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39 T Thinking Like a Developer Partners, Adversaries, or Competitors? Robert H. Kuehn Jr. here is an old saying that “95 percent of all real estate developers give the other 5 percent a bad name.” In this chapter, my task is not to apologize for the excesses of the majority or to comfort the unfairly maligned minority. Rather, my purpose is to explicate the thinking process of developers in order to more fully reveal their motivations and methods. With expanded insight, cities and towns may be able to fend off developers’ advances in the event that such an unwanted apparition appears in one of their neighborhoods. Or better yet, communities may be able to use these insights to channel such incursions into a positive opportunity. What Exactly Is a Developer Anyway? Early in my career, I realized that a sure way to stop the conversation was to introduce myself as a developer. A friend suggested that I describe my career path as that of a “life-style facilitator ,” but that title seemed a bit awkward. So I started telling people I fixed up old buildings for a living, which suitably softened the image but often resulted in long, detailed discussions about home remodeling projects. Now I just say that I restore historic buildings for affordable housing, which still soft-pedals the message while avoiding impassioned debates about the best type of kitchen flooring to install. The very word “developer” has a negative connotation—hard to even say out loud without adding a sneer. Nonetheless, the term springs from honorable roots. The dictionary defines developer as the agent for “unfolding more completely, evolving the possibilities, and promoting growth.” In the context of photography, the developer is a chemical agent that makes the film’s latent image visible. In the world of real estate, the developer is a change agent for transforming a latent opportunity—currently unused or underutilized land or buildings—into new uses that support our society and economy. Practitioners of such change come in many forms. There is no professional accreditation for this calling or even many formal courses of study. Indeed, one of the attractions of this field 4 40 Gathering Perspectives and Getting Involved is the relatively unfettered entrepreneurship it represents— put together some capital, commit the necessary time and energy, and, with more than a little luck, you too can be a developer. The problem is that not all self-selected real estate entrepreneurs also possess the skill and sensitivity to produce pleasing results without some encouragement. Some, however, can bring alive new opportunities that reinforce the character of a community and provide attractive places for people to live, work, and visit. Developers may be the professionals that the public loves to hate, but these are the guys that produce most of the built environment that we all occupy. Who Are These Masked Men Anyway? The universe of developers is drawn from a broad background , which in turn may influence their motivations, methods, and biases. At the risk of over-simplification, the range of professional credentials that may be encountered in a developer can be summarized as follows: • Business: Some number of real estate entrepreneurs come out of a business background. Obviously, basic business acumen is required for the success of any enterprise. A command of finance is also critical to the often-leveraged world of real estate. The best of the business-oriented developers—whether smaller local companies or large national corporations—hire excellent design, construction, marketing, and management professionals to translate the numbers into well-conceived buildings. Others, unfortunately , get the business part right but fall short in terms of the built environment, forgetting that real estate is not a product on paper, but a real place that we all have to live with (at least visually). • Legal: Some developers gravitate to the field from a legal background. Real estate law is a relatively complex specialty involving local, state, and/or federal permitting depending on the conditions of a particular site. A development opportunity often starts with a legal problem to be solved—assembling disparate parcels, rezoning a site, addressing an environmental issue, or otherwise resolving some legal impediment. But such legal gymnastics should be only the prelude to the development process, involving the engagement of other real estate professionals. • Contractors: Some developers started as building contractors who then expanded their role to include the land assembly, design, and marketing. Many contractors take pride in their craftsmanship and live by their reputation for providing...

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