Moving from acquisitions to development?

Have you worked on redevelopment deals in your current role? If so, I would highlight that in your resume and interviews

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What’s your goal? Do you want to do cradle to grave MF development? Many smaller developers you do both acquisitions and development. So you basically can pitch yourself as knowing half the process (acquisitions). You can learn the other half. You also already know operations. So all that is missing is construction and development work. You can fill in the gaps as you learn. Just pitch yourself as knowing 66% of what you need to know (acquire and operate) - you just need to learn the construction and development part. I would say target the shops where the acquisition team is also the development team. 

I second the idea of targeting shops that combine acquisitions and dev as a way of getting your foot in the door. I will say however, that moving over to a developer analyst role it will be heavy on the computer work, aka rent comps, modeling cap stacks, looking at acquisition options, etc. The analysts at my shop do very little "development" work like design development, entitlement, permitting, construction management and so on. 

If you really want to get into that part of the development business, a masters isn't a bad way to go, it's a great transition tool and honestly, being able to take the 1-2 years off is an option you only really have when you're young (full disclosure, I worked construction for three years before getting my MBA and moving to development). Your background would be great and you can definitely shoot for a higher position (read: higher salary) that would make school worth it. I don't know about your situation, but I'm making more than I was before the MBA even after my debt service. 

I honestly don't think you should have an issue transitioning from where you are to a development associate role at developers of all sizes. In fact, I think your work experience makes you a very attractive candidate actually. You will definitely be the acquisitions/financing guy, but most people who join development either come in with finance/acquisitions experience or a technical background such as architecture, engineering, construction..It's kind of really difficult to have both at a young age for obvious reasons. Also, coming in with a more technical background can lead you to roles that are less development and more construction management. I don't think a higher degree will help you very much unless you are trying to work at a prestige-whore type of shop, in which case you may need an M7 MBA. But for actual useful knowledge, neither an MBA nor a MSRED will help you. You can't learn development in a classroom because development is mostly project management and problem solving. You hire "experts" who do all the technical stuff anyways. Most of the work you'll be given will be related to finance, but overtime you'll learn more about each phase of the development process by nature of just being at the firm and sitting in on OAC meetings and I don't think any developer would expect anything more considering you are still at the associate level. If you were applying for like a development manager or VP role, then yes you would likely already need a couple years of development experience. When I was applying to jobs I only had finance/acquisitions experience but got job offers at 2 developers (mid and large) that was finance-oriented, but I would be on all the OAC meetings and work with the construction/design teams. One of the guys I interviewed with worked purely in acquisitions at a REIT for 3 years before lateraling to a developer and is now a development manager. You have very relevant experience and I think you could beat out a lot of candidates. Don't sell yourself short. Toss your resume in the ring and I guarantee you will get interviews across all types of developers. Also, for your purposes, focus on shops that say you will work on all aspects of development (acquisitions/financing, entitlement, 3rd party negotiations, work with construction/design team, etc...). Many shops, especially the large ones, split their acquisitions and development teams. If you got a role at one of these firms in acquisitions, it'll probably just be the same as what you're doing currently

I did the opposite of this, went from a top developer to into a REPE / credit special sits fund. I think the move is definitely doable as my prior team really liked people with an investment background. Investment and development management functions were covered by the same team, with a construction and technical team leading areas such as procurement and construction management. There was a lot of crossover between both where relevant. 
 

Target larger developers where this sort of structure is more likely to be in place. Generally these firms either have teams with specific focuses such as acquisitions where you’ll only engage in a certain part of the project life cycle (won’t be significantly different from your current role), or one where you’ll take a cradle to grave role covering certain workstreams on the project where relevant (acquisitions, debt raising, investor relations, dispositions etc) and more technical workstreams will be handled by more technically focused teams. 
 

You won’t add much value for smaller firms where your expected to work across all aspects of the deal so I’d avoid these. You’ll be very good at the likes of acquisitions, with pretty limited contribution potential on other aspects. 
 

Make sure you’ve really thought this true though and why you want to do development . The roles are pretty different. I liked the really broad exposure of development to all aspects of delivering a project, but found the pace slow and variety of projects limited. I worked across 2-3 projects at a time on work streams that were often going to take months or longer. In my current role, I’m typically monitoring 6-8 positions and working through another 5-10 potential opportunities. The variety helps prevent deal fatigue but the learning curve is definitely flatter once you’ve gotten through a few closed deals (which I’m sure you’ve experienced by now). It can be great to be part of the team leading the delivery of a project but it can also lose appeal quickly if you’re not excited by the project.