Looking at making a pivot from a MF Developer to Industrial Developer at associate level both directions. Have a first interview, and I have heard they are looking for industrial experience. I have done plenty of industrial in a d/e placement role, but no principal side industrial experience. Looking for advice from others who have made a similar transition, how to to talk through any concerns around this, learning curve / ramp-up to a new asset class, etc.,
Thank you!
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I don’t have applicable experience of doing this or know folks directly who have but my guess is in this market it’s going to be a tough sell as I would imagine their some good candidates out there with direct experience. During peak markets I’m sure companies are more willing to take risks on people with experience in other asset classes just don’t think that’s now.
Personally I think going from Multi to industrial is easier than the other way around, but what you’re going to lack is the sixth sense on what’s good dirt, costs and tenant demand, and broker relationships. Need to be able to prove you know how to negotiate a lease I’d imagine.
Play to your strengths - if you have good equity relationships that is invaluable if they are folks that will do industrial deals. It’s going to depend on what they need, do they need more a project manager, or a numbers guy with equity relationships, or more of an acquisitions guy who knows all the brokers and tenants. Probably won’t be you if they aren’t looking for a general finance guy.
Are they a spec builder or build to suite or both? Why do you want to make the change?
For the love of everything, do not use the term build to suite. It’s build to suit. Industrial developers typically play in both spec and BTS strategies due to the larger land sites they have to take down. Your more institutional players are the most in prevalent in BTS due to the relationships though.
Can’t speak for Multi being easier to transition to industrial or vice versa. But, I would caution against the idea that it will be a cakewalk just because you did MF development. Industrial may be easier on the vertical aspects but that’s not what makes or breaks an industrial proforma.
The amount of knowledge you need to have about horizontal development will be key here. If I were you, I’d try to take examples of developments that you have worked on where there were subsurface challenges, how you mitigated them, etc. And how each region develops can vary drastically, you better not be proposing underground retention on a spec rear-loader in ATL, Savannah, or Charlotte but you better be thinking about it in a Miami for example.
Build to suite lol - what I get for typing on my phone.
Sounds like you have some good experience on industry and should weight in a bit on how this guy should pitch themselves.
True on the site development front, but that would only be the case if they only did infill multi. Garden multi utilities and grading is just as complicated so if they had done that industrial shouldn’t be much of stretch -I’ve done a bit of both in my career.
All good I figured it was a typo just didn’t want OP walking into an interview and asking about a company’s “Build to Suite” deal sheet lol.
Garden style would definitely be the closest from the multi side but we have land sites where we are activating 400 acres in phases.
Yeah good call out.
I would say 400 acre sites are not the norm from experience - is that typically what you all are going after? I’d imagine that’s- campus with 6-8 buildings right?
If we’re talking like that a DR Horton mixed us/single family development can get in the 1-200 acre range so it’s still comparable. But agreed industrial is a lot more about horizontal development and a primarily infill guy might have a learning curve but if you know construction and development it just scaling existing knowledge.
Average site we typically do probably rounds out to 70-100 acres.
If you’re heavily in the BTS world, that’s generally the type of site where you can lay out bulkier requirements (750k sf and up).
happily will go spec on smaller sites or even tack on a spec building while we go vertical on a BTS deal but usually we are grabbing more land than what a garden style operator would need.
And this is where it’s important to distinguish what we do vs a BTR/resi guy does. We have tons more impervious cover on an FAR basis than a BTR project and it’s almost always in a concentrated area. Grading there gets really anal for better or worse. A stream or steep grade drop running through the middle of a site can be more easily mitigated by these guys than us (wish that weren’t the case); you’re not building a bomber with a stream through the middle and any steep gradient will kill your proforma with import fill/retaining walls. That could kill our deal depending on the AHJ but most other uses can deal with it. Im more or less now bitching about the quality of available industrial land but it’s getting harder and harder to lay out efficient sites.
I need to stop checking this site before I go in on rezoning. Great convo and cheers!
Two points:
a) My general pitch is bringing capital markets background and execution ability (general finance) with development execution capability - Site feasibility, 3rd parties, managing consultants, thinking of end-user, etc., Only thing to ramp up on is what makes good industrial dirt + bldg characteristics, but I think that can be learned on a quick ramp up.
b) Wanting to make the change as I think industrial plays to my strengths more. My multi company (very small, entrepreneurial) is very hands-on with design, construction, operations. I think that is more necessary in multi, and you need more of a 'visionary' outlook as you are building homes for people. Whereas I see industrial as being more deal-focused, relational (more opaque information landscape), faster-paced (which I miss from my CM time), and more quantitive on lease-up dynamics. Both have great long-term tailwinds, but in general I think industrial suites me more due to higher deal volumes (at least with the two particular shops in question), faster deal cycles, more 'market-facing'.
Anyone feel free to push back on anything I have said here as I'm testing my thesis / thinking out loud.
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