The Most Wonderful Time of the Year; The Apartment Developer's Dilemma

Let me begin by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. For those of you who regularly read my scribbles, you are used to some pretty meaty topics. In light of the Holidays, this one will be a bit frothier. In each blog that I write there are certain themes which remain pretty consistent. One of my favorites is that real estate development is about the coolest industry on the planet. After all, our job is to make the world a better, more usable, more beautiful place.

Often my intended audience is the real estate developer (my hope is of course that there is some part of my subject matter which translates to my non-developer audience- or at least helps you better understand those temperamental developers who constantly tell you ‘We can’t afford that.’). Today, I would like to remind us all of something that is very easily glossed over as we perform our day-to-day tasks.

No matter what our role in the industry, we have a hand in something very precious. Through our daily work (whether it is building, developing, leasing, managing or maintaining) we have a definite and real effect on people’s lives. We provide the backdrop in which our residents and neighbors work, play, rest, are made safe, fall in and out of love, have babies, spend their final years, argue and make-up, worship and congregate and pursue their individual goals. And while we don’t necessarily know which combination of these that they are experiencing at any given moment, our job is to facilitate their dreams. We provide a significant part of the canvas on which they paint their lives.

Whether we touch them for a day, a year or much longer, there is the potential that we are going to be a part of something that enables or changes their lives forever. In this way, none of our roles is more important than another- we each just play a different part in the most glorious profession in the world. So as you settle in to your own family holiday traditions, think for a moment of the scores of folks who are, right this second, creating similar memories in the properties that you have built, own, manage or maintain.

We are not just a part of something greater; we are a part of something great.