program just three years ago and now has a full page of students hired by REITs. “For me, it's exciting to see students get jobs and HR leaders extend their reach to meet students they might have not otherwise met,” he adds.
Bobo says that the Nareit partnership is critical.
“The relationship has been exceptional,” he stresses. “Nareit has opened up a whole new world for us that I never could have anticipated—new relationships, new partners, and new concepts.”
Nareit also provides ‘street cred.’ “It's the industry credibility that comes when Nareit recognizes you, and then we can scale that,” Bobo explains.
For example, when Bobo started a program with Digital Realty, it was Project Destined’s only data center partner. Bobo was recently on calls with 10 different operators who are now exploring potential partnerships.
“The reason why they want to talk to us is because we have talent, and now we have the credibility because of Digital Reality,” Bobo explains. “We couldn’t have met Digital Realty without Nareit. So, for us to reach our scale, it's just not just dollars. It's borrowing Nareit’s street credit as we go forward.”
Project Destined In Action
To further understand Project Destined’s program, watch this short video, featuring students on a site visit at a Prologis Inc. (NYSE: PLD) property.
Getting Involved
REITs that want to know about how they can partner with Project Destined and/or other pipeline/talent development initiatives should contact Ayris T. Scales at ascales@nareit.com.
Other DTD Grantee Profiles