How many (on our forum or know of anecdotally) have taken this career route; and have found the experience rewarding/beneficial on a near-term and long term basis?
What did you learn? Where did the experience ultimately take you?
Upside/downside of such a position? Positive or negative branding? Salary expectations?
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Would be great....if you don't like money....
If it is the right job, it is great. I've never taken this route, and don't plan on it, but it will increase your network and expose you to many different aspects of economic development. You will learn how projects move through the system and how to get them moved through the system. Working for the government for a long enough period of time is known to increase your salary potential in the private sector if you move.
You will get to do some interesting projects and really see how they change the local community. I work with these groups on a very regular basis. Some of the people who work here are really brilliant and came from some top RE development shops. Others are bottom of the barrel, extremely unsophisticated, and impossible to work with. You will work on a few projects for a really really long time, so if that's not your style you might want to think twice. The pay generally is not as good as other opportunities, but if you manage to complete a few noteworthy projects you could certainly leverage that into a higher paying role. It really just boils down to a matter of personal preference.
Once you understand the basics of supply and demand and its impact on housing affordability, you'll probably become jaded and realize that your job is counterproductive, that the government makes housing less affordable, not more affordable. Take it from me--I used to work in the affordable housing group of a GSE, and when I realized that my job was counterproductive to the mission, I completely lost interest in the work and left.
No self-respecting, educated adult could continue to work for an "economic development" office's real estate group past the age of 25, which means that your co-workers there will be of the lowest quality in the industry.
If you work in a major market it is a very good role - most move onto large RE shops. I know over 10+ in my head who started out in an economic development role.
This is my quick and dirty view:
===Possible pros:===
Networking: Networking 'at work' with city officials (council people, tax dept to planning/zoning dept since zoning and tax issues are integral to any development of a plot of land), private developers, financing professionals, local owners and residents, perhaps law makers, acquisitions groups and brokers.
Finance skills: If you are reviewing responses to an RFP for a plot of land then I imagine you would have to underwrite and model out said project yourself to see if it makes any sense or is economically feasible.
Inside out understanding of development process.
Deeper knowledge of covered areas decisional metrics: sales, rents, taxes, issues, prospects, developments on the horizon.
If affordable housing is at play in development plan, then you will learn about all the applicable programs for your area of concern.
===Possible Cons:===
Typecasting as a non-profit person with limited portability to private sector.
If moving to finance role is goal then you are not getting the rigors of someone 'grounding and pounding' models all day as part of their job. You could become essentially static in this area.
Depending on non-profit region/area of focus, you could be too locally focused and not have the expertise of someone who focuses on a larger area say county or state etc.
The pay is going to be on the low end for real estate positions. Maybe some other WSO'ers can jump in on what your pay range/benefits would be at such a role since i have no real idea.
Opportunity costs of going this route as opposed to private route and climbing ladder in a firm or company with greater upside and long term potential.
I actually don't see pay be much lower, if at all, in an economic development position for entry-level positions than in the broader private market. Real estate pays like utter garbage for a good long while.
DC, What would you ballpark the pay range being for this role then?
A non-profit would not pay a bonus, unlike a development associate or PE associate.
I would say they aren't comparable work experience. A person who is getting PE interviews is not going to be choosing between the PE offer and the economic development offer. More than likely the decision would be between economic development and an appraisal analyst, sales analyst, research associate, loan portfolio analyst, junior credit analyst or something along those lines. Probably talking about $40-55,000 for any of those roles.
Fair points, DC.
Although I have to believe the Real Estate Development staff at say the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) most of whom come from top schools with many having grad degrees in some area of business (plus re dev experience) are making more than $40-$55,000 per year.
NYC isn't really comparable to anywhere else for 2 reasons: 1) cost of living and 2) NYC real estate is easily the most complicated market in the country. Freddie Mac, for example, has an entire group dedicated just to NYC just because of how complicated the zoning and development rules are.
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