Main Responsibilities of a Project Director at PATH Ventures
Michael, a Project Director at PATH Ventures, acts as a "real estate developer" for a non-profit, overseeing projects from "year zero to completion," a process spanning up to six years. This involves securing funding through diverse channels, including "city, county, state, bank, and investor," managing construction, and ultimately leasing units to individuals in need of housing.
Project Management, Real Estate Development, Nonprofit Management, Finance, Construction Management
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Michael Busse
Project Director
PATH Ventures
Loyola Marymount University, 2016
UCLA Master's of Urban and Regional Planning
Entrepreneurship
Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking, Real Estate
Real Estate
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Worked 20+ Hours in School, LGBTQ
Video Highlights
1. Project Director's responsibilities span the entire project lifecycle, from initial site selection and financing to construction oversight and lease-up.
2. The role involves securing approvals from various government agencies, managing relationships with multiple stakeholders (architects, engineers, contractors, investors, banks), and navigating complex financing mechanisms.
3. PATH Ventures focuses on providing housing for individuals experiencing homelessness, making this a career with a strong social impact component. The interviewee mentions working with long waitlists and matching tenants to suitable apartments.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
As a project director, I'm essentially a real estate developer, but it's a little different because I work for a nonprofit. At any given time, I manage a portfolio of three to five projects. These projects take many years, as many as six years, and my job is to take them all the way from year zero to completion. I'm trying to ensure they come in on time and, if possible, under budget.
The first few years involve site selection and acquisition. I find a site, evaluate it to determine if it's a good fit and if we can build something reasonable there. Then, I hire an architect and a team of engineers. I work with them to design a building according to my firm's specifications and requirements.
While they're designing the building, I work with local building and planning departments to get the site entitled. This is the technical term for getting zoning approval from the city planning department. I also work to obtain the building permit, which is necessary to break ground.
During this time, I'm also securing financing, which can drive the timeline and take a few years. I write applications for funding from the city, county, and state where the site is located. We also use traditional debt financing, so I work with banks to find the best deals and terms.
Additionally, we finance our projects with tax credits. We sell these tax credits to an investor who then takes an equity stake in the project. I try to find the best investor who will offer good terms.
Once we have all these elements lined up—city, county, state, bank, and investor—we need them all to agree to contribute their money at the right time and for their lawyers to approve the paperwork. Assuming that happens, we can break ground. By then, I've also hired the general contractor to manage all the construction.
Construction typically lasts about a year and a half, given the size of our buildings. We build as much as possible onto a site to maximize the number of people we can house. I monitor the construction process weekly, either visiting the site or having long phone calls with the architect and contractor to ensure everything is being built according to plan and on budget.
About six months before the building is complete, I work with a new team to lease up the building. I work for a homeless services nonprofit, so everyone who will eventually live in our apartments is coming from a situation of insecure housing. There are long wait lists, depending on where you are in the country. We work through these wait lists to find people who are the best fit for our apartments.
Once the building is fully leased, I hand it over to the property manager and move on to my next project.
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