BUILDING A FIRST-CLASS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT TEAM

To begin with, I highly recommend a very small group of no more than three people on the selection team. No matter what the composition of your development team is in terms of a “nonprofit” or a “for-profit,” the checklist for the process is essentially the same.

If your project, for example, isn’t affordable housing development, the disciplines are essentially very similar or the same in most cases.

• Legal counsel

• CPA/accountant

• Lender

• Property manager

• Appraiser

• Architect

Building a development team is an essential component and roadmap to any new affordable housing or renovation project.

It is a step in the process that requires a plan of who you’re going to work with, what you need to accomplish your project moving forward, and how you will do this in a carefully calculated approach to team development.

Any team that is assembled, regardless of the discipline, requires for the lack of a better term, “a quarterback” This quarterback can have numerous titles or salutations assigned to them. No matter what you call it, this person is the spokesperson for the team, the guide of the team, the cheerleader of the team, and the taskmaster of the team.

I cannot stress enough how important the preliminary development team selection process is.

• Civil engineer

• Mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer

• Landscape architect

• Structural engineer

• Licensed general building contractor/project manager

• Interior designer

• Dry utility consultant

• Public works consultant

• Planning consultant

• Building plans and specifications consultant

• Cost estimator

• Environmental engineer

Other project consultants may be helpful on an asneeded bases. This list may vary from project to project so the above list is a generalization of what will be needed. It will change several times from inception to completion of the project.