Anyone in Development - Related, Brookfield, Hines what are you doing day to day?

yeah, reporting for projects under construction. Honestly the biggest bug bearer of mine is that the more "institutional" you are the more red tape and reporting you have. Don't get me wrong, I fulfill the typical "development/investment" analyst role  but about 40-50% of my time is spent on updating reporting templates

They have probably 1-2 lower level VPs who have associates and analysts underneath them. You mostly help with relationship management with equity partners, help with closing JVs and major decisions to keep moving things along, might also help source a few deals to help give to your team to project manage. Business development and hiring new personnel to grow your kingdom. Much more high level management view while you kick back and sip frozen margs pool side

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It's an extremely granular and rigorous process that fleshes out your entire investment thesis. You touched upon the main points that will come up during the IC but one thing that is missing is the downside and risks to the potential acquisition which is where you are grilled on the most. It honestly appears at times the sole job of the IC members is to play devil's advocate. Yes I work in a large firm so I guess it's more "institutional". How do investment decisions get made in your firm? Does it solely rest with your CEO

What's the pay at Brookfield? I don't think they pay near top of the street unlike Silverstein, Related etc

1) Have you seen people from the merchant build firm your at exit onto their own? Yes, I have seen a lot of people go out on their own, especially once they get to the senior level and have a big network of equity contacts as well as have built up their own wealth. I have also people leave to family office or smaller developers where they might lead an entire region (i.e. head of SE, West coast, Texas and Mountain states, New England). Probably get meaningful bumps in salary with high carry and promote

2) How long does it take working at such a place to get a good grasp of their "model"? Your first year or two as an analyst you will be underwriting a bit and upkeeping the current projects you are working on in terms of pursuit and actuals once you hit the development phase. Will prob take you 6 months to get up to speed to feel comfortable if you have no real estate experience prior. Most of these shops have a "company model" where it is a generic model for a piece of land and then you mold it quickly specifically for your site. They are mostly basic and once you understand one of them you will understand all of them at each similar firm. Everyone can underwrite a homerun deal, but what is really key is that you make a realistic budget to make sure you are diligent sponsor for your lp equity and trustworthy to hit the returns. At the end of the day people will judge you by the returns you hit for each deal based on your business model. Kind of like your Quarterback rating in football. Here's your basic progression - 1-2 years as an analyst plugging in numbers and doing basic invoice and grunt work but introduced to brokers, associate 1-2 years getting to handle project management process while probably leading one deal and supporting 2-3 deals with your VP; VP 1-2 years leading 2-3 years and sourcing deals by your self (have 1-2 junior people under you); Sr VP/D/Sr D more deals more people under you; MD leading a market. I've seen people hit MD or high senior roles right underneath that in 4-5 years from starting as an analyst or associate, so pretty quick progression. Remember it's really about deal flow and how quickly you can go from a expense generating role to an income producing one from the firm. 

3) At what point at these shops, are you able to start building relationships with brokers , consultants to source new acquisition opportunities? pretty early on at the analyst and associate levels, depends on your group and region, but most teams in each region are comprised of a senior manager and a associate/analyst to support them. Most of the time if your boss feels like they can trust you and the fact that they are just to busy to hand hold you, you will be interacting with a lot of brokers within your first 2 years. Your VP will introduce the relationships and eventually the deals will funnel through you since you are underwriting and doing the heavy lifting of it. Then if it's good enough you progress it up to your VP, they will also have their own deals that they will be underwriting and sourcing too. So you are building a big network pretty early on, vs a mega developer where you would be lucky for anyone to know you outside of your firm until you hit like a VP/Sr VP level

4) Final Question / thought: At a mega developer, it's a bit harder to build your own personal value and brand because you may win the site through a city RFP process or receive a massive construction loan from a mega fund. much of the value being driven here is because of the size of the project. On the other hand, in the merchant build scene, where the deal size is typically smaller, I assume you are able to build more personal value and relationships that you can carry forward. For example, sourcing relationships with brokers. Knowing who the trusted contractors are in a market after having worked across 4-6 projects. building this personal value and relationship base makes it easier to go out on your own. You hit the nail on the head. These massive mega deals are probably driven by the high up MDs at your firm and you are executing their orders, a lot of back and forth, red tape, politics , etc. You will neither destroy nor make the deal, just a cog to finish the deal. Your firm probably has connects with the city and have political consultants who help push it through. Not to mention that every part of the firm has to sign off on your underwriting - asset management, leasing, development, construction, legal, etc. The only brand value you really have is your firm's name on your business card. It's not a bad thing, it just is what it is because you are comparing an experience to a $1-$4 billion type decade long projects vs $100-$300M 2-3 year long type projects. You are trusted more at a merchant builder in a quicker amount of time because you are getting more deal flow and cradle to grave experience. You could be running with 3-4 deals by yourself in 4 years, while at the mega developer you are still working on year 4 of your big project that may or may not be successful and you still aren't even calling all of the shots (just a glorified analyst listening to your MD). And yes you build your network a lot quicker to eventually go out on your own at a merchant builder type. There is a lot less hand holding in the entreprenurial merchant builder type shop since there are just too many deals going on for them to spend too much time on you vs at the mega developer all eyes on the firm is on that deal (and top senior management is usually very involved in deciding major decisions). The idea is to build you up as quick as possible (3-5 years) to lead and source your own deals then to build a team underneath you, who you will eventually train to lead and source their own deals, etc.

5) I wouldnt be concerned too much about comp early on since I am pretty sure they are all relatively the same at most of these development shops you listed. The real difference is once you get to the VP/Director level and how many deals you can manage and source because that is when you really start driving value. The quicker you can source and lead your own deals the more money you will make and at a mega developer there are only a handful of guys/women who have even successfully completed 1-2 projects and that is only if you have the patience and ability to navigate the firm to make it to that point. I know that I wont ever have the funds to ever make a 2BN project and the quickest way to make the most money is the smaller deals. It's more fun, you get exposure to the start to finish of the project, more reps, and you can make key decisions in the project. It's awesome. Great questions though, I am sure you will rise up very quickly at the firm you are starting at based on the way you are thinking about this.