AVI BEN-ZAKEN
Born and raised in Israel, Avi was attracted to carpentry and building at an early age. He attended a tech high school and spent most of his mandatory army years in charge of medical support in a tank division. Subsequently, after three years of traveling to remote places around the world, Avi visited San Francisco, where his construction career began.
In the early 90s, Avi and two partners founded Quality Bay Construction (QBC), which specialized in residential construction and remodeling. Avi trained a team of carpenters, finishers, and concrete specialists and built the small firm into the Bay Area's premier seismic retrofit contractor. QBC soon expanded its operations to include engineering, testing, and construction management for a range of seismic retrofit projects, including un-reinforced masonry buildings, commercial properties, and fully occupied apartment buildings.
As president of QBC, Avi expanded his team to include close relationships with engineers, architects, sub-contactors, suppliers, and property managers. In 1995 Quality Bay Construction began to phase out of construction services to focus on the real estate investment arm of the organization. To manage the buildings they were buying and renovating, they formed Pacific Bay Investments, a Berkeley-based real estate development company specializing in mid-rise, mixed-use housing.
