We believe in our projects so much that our typical project profile is one where we are the sole owner, sharing equally in both the upside cash flow potential as well as downside cash flow potential. Since we take tremendous pride in our reputation, we insist that the only way to protect our reputation is to maintain a controlling interest in the ownership structure. The span of control spans the entire development life cycle, all the way from site selection to property management. We solicit and welcome input from various third party constituents (brokers, architects, engineers, etc.) throughout the entire life cycle of project but in the end all decision making will be done by us. Once a project is completed, we formally turn over the operations of the project to ZM Management LLC, our wholly owned property management company.
As a long term investor, our project focus is limited to A+ locations defined minimally by high traffic corners in either heavily populated markets or high growth markets. No project is too big or too small provided that we believe it satisfies our investment criteria.
Although we will never invest in a project with an immediate negative return, we believe that the prospect of paying off a mortgage is representative of ultimate success. In other words, the investment horizon we look for is very long term. Our “generational” time line for holding a property pushes us to invest the extra dollars on the front end, rather than design, build, and tenant our projects for a quick resell profit. At times, this philosophy forces us to give up higher returns in the earlier years of a deal but ultimately provides for higher returns in the later years of a deal.
While we prefer to be the sole owner, we understand that taking on additional investors/partners is sometimes necessary depending on the situation. Since we are not interested in “quick flip” opportunities, the typical profile of our investor/partner is also long term focused.
We continue to actively pursue new opportunities and we will pursue virtually any potential project so long as it matches our investment criteria.