The Role
The Development Director leads commercial real estate projects, overseeing procurement, feasibility, entitlements, design, marketing, leasing, financing, project management, and business development while maintaining quality and risk standards.
Summary Generated by Built In
Within the greater Milwaukee region, the Development Director is responsible for implementing strategies developed by the Leadership Team to support the company’s business objectives and generate new business opportunities. Strategies may include investments, acquisitions, leasing, real estate services, development opportunities, BTS and joint ventures.
Reporting to senior development leadership, the Director oversees the full life-cycle delivery of commercial real estate projects across medical office, retail (including mixed-retail), multifamily residential, traditional office, and mixed-use properties, maintaining rigorous quality and risk-management standards.
The Development Director will collaborate with and direct internal cross-functional teams and external project partners to drive consistent results and positive outcomes for project stakeholders.
Responsibilities
- Feasibility Analysis: Conducts initial project feasibility and due diligence, including financial modeling, municipal regulation and entitlement strategies, market research, site planning, engineering and environmental studies, and overall risk analysis.
- Entitlements: Prepares strategies and oversees applications and municipal meetings for all required entitlements/approvals, including land subdivisions, use permits, design and engineering approvals, variances, etc.
- Real Estate Procurement: Analyzes, negotiates, and coordinates all activities to identify, control and acquire real estate, including site searches, letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, title and survey review, buyer/seller document review, easements, and closing preparation.
- Construction & Design Administration: In coordination with design and construction administration team members, oversees the selection and onboarding of design and engineering professionals and manages the design process, ensuring design meets or exceeds standards within projected cost estimates.
- Marketing: Prepares and administers project-specific, multi-media marketing plans, including preparation of promotional materials, cold calling, mailer campaigns, social media, advertising, and events.
- Leasing: Engages with prospective tenants and real estate brokers and negotiates occupancy contracts, including RFP responses, tours, and lease negotiations.
- Financing: In coordination with finance team members, analyzes potential sources of funds and assists in the solicitation and procurement of debt and equity, including coordination of request for funding packages, appraisals, loan documents, and investor books.
- Project Management: Establishes and maintains the project budgets, sources and uses of funds and schedule during project implementation. Monitors and resolves the day-to-day challenges, expediting/assuring project completion in accordance with specifications, budget and schedule. Ensures successful commissioning, occupancy and transitioning to on-going operations.
- Networking: Builds and maintains strong relationships with brokers, tenants, prospective tenants, consultants, contractors, and lenders.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in real estate, urban planning, finance, or a related field.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in commercial real estate. Strong understanding of the real estate development cycle with proficiency in financial underwriting and modeling.
- Effective communicator through written and verbal means. Strong organizational skills with attention to detail to successfully manage multiple projects concurrently.
- Strong leadership skills and instincts to lead teams and anticipate challenges. Proactive nature and desire to succeed.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite.
Top Skills
MS Office
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The Company
What We Do
Our mission is to inform, connect and advance the commercial real estate community to do more business. We aspire to be the most data-driven and humanizing digital media, live events and intelligence platform in the galaxy — and through this effort, drive the industry to greater heights.
Bisnow hosts 340+ events a year that are attended by over 70,000 people, 2,000 sponsors and hundreds of speakers. We also publish newsletters and morning briefs that reach almost three quarters of a million executives.








