501 Main Opens Its Doors
Construction is complete, tenants have moved in, and we've locked in an interest rate 1.5x higher than what we started with.
Hey — Jonah here. This is Brick + Mortar where I talk about the acquisition, financing, design, construction, and operations of small-scale real estate development projects.
Earlier last month, all eight residential tenants at 501 Main moved in (the retail tenant has been in there for a few months working on her coffeeshop fit out).
I’m still in disbelief.
14 months of construction and another 14 months of planning.
Almost 2.5 years in the making.
Not on time and not on budget. But—goddammit—we got it done.
There are lessons learned, etc that I want to share. But that will have to wait for future posts.
For now, I want to quickly reflect.
Looking back, there were countless moments where I thought we hit a wall that would permanently derail the project.
They obviously didn’t, and we always found a way around.
The key to 501 Main’s success wasn’t knowledge or experience. I had neither going in.
The key was being scrappy.
Being so aggressively determined to finish that I would do anything to prevent the train from stopping. Whether that was working weekends, taking on subs’ responsibilities when they dropped the ball, scrounging to find non-dilutionary capital when we went over budget, etc.
The point is—if you’re considering a small-scale development project, leave your ego at the door and roll up your sleeves.
Practically, what this means is: learn construction.
The best decision I made on the project was to GC it myself—hiring subs, managing the timeline and budget, ordering materials, and working on-site daily with the crew.
Yes, this meant a lot more headache, and stress, and work.
But the return on that brain damage was asymmetric. I learned more about building practices, managing labor, and construction budgeting in one year than I could have imagined.
Knowing construction goes a long way in development. It’s been instrumental in my ability to more accurately estimate project costs and make cost-effective design decisions on new projects.
I would also now feel confident hiring a GC. Being able to speak the same language and call BS when necessary is immensely helpful in getting work done efficiently.
Although—I’ll caveat that I still have a lot to learn and continue to make expensive mistakes (just not the same ones twice).
Before I share some photos, I want to acknowledge the level of collaboration it took to get 501 Main over the finish line.
I tried counting how many people had a hand in making this happen—architects, engineers, contractors, lenders, town officials, investors, mentors/advisors, and more.
I lost count at 75.
75+ people with an active role in the project.
Just keep that in mind—one developer gets their name on the project, but there’s a small army of people behind the scenes that bring the vision to reality.
Ok, now here are some final pics:
Until next time.
— Jonah 🧱
P.S. Want to connect? Find me on LinkedIn.
Congratulations Jonah! Ditto what Gay-c said: this project will be really good for Fairlee. You have been generous in sharing your experience too, I know that will help others.
Big congratulations, Jonah, on this successful venture! Glad you had the brains and heart to make it happen and deal with 75+ people to complete it. You are a brave man! The project is really good for Fairlee and it’s nice to see something positive happening in the downtown area. The tenants are lucky to live at 501 Main.