The story of Chatam Management has a classic start: with hard work and perseverance, an immigrant defies the odds and achieves the American Dream. Today, the story continues, with the next generation taking up the mantle to build on that success by following the founder’s principles on business, family, and life.
Chatam Management was founded by Ram Gupta, a Bronx-based property owner, developer and manager.
Ram was born in a rural village that lacked electricity or running water near Hyderabad, India. As a child, he walked five miles to school each day. His father expected him to end his schooling early to manage their small but successful village store.
However, Ram had a different vision for his life, and thus decided to eschew the safety of his family business. Ram took a chance, and became the first person in his village to attend college. He received an accounting degree, with high distinction, from Osmania University in Hyderabad, and in 1970, this academic success allowed him to move to New York City.
“My father built his nation-wide commercial and residential real estate portfolio through hard work and dedication,” says Anita Gupta, Ram’s daughter, who serves as Chatam’s vice president.
As with most first-time immigrants, Ram had no family in the United States and immersed himself in his new American life. Those first few years were not easy. He worked as an accountant by day, and a cab driver by night, just to make ends meet.
But on one fateful day, “as he was doing a tax return for someone in the real estate business, he realized he could do that, too,” Anita notes.
Ram took a chance once again, and bought a multifamily building in the Bronx with a friend. As Anita recounts, that first project quickly became a money pit: “Literally everything that could possibly go wrong with one building did, including a fire, tenants defaulting on the rent, and problems with the boiler.”
The co-owner, tiring of the management difficulties, eventually left the partnership, but Ram persevered, and thus, Chatam Management was born. From this start, Ram began building an ownership and management portfolio one property at a time, often acquiring properties with partnerships. This has allowed Chatam to diversify its portfolio to include strip centers, office, mixed-use, and multifamily properties, and to build relationships both in the tri-state area and around the U.S. Even today, Chatam continues to manage certain property types, but prefers to partner with a specialist in the field for those that require a particular expertise, such as their retail holdings.
As the business grew, so did his family, to include two daughters that also went into real estate-related fields. Business and family intertwined.
“I’ve been exposed to the business my entire life, spending summers in his office and taking trips on the weekends to see properties,” Anita notes. Clearly, as Anita states she “quickly took an interest in real estate and liked it from the beginning.”
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Anita worked at Marcus & Millichap, and then briefly for her father. But she rebelled a bit, opting to leave the real estate business to attend law school.
“I really believed my true calling was in the law,” she says, “But I just kept getting drawn back to my dad’s business, and I’d get involved in his deals and projects.” So after law school, Anita took a leap of faith and joined Chatam Management in 2008. She recalls that period fondly, remembering that her father, “definitely took me under his wing.”
Not long after joining, she was faced with the challenges of this business when one of their commercial properties on Westchester Square in the Bronx was destroyed by arson. Having focused on acquisition and management over his career, Ram thought the best course would be to sell the property to a company more focused on development. But Anita pushed for Chatam to take on the challenge of redevelopment, and eventually Ram relented.
The road to rebuilding the property was not always smooth. Still in her 20s, Anita found that contractors and vendors would not always take her seriously. She recalls that, “at first I was underestimated. But as you show them that you are knowledgeable and that you understand what’s needed [for the job],” she quickly earned respect. The building reopened in 2013, and through the process Anita learned a new facet of the industry, as well as the depth of her interest in real estate: “I would say that project cemented my belief that my place was working in real estate.”
The Westchester redevelopment project also shifted the professional relationship between father and daughter. While Ram welcomed Anita to the business as his mentee, by the end of the redevelopment project they had become partners. Over time, they have found that their skill sets and training are complementary. Ram’s training as an accountant yields benefits in assessing deals and managing the business, and Anita’s legal background proves invaluable in leasing and refinancing.
Chatam remains a family business, with a total staff of seven, including the Guptas, at their Bronx headquarters, and building supervisors on site. The group is extremely collaborative, with guidance from Ram’s 40-plus years of experience. As Anita emphasizes, “The main thing he’s instilled in me is that you get the best results when you empower the people around you and by following this principle, we have built a fantastic team.”
Last year, Ram and Anita Gupta received the Heritage Award from the Bronx Manhattan North Association of Realtors, selected unanimously by the organization’s board. In addition, Ram Gupta has been honored as the Bronx YMCA’s Man of the Year, among other accolades. Anita has received the Visionary Award from the Westchester Square Business Improvement District for her redevelopment effort there and was recently made Treasurer of the Bronx-Manhattan North Association of Realtors and was appointed to the Executive Board of the Community Housing Improvement Program after serving on the Advisory Board for several years.
So where does the story go from here? For now, Anita’s two children are too young to be interested in the family business, but she does show her pride when discussing how her son sometimes joins her in the office. “I hope to do what my dad did—he never pushed the business on us,” Anita notes. But spending time around her father’s office allowed Anita to observe his work ethic, and she hopes to instill the same in her children.
While Anita would be thrilled to have her children join her one day, she recognizes that both the elder and younger Guptas have a bit of an independent streak that most likely has been passed on to her children. But as long as they continue the Gupta tradition of integrity and hard work, she’s confident that her family’s pursuit of the American Dream will continue.
Anita Gupta
Chatam Management Co., Inc.
2123 Williamsbridge Road, 2nd Floor
Bronx, NY 10461
718-824-5001 ext. 120
agupta@chatammgmt.com
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