ON THE TRASH HEAP

Harry was a great speaker in fact he was a great example of building relationships in the Commercial Real Estate business. I was amazed how he and Terry Stiles created a partnership in 2009 when Banks, Investors, and Hedge Fund Companies basically wanted nothing to do with the real estate business.  Centra the joint venture they developed was well planned. This lecture really taught me that no matter what state the economy is in, there is always a way to make a bad situation with a good exit strategy.  After hearing Mr. Posin speak I will always work projects with the ending in mind first. (Work from the exit strategy to the inception).  The design of Centra was perfectly developed with the non-traditional townhome floor plan. They actually built the community with the mindset of being ready in case the demand changed in favor of certain floorplans.  Centra used the Lego method to build floorplans and make space for garages without changing the entire development. This was a chance to allow demand to dictate exactly what they needed to build. The fact that Mr. Posin did research on the demographics in the area allow him to build three story townhomes with elevators and a bonus apartment on the top level which offers flexibility, and a chance for extended families to have a since of privacy and togetherness. These floorplans open Harry’s customer based to older residents as well as millennials. To have this fore sight has to be an element of experience and proper research. Villas on Antique Row was a mixed use development on Dixie highway in Palm Beach.  This development has 600sf of retail space that he sold as fee-simple to business owners, and he built Condos adjacent to the retail which gave the business owners a chance to buy commercial space and a townhome adjacent to their business.  Mr. Posin taught me that sometimes good deals are buried under the trash heap, and only the experienced and connected and can find. I learned that sometimes great locations with just the right amount of construction activity will entice people to buy even if the economy is down!!!