AVP, Development Finance

Lifestyle Communities•Columbus, OH

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The AVP, Development Finance is the owner’s financial voice on Lifestyle Communities’ development projects, from pursuit through stabilization. The role owns the monthly performance forecast for active projects, monitors cost, schedule, rents and stabilization, and explains how performance affects project returns, including return on cost, IRR and promote. It partners with development, construction, accounting, capital markets and asset management to identify issues and recommend actions to leadership. The position independently reviews and challenges underwriting for new land and multifamily pursuits, develops financial plans for the project pipeline, and supports financing and investor reporting. It also leads and develops the development finance team, oversees project accounting through the Project Accounting Manager, and advances reporting processes and the use of automation and AI. The position is based on-site in Columbus, Ohio, with periodic travel to project sites in local and out-of-state markets.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, real estate or a related field.
Seven to ten years of real estate development finance, development or investment experience.
At least four years in an owner- or developer-side role on ground-up multifamily development.
Demonstrated owner-side experience monitoring ground-up development projects against proforma, budget, schedule and return targets.
Experience with large-scale, multi-phase multifamily or mixed-use developments through construction, lease-up and stabilization.
Experience at a merchant developer, fund sponsor or institutional owner where returns and promote depended on execution.
Expert financial modeling skills, including development proformas, phased cash flows, sensitivity analysis, debt and equity waterfalls, NPV, IRR and DCF.
Working knowledge of construction lending, draw processes, loan covenants and joint-venture agreements.
Ability to read a contractor cost report and form an independent view of cost to complete.
Clear, concise written and verbal communication and ability to present to a CEO, investment committee, lenders and investors.
Strong leadership qualities and experience managing, motivating, developing and coaching team members.
Advanced skills in Microsoft Office and Excel.
Ability to achieve results by working with others across the organization, regardless of reporting relationship.
Ability to perform the described physical functions, with reasonable accommodations available in accordance with applicable law.

Nice To Haves

Minimum of three years of management or team leadership experience (preferred).
MBA, CPA or CFA (preferred but not required).
Experience supporting a program with a high volume of starts per year or multiple concurrent starts (preferred).
Experience with job-cost or development software and Spreadsheet Server (preferred).

Responsibilities

Own the monthly owner-side forecast for each active development project and phase, reconciling it to the approved proforma, budget and construction loan.
Establish and monitor project KPIs, including estimated cost to complete, delivery schedule, asking versus achieved rents, and path to stabilization.
Quantify project variances in terms of return on cost, untrended and trended yield, levered and unlevered IRR, equity multiple and promote, and recommend actions to leadership.
Maintain phased development proformas, sensitivity analyses and investor return (waterfall) models.
Lead monthly budget-to-actual and cost-to-complete reviews with development and construction; challenge change orders, contingency use and buyout results against the proforma.
Develop an independent owner’s estimate of cost to complete rather than relying solely on contractor reporting.
Oversee job costing and pre-development, development and construction-management billings through the Project Accounting Manager.
Coordinate draw packages with Construction Finance and Accounting to reconcile lender, investor and internal figures; monitor loan covenants, interest reserves and equity requirements.
Track critical milestones across multi-phase communities, from entitlement and closing through vertical start, first delivery and completion.
Model the financial impact of schedule slips, phase sequencing and interest carry, and recommend mitigation.
Monitor weekly leasing velocity, concessions and achieved rents against underwriting; forecast stabilization date, stabilized NOI and value, and recommend pricing, concession or timing changes with Asset Management and property operations.
Assess and stress-test Development team underwriting for new pursuits and future phases, challenging assumptions against market data and LC’s actual project results.
Build the start schedule, equity and debt requirements, and development fee forecast for the annual company budget and pipeline planning.
Provide Finance’s independent view on deals and phases presented to investment committee; prepare project packages for lenders, joint-venture partners and investors; support Capital Markets & IR on construction loans, equity and fund reporting.
Produce a monthly development dashboard for management and standardize reporting formats across projects.
Establish templates, approval thresholds and a review cadence that provide an independent check on project spend.
Lead, coach and develop team members; set goals and provide direct reports with fair and consistent performance and career-development feedback.
Drive process improvement and adoption of technology, automation and AI tools to improve reporting speed and accuracy.
Complete other projects as directed and assigned by the Executive Team.
Build out a Columbus-based development finance team and directly manage the Project Accounting Manager.