BACKGROUND
He’s only 33, but Bamgbose has managed to tuck a couple of lifetimes into his story already, making him, like, maybe 160 or so; “an old soul in a young body,” he says. And, while successes have put some years on his life, so have setbacks.
Born in Nigeria, Bamgbose had 10 years of his native culture under his belt before he suffered the loss of his father. Alone and wanting a better education for her children, his mother left Nigeria with her four children for Chicago, a place his parents had lived before choosing to move back home to raise a family.
After only a year in Chicago, his mother tragically passed away, leaving Bamgbose, the youngest at age 12, to be raised by his siblings. “It was survival mode,” he says.
For high school, Bamgbose moved to Connecticut to a boarding school on full academic scholarship, where he graduated and decided to return to the Midwest to attend Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin.
“My childhood in Nigeria absolutely left a mark on me,” he says, citing the difference it made in his confidence and resilience. “I didn’t know what it was to be a minority until I came to the U.S., and it helped me to work through feelings of being different or inferior rather than just accepting them. The identity that most defines me is that I’m a child of God,” he says, “and I’m fortunate that was in place before I lost my parents, even if I didn’t understand it fully at the time.”
At Beloit, he pursued a degree in economics and lacked only one course of a double major in environmental science, but left the additional degree behind, graduating in 2013, eager for the working world. His final year, an advisor suggested he seek an internship with Hendricks Commercial Properties in Beloit. It was an experience that opened his eyes to the much broader application of economics. The company was in the beginning stages of purchasing and renovating a former foundry with 18,000 square feet into a tech and innovation incubator. Called Irontek, the project was perfect for the entrepreneurially-minded Bamgbose, already interested in issues of sustainability, and much of the project’s success is still credited to his research and energy.
BUILDING INDY
After his internship, Bamgbose was assigned to a Hendricks’ project in Indianapolis. That project, Ironworks, was so successful that the company decided to open a permanent office in Indy. Bamgbose was tapped to run it, and he and his wife, Taylor, moved to Indianapolis for good.
A long-vacant Coca-Cola Bottling facility was the next landing place for his increasing skill in all areas of commercial development, from visioning, to crunching numbers and attracting tenants and capital, to materials and people management. And while Bottleworks, as the project became known, is still undergoing phase three of its development, Bamgbose began fulfilling his entrepreneurial dreams in 2019 as CEO of New City Development.
“I had a vision I wanted to press into, and I had skills and the network and knew how to evaluate risks, but ultimately, it was an act of faith,” he says. “I believed if God could get me through childhood hardships, he could get me through this,” he says, adding, “but it’s not for the faint of heart.”
No matter how hard it gets – and New City Development currently has multiple projects in process that are years and hundreds of millions of dollars away from completion – Bamgbose has a litmus test for everything in his life. “I’m a big believer in taking a step back and asking, ‘Is this taking me away from God or drawing me closer?’”
His answer is that New City is taking him closer as he stretches his capacity, practices the faith and persistence that was instilled in him from the get-go, stewards the resources entrusted to the company, and focuses on managing the relationships that matter the most.
Not surprisingly, Bamgbose is highly detail-oriented, serving him well as he uses his unique gift mix to cross the boundaries between function and design, and hard numbers and the feelings that drive people to buy into a vision.
“I see a future and want to build a legacy,” he says, “but right now there’s a lot of establishing going on. There aren’t many large-scale developers who look like me, or are my age, and sometimes that means I’m building the plane as I go, but it still has to fly,” he says, laughing. “It’s a miracle, really – and that’s the truth about almost any entrepreneurial venture.”
Bamgbose and his wife Taylor love Indianapolis and are excited about raising their family here, starting with daughter Avery, who is one-and-a-half. Taylor is an artist and the couple share a very interesting friend group that bridges art and business. They’ve found a church family at North City Church and he also serves on several boards, including a non-
profit, charter school, and arts’ institution, and spends some time on municipal work as well.
BAMGBOSE'S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
ISAAC BAMGBOSE TRIVIA
Favorite hobby besides work? Basketball
Go to snack & beverage? Smoothie, Kimchi (“people laugh at me”)
Favorite restaurant, locally? Vida, New York Street, or Bodhi Thai Bistro, Massachusetts Avenue
Favorite places for a vacation? Hawaii
Secret Dream? “Keeping that close to the vest.”
Please reach out and connect with Isaac at ibamgbose@ncdpartners.com.
He’s only 33, but Bamgbose has managed to tuck a couple of lifetimes into his story already, making him, like, maybe 160 or so; “an old soul in a young body,” he says. And, while successes have put some years on his life, so have setbacks.
Born in Nigeria, Bamgbose had 10 years of his native culture under his belt before he suffered the loss of his father. Alone and wanting a better education for her children, his mother left Nigeria with her four children for Chicago, a place his parents had lived before choosing to move back home to raise a family.
After only a year in Chicago, his mother tragically passed away, leaving Bamgbose, the youngest at age 12, to be raised by his siblings. “It was survival mode,” he says.
For high school, Bamgbose moved to Connecticut to a boarding school on full academic scholarship, where he graduated and decided to return to the Midwest to attend Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin.
“My childhood in Nigeria absolutely left a mark on me,” he says, citing the difference it made in his confidence and resilience. “I didn’t know what it was to be a minority until I came to the U.S., and it helped me to work through feelings of being different or inferior rather than just accepting them. The identity that most defines me is that I’m a child of God,” he says, “and I’m fortunate that was in place before I lost my parents, even if I didn’t understand it fully at the time.”
At Beloit, he pursued a degree in economics and lacked only one course of a double major in environmental science, but left the additional degree behind, graduating in 2013, eager for the working world. His final year, an advisor suggested he seek an internship with Hendricks Commercial Properties in Beloit. It was an experience that opened his eyes to the much broader application of economics. The company was in the beginning stages of purchasing and renovating a former foundry with 18,000 square feet into a tech and innovation incubator. Called Irontek, the project was perfect for the entrepreneurially-minded Bamgbose, already interested in issues of sustainability, and much of the project’s success is still credited to his research and energy.
BUILDING INDY
After his internship, Bamgbose was assigned to a Hendricks’ project in Indianapolis. That project, Ironworks, was so successful that the company decided to open a permanent office in Indy. Bamgbose was tapped to run it, and he and his wife, Taylor, moved to Indianapolis for good.
A long-vacant Coca-Cola Bottling facility was the next landing place for his increasing skill in all areas of commercial development, from visioning, to crunching numbers and attracting tenants and capital, to materials and people management. And while Bottleworks, as the project became known, is still undergoing phase three of its development, Bamgbose began fulfilling his entrepreneurial dreams in 2019 as CEO of New City Development.
“I had a vision I wanted to press into, and I had skills and the network and knew how to evaluate risks, but ultimately, it was an act of faith,” he says. “I believed if God could get me through childhood hardships, he could get me through this,” he says, adding, “but it’s not for the faint of heart.”
No matter how hard it gets – and New City Development currently has multiple projects in process that are years and hundreds of millions of dollars away from completion – Bamgbose has a litmus test for everything in his life. “I’m a big believer in taking a step back and asking, ‘Is this taking me away from God or drawing me closer?’”
His answer is that New City is taking him closer as he stretches his capacity, practices the faith and persistence that was instilled in him from the get-go, stewards the resources entrusted to the company, and focuses on managing the relationships that matter the most.
Not surprisingly, Bamgbose is highly detail-oriented, serving him well as he uses his unique gift mix to cross the boundaries between function and design, and hard numbers and the feelings that drive people to buy into a vision.
“I see a future and want to build a legacy,” he says, “but right now there’s a lot of establishing going on. There aren’t many large-scale developers who look like me, or are my age, and sometimes that means I’m building the plane as I go, but it still has to fly,” he says, laughing. “It’s a miracle, really – and that’s the truth about almost any entrepreneurial venture.”
Bamgbose and his wife Taylor love Indianapolis and are excited about raising their family here, starting with daughter Avery, who is one-and-a-half. Taylor is an artist and the couple share a very interesting friend group that bridges art and business. They’ve found a church family at North City Church and he also serves on several boards, including a non-
profit, charter school, and arts’ institution, and spends some time on municipal work as well.
BAMGBOSE'S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
- BUILD THE RELATIONSHIPS THAT MATTER MOST. If you’re doing anything meaningful, you’re going to disappoint people,” says Bamgbose. “So who are you willing to disappoint? For me, not my wife and not God for sure,” he says. When an opportunity comes his way he asks “will it take away from the primary commitments I’ve already made and the systems I’ve already built to foster relationship with God and others who keep me accountable?” He constantly course corrects toward that question. “That’s dying to self,” he says, “yet the more I sacrifice for those relationships, the more I actually get taken care of.”
- GET OFF YOUR ISLAND. C-7 or another group of brothers in Christ provides a place to amplify encouragement, a place to peel back the onion a little and let others look into your life, he says. “The more people see your challenges and how you’re navigating them, the more they say, “oh, it’s not just me; I’m not alone.”
- MASTER THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSISTENCE AND STUBBORNNESS. “I'm extremely resilient and hate to give up,” says Bamgbose. “It’s a gift, but can also be a curse. You can push, push, push for a specific vision, and it can cause you to not listen well. We all need discernment, and if I’m not tapped in to God, he sometimes humbles me in relationships that make me answer the question of what I’m running to and what I’m running from.”
ISAAC BAMGBOSE TRIVIA
Favorite hobby besides work? Basketball
Go to snack & beverage? Smoothie, Kimchi (“people laugh at me”)
Favorite restaurant, locally? Vida, New York Street, or Bodhi Thai Bistro, Massachusetts Avenue
Favorite places for a vacation? Hawaii
Secret Dream? “Keeping that close to the vest.”
Please reach out and connect with Isaac at ibamgbose@ncdpartners.com.
