Women in CRE: Onay Payne

Onay Payne

Following 20 years at Clarion Partners, Onay Payne has made the switch to mission-driven investing. 

In 2022, she joined LaFayette Square, an impact investment platform, as its first managing director of real estate real estate. The firm aims to use long-term capital and coordinated services to help revitalize neighborhoods in historically marginalized communities through redevelopment and creation and preservation of affordable housing.

As part of the investment committee, Payne runs all of Lafayette Square’s broader real estate activities, including strategic joint ventures and inclusive real estate development.

At Clarion, Payne held multiple investment roles. She was an equity partner, managing director and portfolio manager and had oversight of multiple funds and investments across the United States and Mexico. Before pursuing her MBA at Harvard Business School, where she was a Robert Toigo Foundation fellow, Payne spent four years within the investment banking division of J.P. Morgan Chase.

“Through Toigo, I came to understand that real estate investment management was a career alternative that would allow me to bridge my personal and professional interests,” she said.

Payne’s personal interests include investing in her own real estate like her father, who owned several commercial and residential properties when she was growing up in New York. Payne saved up her investment banking bonuses and bought a co-op apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., when she was 24. She renovated it, lived in it for a year, and later rented it when she went to business school.

Addressing Gaps

Payne is passionate about supporting the growth and development of others. “This inclination towards servant leadership is one of the reasons I’m so energized by the work we’re doing at Lafayette Square,” she said. “We are focused on deploying capital and services to people and places that have been historically underserved and overlooked.”

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to make CRE more inclusive, Payne noted. Work needs to be done along all parts of the DEI continuum, including nurturing and supporting the talent within organizations so they can rise into leadership positions and increasing the funnel of diverse talent by exposing them to real estate career paths in high school and college and business schools. Firms can also invest time and dollars into talent conduits like Toigo, as well as SEO, Inroads, Project REAP and Project Destined and recruit from a wider pool of schools including community colleges and HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). 

“No one gives you anything for free, but I demonstrated my ability to add value in a manner that was consistent with organizational objectives. I then had managers, advocates and sponsors in my corner who helped me be positioned for stretch and leadership assignments.”

Read the March 2023 issue of CPE.