Derek King
Principal | Preservation Studios
Derek King is a partner at the equity crowdfunding portal SmallChange.co, and the Director of Operations and one of the principals at Preservation Studios, a historic preservation consulting firm based in Buffalo, NY that specializes in securing historic tax credits for adaptive reuse projects. Through his work at Preservation Studios, some patterns became clear: larger projects were able to leverage higher HTC totals in a way small projects couldn't; experienced developers had access to financing and investors that small developers didn't; neighbors of projects seldom benefited directly from projects in their communities. Looking for solutions to these problems led to online equity crowdfunding and the creation of an SEC and FINRA register portal in 2020, before joining Small Change in 2024, with the goal of helping great projects reach their true potential. Since then, he's also co-developed an $8 million adaptive reuse project of a 1920s auto dealership in Buffalo (funded in part with equity raised through crowdfunding), with a $4 million HTC funded project about to get underway.
