Centra Development by Harry Posin ( March 7,2015)

On March 7, 2015 we had the privilege of having the president of Label & Co Development, Harry Posin as a guest speaker.  He began his lecture by first giving a brief overview of his background in the development industry. Harry Posin founded Label & Co and established an amazing team of building industry professionals who he has worked together for over 30 years.  Harry Posin has been in the development industry for the majority of his life. According to Label & Co history info Mr.Posin formerly held two positions as Executive Vice President and President of Minto Communities before he founded Label & CO. Mr.Posin and his team has built over 20,000 residence communities in south Florida over the past ten years.

Mr.Posin discussed his previous experiences in the residential development industry over the past 10 years and specifically talked about one of his hardest projects which was the Centra Development located in Boca Raton. Mr.Posin explained how this project had its constants battles due to the residential bust in October 2004. The site was originally owned by Stiles Development  in the early 2000’s and was set to be an Office Depot in 2003 until they change their mind and left Stiles Development with the land. The site was then rezoned for high end residential development but that also fell through when the residential market burst. 

The site had now had a 25.7 million debt that was owed to Bank of America that Stiles Development needed to pay. In order to get this done Label & Co teamed up with Stiles Development to redeveloped the land into a middle class residential townhome community. The Centra Development was the only project in the state of Florida that Bank of America recapitalized in the industry. By this occurring Label & Co and Stiles were able to follow through with the community.  They then generated another free cash to speed up the construction process which in turn allow them to presale the townhome units and eventually led to the completion of development. The reason Mr.Posin empathized this project to the class was for us to see the constant movement of the residential & development market and how you must be able to adapt and react to those changes. The lecture showed me personally that the most successful developer is not the one who can build the fastest or makes the biggest profit but the one who can anticipate the change in the market.