RIVERSIDE, CA—Optimum Group president Ali Sahabi, an award-winning developer, community leader and philanthropist, has been inducted as next year's president of the Building Industry Association Southern California Baldy View Chapter, officials recently revealed.

Sahabi is a longtime trailblazer in the Inland Empire, having spearheaded collaborative efforts for regional advancements that include the Green Valley Initiative, a cooperative project to promote clean technology enterprises that involved the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, multiple government and nonprofit organizations, businesses, school districts and universities, and virtually every city in the two-county region. The initiative helped to spark a movement toward renewable energies, nano-technologies and sustainable development and shaped partnerships that continue to this day.

He was also the master planner of the mixed-use community of Dos Lagos in Corona, California, winner of the 2009 California Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award, and endowed U.C. Riverside's Center for Sustainable Suburban Development.

Sahabi has been recognized with awards and leadership positions from many organizations including the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority; Riverside Land Conservancy; Southern California Association of Governments; American Planning Association; American Institute of Architects; The Community Foundation Serving the Counties of Riverside and San Bernardino; Community Action Partnership; University of California, Riverside; Fair Housing Council of Riverside County; and Western Riverside Council of Governments, and the University of Southern California, where he serves as a Board of Councilors to the Sol Price School of Public Policy.

He currently serves as president of Optimum Group LLC, providing innovative real estate development and construction management services to government agencies, public and private companies and nonprofit organizations throughout Southern California.

"We are excited to have Ali Sahabi take a leadership role as our new president," says Carlos Rodriguez, CEO of the BIA Baldy View Chapter. "His expertise, vision and spirit of collaboration will not only help those working locally within the industry, but will serve the greater region as well."

Ryan McEachron, Board President of the San Bernardino Association of Governments, agreed.

"Ali has long been an important part of the Inland Empire, building collaborative partnerships that promote quality-of-life issues on social, economic and environmental levels," he said. "We are happy to see him take on such an important leadership position and expect to see a lot of innovation and collaboration come from his new role with the BIA."

The Dos Lagos project, touted as a model for sustainable and environmental design, was widely recognized for its success in reclaiming a barren and abandoned mining operation, restoring the Temescal Creek and native habitat, preserving century-old oaks that were symbolic of the history of the land, and for creating community coalitions and projects that promoted quality of life issues through the arts, education and humanitarian causes.

"Ali has been a leader in combining economic and environmental objectives," says Dan Silver, Executive Director of the Endangered Habitats League. "His leadership of the BIA holds great promise for the region.

In accepting his award, Sahabi spoke of the responsibilities those in the profession have to quality-of-life issues for the regions they serve.

"Contractors and land developers do more than construct buildings," Sahabi said. "They shape lives by creating environments for people to come together, interact and enrich their quality of life. There's a philosophy behind the work that we do and I believe we all share the capacity to work together as an extended community to build a better future for our region."

Instant Insights /

Sahabi Named 2016 President of BIA Baldy View Chapter

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