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AAPI Heritage Month Highlight: Michael Tactay
May 9, 2025
For AAPI Heritage Month, we are highlighting some of our AAPI members doing great work in the real estate and development sector.
Michael Tactay is Manager at Keyser Marston Associates (KMA)’s San Diego office, and a member of our TAP committee. Michael has been in his position at Keyser Marston for over 10 years now, where he does economic real estate and development consulting for public agencies. Much of his work focuses on ensuring developments are financially feasible, such as conducting financial pro forma and market analyses.
Michael’s career journey started in college, where his parents encouraged him to pursue accounting, which they saw as a stable and secure job opportunity. However, he began to realize that he wanted a role with more community impact and decided to pivot towards community development. He was drawn to how he could use his education in finance and economics to develop communities and make a thriving place to live.
“In Filipino-American culture, you quickly learn about opportunities prior generations didn’t have and, through empathy, you just want to make everyone’s experience better.”
Michael says that much of his desire to work in community development came from his Filipino-American background. “In Filipino-American culture, you quickly learn about opportunities prior generations didn’t have and, through empathy, you just want to make everyone’s experience better,” he says, referencing the experience of him having more opportunities than his parents and wanting to use that position to help others with perceived limited opportunities. “It’s sort of a cycle of creating opportunity.” He also recalls gaining a humbling perspective during childhood visits to rural areas in the Philippines, where he saw firsthand how access to resources and thoughtful development can profoundly impact community growth—insights he came to appreciate by comparing those experiences to life in his hometown of Chula Vista.
After college, Michael interned for various public agencies, including Hillcrest Business Improvement District, the City of San Diego, and the City of Chula Vista. He says that his goal was simply to get involved and gain as much industry experience and knowledge as he could. “I literally told places: ‘I will work for free, I just want to learn.’” After several years of exploring, he finally ended up at KMA in 2014 and has worked there ever since.
Some of Michael’s favorite projects at KMA are conducting market studies that help identify specific socioeconomic factors for developers to consider. For example, a demographic and socioeconomic study in Barrio Logan to illustrate the need for more affordable housing or a financial analysis of local housing needs (such as multi-generational housing) for House National City (a density bonus program). He enjoys being able to take social qualities of a community such as prevalence of intergenerational households and turn it into quantitative data for decision-makers. Michael says that studies like these encourage people to consider: What does the community need and how are you going to provide it? “Comprehensive market studies can be daunting because there are a lot of complicated socioeconomic and cultural factors to consider, but really this helps guide development in the right direction,” he emphasizes, adding that he sees developers and public entities as partners that need to work together for the betterment of the community.
“Show these communities that they are being listened to and that there will be tangible results and it will encourage more participation in the planning and development process.”
When it comes to supporting the diverse needs of community through development and planning, Michael also brings perspective from his culture and childhood. “You have to do outreach that goes into communities, rather than them going to you,” he says. “Growing up with hardworking immigrant parents, my parents worked nonstop to put food on the table —they were never afforded the luxury of time to participate in things like community meetings.” He expresses the need to find different ways to encourage and inspire involvement from diverse working-class communities, including having elected officials that reflect the population they are representing so they can bring their perspective to others’ attention. “Show these communities that they are being listened to and that there will be tangible results and it will encourage more participation in the planning and development process,” he adds.
One way Michael feels like he can make a difference through ULI is with our Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) program. Michael is a member of the TAP Committee, has served on several TAPs, and was the Chair for our most recent National City Brownfields TAP. He says he was drawn to the interdisciplinary aspect of the process and loves seeing everything come together. “The work product from a 2-day TAP is similar to work conducted for a long-range community plan. It feels like you are really making a difference in the community in only a few days.”
“…When we embrace our diverse experiences, we can create projects that offer equitable resources and prioritize inclusion, ensuring everyone’s needs are met.”
To young professionals interested in the land use and development field, Michael encourages exploration, asking questions, and outreach to current professionals in the field. “Remember your voice and experience matters,” he says. “You being at the table and being able to express your opinion is needed in this industry. Everyone has a different upbringing and lived experience that can bring value to the real estate development process. When we embrace our diverse experiences, we can create projects that offer equitable resources and prioritize inclusion, ensuring everyone’s needs are met.”
Thank you to Michael for his involvement with ULI and for sharing about his career with fellow ULI members!