NYC "Boutique" Development Firms to work & learn at
What are some of the boutique nyc development companies that are great to work and learn at? As in really help you go on off your own and fast forwarded your career path?
It's more finding the right person; very few development shops have formal, structured internship or analyst programs the way major banks do. If you find a good mentor or group, that's helpful, but the vast vast majority of developers are reasonably small, so the question is sort of too broad to answer. "Boutique" doesn't have a ton of meaning in CRE - almost every company is boutique in the sense that it has a particular focus or strength
Most of your “boutique” private NYC developers don’t hire undergrads unless your father is friends with a Partner or is one. Most scoop of NYU/Columbia MSRE/MSRED graduates at the Analyst level or maybe someone transitioning from a brokerage shop.
Some names though:
JDS
Stonehenge
Jonathon Rose
SHVO
Moinian Group
Chetrit
DDG
Two Trees
Fisher Bros
Not sure though, on your definition of “boutique”. The above shops are all private companies with likely less than 100 employees maybe even less than 50, but many do large institutional level deals too.
100% spot on it is very hard to get in out of undergrad and there is more formal program. A lot of these developers are out for their interests and candidly don’t care that you’re looking for a training program. At a developer in the leagues of those above literally said to me I’m looking to bring someone on who’s adds value to me. It’s how it is, no one is there to do you a freebie because they’re so busy but also because they have their interests in mind just like we all do.
These guys are sort of the opposite of "boutique," in the sense that most of them are quite large developers. Can't speak for all of them, but Two Trees or Jonathan Rose have well in excess of 100 employees and I wouldn't be shocked if most of the rest of them do, too.
If "boutique" means "small in size and narrowly focused in scope," which is the only definition that makes sense to me, then the truth is you won't have heard of most of the top players unless you're also in that space. Forsyth Street Advisors is a pretty tiny company that essentially offers advisory services to help structure affordable housing transactions for companies that don't have the financial literacy for it (e.g. nonprofits, religious groups, etc). They're pretty good at what they do, but it's a small shop and no one who isn't involved in NYC affordable housing would ever have heard of them. But to me, that's a "boutique" shop.
I don't want to throw shade, but none of those are boutique shops.
As I stated, it depends on what OP’s definition of a boutique shop is. If he is thinking along the lines of say IB and their “boutique” terminology then yes, the firms I mentioned are boutique by that definition.
If by small firms then, no..Silverback is one, Praedium Group maybe..I don’t know. There’s tons of small NYC developers out there with like 4 or 5 employees doing small resi/condo plays.
I'd recommend staying away from silverback, look at the recent TRD articles. A lot of their team left apparently didn't pay them and other bigger issues there.
Interesting. Just looked it up. Never really knew much about them just knew the firm name.
Unfortunately, most of the small NYC shops are a hit or miss. If you want a “small boutique” feel firm, better off venturing to Hoboken/JC/ North NJ as some solid small shops out there.
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