The New Face of Development

Like South Lake Union champion Paul Allen, Kari Magill has the noteworthy ability to transform an entire neighborhood through substantial redevelopment. The third generation of her family to head Issaquah-based Rowley Properties, Magill has huge influence over the future of Issaquah. Her real estate management and development company owns and manages 67 buildings representing almost one million square feet of real estate, plus two Issaquah parcels totaling 80 acres.

Magill is only beginning to make her mark. She has built several buildings and could, over time, add as much as 4.3 million square feet of new office, retail, hotel and residential space. She is one of a growing group of local women who are thriving in a world of real estate development long dominated by men.

Being a developer requires a range of skills and insights, including a grasp of the real estate market, an understanding of the technical requirements of sites and buildings planned, expert project management, an understanding of risk and the ability to negotiate with city planners, local residents, bankers and contractors.

Kari Magill, CEO, Rowley Properties, Inc.

Its highly regulated, politically controversial and complex, says Magill. There are millions of pieces to a building. Then theres the whole financial part to go through. It takes a lot of tenacity, perseverance and imagination.

Its not entirely clear why the field has been dominated by men for so long. Some have suggested that the risk-averse nature of many women may be a disadvantage in a field that requires taking big risks. Others have pointed to male dominance at key lending institutions and those lenders unconscious preference for male developers. Another possibility is a distinct lack of interest among women in the most profitable areas of real estate development: high-profile office and industrial properties.

Of the 9,000 members of CREW Network, a national business networking organization for women in commercial real estate, only about 13 percent list real estate development as a specialty. Exclude legal and lending professionals, and less than 7 percent of women are in development.

Our research shows that many women are uncomfortable with the risk-taking that these areas require, says Gail Ayers, CEO of CREW Network. Helping women overcome this fear is one of CREW Networks primary initiatives, she notes.

Until recently, women in real estate development fell into their jobs by working in a supporting or tangential role at their firms, which allowed them to learn the industry and gradually assume greater responsibility, according to the CREW survey. Nowadays, more women enter the field directly through real estate programs at universities.

Many of todays developers have come from diverse backgrounds. Lisa Picard, executive vice president in the Seattle office of Skanska USA Commercial Development, traces her interest back to her childhood. I remember walking home from school and noticing how the width of the sidewalk affected how I felt, Picard explains. I was keenly aware of my physical environment and how I felt the rush of cars alongside that skinny sidewalk.

While some men like to be associated with building the tallest building or making the most money, Picard says she studied urban planning because Im really interested in how a city influences how we think about ourselves and the way we operate as humans. Picard has an undergraduate degree from California Polytechnic University-Pomona in urban planning and masters degrees from MIT in urban planning and real estate and finance.

Lisa Picard, Executive Vice President, Skanska USA Commercial Development

Before joining Skanska, Picard headed her own firm, Muse Development, and was a project manager in the Seattle office of Hines, a private real estate developer. She also consulted with Magill in working with Issaquah city officials to develop a new plan for the Rowley properties. Picards current work for Skanska include two mixed-use Seattle office projects the 130,000-square-foot Stone 34 building in Fremont and the 337,000 square-foot 400 Fairview building in South Lake Union and Alley 111, a 260-unit apartment building in downtown Bellevue.
Magill was working as an industrial engineer at Physio-Control, the Redmond-based medical device maker, when her father, George Skip Rowley Jr., recruited her to join the family business as COO. She learned by doing in the late 90s, working on development teams and grasping the nuances of construction by overseeing tenant improvements.

Meanwhile, A-P Hurd, now a vice president at Touchstone, studied English literature and mechanical engineering as an undergraduate at Queens University in Toronto, then went to MIT for an MBA and a masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science.

Before she got into real estate, Hurd worked as a derivatives trader for the Royal Bank of Canada. Real estate was not even remotely on my radar, she recalls. But when she moved to Seattle, Hurd tapped into her training as an engineer to land a job as director of strategic development at McKinstry, the Seattle-based real estate services firm that helps clients design, build, operate and maintain their buildings. She left McKinstry to join Seattle-based Touchstone as vice president of development in 2008.

Currently, Touchstone is under construction in Seattles Denny Triangle on Hill7, which includes 300,000 square feet of office space and a 222-room Hilton Garden Inn in its first phase, with a 300-unit residential area to follow, and South Lake Unions Troy Block, an 800,000-square-foot office project in two phases. Proposed projects include several hotels and the NorthEdge, a 214,000-square-foot office building near Gasworks Park.

These women developers face many of the same challenges women in other male-dominated fields do. Theyve learned to lean in to advance professionally and have grappled with the glass cliff that can topple a career when there is a conflict between job demands and family needs.

A-P Hurd, Vice President, Touchstone Corporation

These hurdles are well known to consultant Heidi Swartz of the Seattle consulting firm Swartz Co. A former real estate developer herself, Swartz now advises businesses on how to retain women employees and helps dual-career couples remain in their careers while managing a family. Shes on the advisory board at the University of Washingtons Womens Center and is the former chair of the Alene Moris National Education for Womens Leadership Institute.

The years youre really putting the pedal to the metal on your career coincide with the years youre launching a family, Swartz says. That is why you do not see as many women in top roles. We are still stuck as a culture in gender roles around work and family.

Swartz continues: If I want to be Ada Healey (see accompanying story, page 47), what do I have to give up in order to get there? Am I in a partnership? Do I have kids? Or anything else? There is an intense demand for a lot of hours at work. Couples need to have a conversation on how to manage their careers so that the woman can have a significant career as well, she adds.

Magill says she has not had to struggle with the glass cliff a reference to women who have broken through the glass ceiling into leadership roles but often find themselves at the precipice because they are not provided the resources and support to ensure success. Magill has lots of evening meetings and her husbands work requires substantial international travel, but she has been able to rely on strong support from her family. Additionally, her firm offers the flexible hours she needs.

We try to encourage a work/life balance, Magill says. A lot of folks who work here have flexible hours.

Hurd and her partner have a 7-year-old daughter and share chores. She describes him as a godsend but still admits, It doesnt feel easy to get all the stuff done we have to do, and we are both people who are pretty good project managers and we have only one child.

Hurd credits a flexible culture at Touchstone. One of the firms partners, Jim OHanlon, was a single parent of three children for many years and understands the challenges, she says.

More companies are providing backup care to make it easier for employees with young children or aging parents to handle emergencies, so Swartz expects the ranks of women developers to grow. She notes that with more women entering the fields of investment banking and finance, it may be easier for them to transition into real estate development because they have the training to understand deal structure.

CREW Network has seen a significant increase in women at the executive management level, but Ayers says, There hasnt been as much change as we would like to see at the C-suite and board levels. In particular, women often have difficulty obtaining funding for projects and may struggle breaking into traditional business networks, according to CREW.

But for those who have made it to senior positions, femaleness can be helpful. As a group, women tend to be more collaborative than men and may find it easier to work toward a consensus, a valuable skill in obtaining project approval from city officials and neighborhoods.

Being able to empathize and fit in with all kinds of people people with varied life experiences allows you to talk to all the stakeholders in the process in a way that is meaningful to them, says Hurd.

Although theyve taken different paths to become top practitioners, Hurd, Picard and Magill have all found real estate development a good fit. Says Magill, Its an opportunity to create something and leave a legacy. If you do it well and serve the community, it gives you a great feeling.

THE LIST GETS LONGER
Five more women who are prominent in commercial real estate development.

Ada M. Healey
Vice President for Real Estate, Vulcan Inc (vulcanrealestate.com)

A discussion of notable women developers in Seattle wouldnt be complete without mentioning Ada M. Healey, who has transformed Seattles South Lake Union neighborhood from a sketchy, underused light-industrial district into a vibrant area comprising several million square feet of office, residential and commercial space most notably the corporate headquarters of Amazon.com.

An advocate of development that prizes human interaction, Healey, who declined to be interviewed for this feature, wrote this in a Seattle Business magazine commentary in 2010: We can see the types of defining elements that characterize successful people places in South Lake Union. Providing a wide variety of housing options suited to a range of incomes and household types is crucial. The housing mix in South Lake Union is one of the most varied in the city, including market-rate condos and apartments, workforce housing, low-income housing and senior homes.

Healey, who did her undergraduate work at Duke University and received an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University, adds: The question isnt whether growth in our urban centers should occur, but what form and shape it should take to inspire the kinds of livable communities that will attract diverse groups of people.

Liz Dunn
Principal, Dunn & Hobbes (dunnandhobbes.com)

Liz Dunns Seattle-based firm is a developer of mixed-use projects. Many of them, including Melrose Market, Chophouse Row and Pacific Supply Building, involve renovating older buildings in urban neighborhoods.

Dunn has an undergraduate degree in computer science, an MBA from INSEAD in France and a masters in city design from the London School of Economics. She worked in software engineering and product development at Microsoft and as an executive producer at DreamWorks Interactive before launching Dunn & Hobbes in 1997.

Women took on less profitable projects, she once told Urban Land magazine, because theyre more interested than men in nonmonetary paybacks at the neighborhood, societal or environmental level. To the extent that a man is not in touch with his inner shopper, he is not going to be equipped to do compelling retail. Maybe thats why we have a lot of retail centers that dont work, she said.

Dunn says one reason women developers have not played a major role is that they often have less interest in office and industrial development: I fled corporate America for a reason, she told Urban Land. I get up in the morning thinking about the way people live, shop and play.

Maria Barrientos
Principal, Barrientos Real Estate (mbarrientos.com)

Maria Barrientos got into development by managing the construction of golf courses, then founded her firm in 1999 with a focus on apartment buildings in urban areas. She identified early on the emergence of a growing demographic of well-educated young people and built homes for them with high ceilings and plenty of light. She says women may be more patient than men in handholding novice property owners and counseling extended families.

Monica Smith
Founder, Bluegreen Consulting (bluegreenconsults.com)

Monica Smith focuses on development that encourages social, environmental and economic best practices. She previously was international real estate manager for Microsoft, where she oversaw the design and construction of the companys global portfolio. She also has been a partner at Catapult Community Developers.

Jordan Selig
Manager, Martin Selig Real Estate (martinselig.com)

The youngest daughter of longtime Seattle real estate developer Martin Selig, Jordan Selig joined the firm last year and is now managing her first high-profile project in Seattle a proposed apartment building adjacent to the Olympic Sculpture Park. Despite her youth, Selig is not a neophyte. She has been developing environmentally friendly rental properties in Berlin since 2010.