Inland Empire real estate developer Jeff Burum once thought he would be a foreign affairs diplomat with the U.S. State Department.
With a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a minor in Chinese history from Claremont McKenna College, his career path started with a summer internship in Taiwan with the Taipei Language Institute.
In his senior year in 1985, he wrote his thesis on the reunification of mainland China and the self-ruled island of Taiwan. “It was looking like China was going to be a big growth market,” Burum said.
Without political connections, Burum said he refocused his career ambitions when he couldn’t land a job. After briefly selling life insurance, he took out the Yellow pages and found a job in real estate development.
Today, the boy who grew up poor in a divorced family and left his troubled home at 15 now runs a portfolio of companies called Diversified Pacific Development Group. Founded by Burum in Rancho Cucamonga in 1990, it has $5 billion in assets under management.
Burum also created several nonprofits aimed at developing low-income housing, including Southern California Housing Development Corp., which he founded in 1992 with homebuilder Andrew Wright. That nonprofit merged in 2006 with National Housing Development Corp., also founded by Burum in 1999 to help the organization grow outside of California. The two nonprofits have since rebranded as National Community Renaissance, also known as National CORE.
Today, National CORE is one of the largest nonprofit affordable housing developers in the U.S. with a presence in California, Texas and Florida. It has bought, sold, rehabbed or built close to 21,000 units over its 35-year history, and managed through housing authorities and other nonprofits another 6,000 units.
“Part of the motivation to start National CORE, was to help people like my mom,” Burum said.
His mother struggled to raise her family of four, working multiple jobs to pay their rent. “Single moms certainly have a place in my heart,” he said. “I see moms out there struggling on their own without supportive fathers.”
National CORE recently began work on more than 200 affordable homes at the former MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte.
Burum’s other projects include at least four that center on local Opportunity Zones. The federal designation promotes investment and growth in low-income and economically disadvantaged communities.
Congress originally established opportunity zones through the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. Several improvements were made in the program, which was extended permanently as part of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law on July 4, 2025. The changes are effective in 2027.
Burum hasn’t always had the Midas touch with real estate.
In 1997, his real estate investment partnership Colonies Partners invested in Colonies Crossroads, a 434-acre commercial and residential project in Upland.
That project led to a years-long legal battle with former California Attorney General Kamala Harris and also involved prominent San Bernardino County officials for their part in an alleged conspiracy in a bribery scheme.
In May 2011, Burum and others were accused of paying bribes (disguised as political action committee contributions) to four local politicians to secure a $102 million litigation settlement in San Bernardino County. The charges stemmed from a settlement approved by the board of supervisors in 2006 with the Colonies project over flood control improvements on the Upland land. Burum said he spent more than $32 million defending himself in court on the 29-count indictment — charges that were ultimately dismissed.
We asked Burum about the challenges today in the real estate world. His answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Is the real estate market softening?
A: We’ve had an active summer. We’ve sold more real estate this past summer than I’ve sold probably in the last six years.
The market has been a little sluggish. There’s really been no fallout in the market from the increase in interest rates (Rates rose from historic lows in 2020 to roughly 3.50%–3.75% for the federal funds benchmark and around 6.76% for 30-year fixed mortgages this month).
There’s obviously been a slowdown, but it hasn’t been the 30% decline or 40% decline like in 2007 and 2008. I don’t see rates dropping until after the Nov. 3 mid-term elections — maybe in the spring or next summer.
Q: Are you seeing tariffs, labor shortages — some of which have been caused by last year’s L.A. wildfires — impacting the local housing market?
A: Without a doubt. To get everything from plumbing supplies to AC units is tough. It’s crazy. It takes four months to get stuff sent in from overseas. This includes countertops, bar stools, and tables in the kitchens. It’s all driving up the costs for one project in Ontario.
Q: How you are participating in the Opportunity Zones 2.0?
A: The governor’s office of every state has to approve the census tracts that are submitted by cities. The last time — with Opportunity Zones 1.0 during Trump’s first term — it was kind of rushed and not done very well.
We have four investments in Opportunities Zones 2.0 that are on the drawing board.
Two of the investments are luxury hotel projects in Ontario: Renovation of the former 10-story Ontario Airport Hotel, which will be reflagged as a 309-room Hyatt Regency along Haven Avenue, and a planned $700 million, 600-room luxury hotel along East Holt Boulevard near the intersection with East Guasti Road — across from the Convention Center.
Another major project taking shape is a proposed $40 million, pharmaceutical manufacturing facility on tribal land in the Inland Empire that could create 200 jobs. (He can’t discuss details because negotiations are ongoing.)
A fourth project is a 3,300-unit master-planned community on the south side of Banning, needing about $230 million in water and sewer lines, reservoirs and other infrastructure improvements.
Q: How many companies do you own?
A: Real estate development is the core. I really don’t know how many, if I have to be candid.
I own Cayman Construction Inc., which is a construction management entity that does the building. I’m the largest investor in a water filtration company, Advanced Mobile Filtration Services, [a Fort Worth-based company that purifies water], and in Heofon Pharmaceutical, a pharmaceutical company that created a sophisticated engineering process to resolve active pharmaceutical ingredient shortages to keep pace with the rise of peptide therapeutics (such as GLP-1 weight loss medications).
I also have ventures with the broadcasting and digital streaming industries, particularly in Liminal Mirror-Calico, a reality TV production company that has pitched a series, “The Great Ghost Challenge,” to Netflix and others.
Q: Any other investments?
A: Four years ago, I became the managing partner of the Empire Strykers, an Ontario professional indoor soccer team competing in the Major Arena Soccer League. We’re getting ready to create a league for women, and I’m looking into a real estate investment project to revitalize aging arenas in rustbelt towns like Erie, Pa., and Toledo, Ohio, for these leagues to play.
The women’s league is called the Major Arena Soccer League Women and will have a team locally, called Empire Pulse, which is projected to start playing in January. We’ll have teams from Dallas, Des Moines, Iowa, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Diego, St. Louis and Tacoma (Washington).
I think can help create opportunities for women that don’t exist today.
Jeffrey Burum
Age: 63
Co-founder: Diversified Pacific Development Group, and chairman of National CORE.
Headquarters: 9692 Haven Ave., Rancho Cucamonga
Employees: 600-1,000
