Real Estate Development Target Comp

Currently at a nationally top performing D/E office in Texas (JLL/CBRE/etc), 2 years in. In discussions with a land development shop to come on as a development associate. What should my target comp be? I believe this is the type of role that should come with significant upside as deals exit, but what is a reasonable expecation for annual salary + bonus (i.e., cash comp without carry / promote?) My thought would be I should target $150k. What are other mid-level career development associates / managers seeing for comp? I know there was just a big REPE comp thread but I think we are missing something similar specifically for development.

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Feels high but no harm in going for it. At dev associate level, at least at the last firm I was at, the expectation was you could add real value in every stage of the dev cycle, including design and construction. In reality this probably takes 1-2 years of previous experience in development for this to be possible, due to the long nature of each project. Even that feels light tbh, itprobably takes closer to 3-4 years to really know what you’re doing.

To add some color - an associate’s responsibilities could include helping direct schematic design with the architect, redlining unit plans, sitting in OAC meetings and knowing what questions to ask and understanding the project’s critical path as things come up, helping review change orders and manage the monthly draw process, and even help with leasing and final punch list/sign off/transition to asset management. Each shops different so would really try to understand what the expectations are going - I.e. you’ll mainly be helping on the front end acquisition side, market research, and raising financing, or is it a full soup to nuts role.

 

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