International Real-Estate Development Under Fire

Mom, are you listening? Your son turned out to be a doctor after all. Yes, a real doctor in a front-line wartime ER, wearing a white coat and treating urgent international real-estate cases even in the middle of the night.

Sunday is a day off in the international market, and I usually work in the office and enjoy the quiet. This week I decided to drive south to help farmers pick ripe tomatoes. As I’m getting ready to leave, my phone rings

and the screen says “No Caller ID”. Who calls at 05:59?!

Dark thoughts race through my head. That’s how it is when you’re the father of a young son in the army in wartime. I try to answer, but my legs feel weak and my hands are frozen.

Hello…

Ilan, sorry about the hour, it’s xxxx. We finished the meeting with the city engineer late on Friday, so I’m only updating you now. “The city engineer rejected the project. The plan wasn’t approved, despite all the promises and understandings. The mayor said that unless we double the existing green areas, we won’t get a building permit. I sat with the Romanian architect, the project manager and the permitting architect until 23:30, and every drawing we tried made the project economically unviable. What do we do?”

We set a meeting at my office for 17:00, and I called in my Romania “hive”. Some would join on Zoom and some would come in person.

“Why 17:00? I want to submit a solution to the municipality tomorrow morning!”

the developer asked.

Where are you? I asked.

Meet me at the Ashdod junction in 40 minutes and you and I will work on solutions ahead of the 17:00 meeting. OK?

Yes, I’m getting ready to leave.

Come in shorts, a hat and work boots.

Why?

Just come. We’re going to work on your project and help an old friend at the same time.

You’ve got me curious. See you soon.

We met and headed south, toward the heart of the war zone.

A lieutenant colonel and a major driving south together to move national and international projects forward.

We had to understand the implications: how many units we would lose because of the demand, what it meant for construction costs and for expected revenue. After a few hours of tomato picking, discussions, going back to the drawing board and more than a few arguments, we had a solution, and a good stock of tomatoes too.

I called the office and asked them to draw up the solution and check its implications for our afternoon meeting.

At the hive meeting in my office a decision was made, and the planning team and project managers got clear instructions on the route the developer preferred for moving the plan forward within the new limits set by the authorities.

The updated paperwork was submitted to the municipality, and this morning the city engineer and the mayor approved it to move on to the next stage.

Every real-estate developer knows this situation,

but when you’re running a project in a foreign country,

with cultural gaps, not enough familiarity with the

local regulations, language gaps and more… it ramps up the pressure and adds to

the difficulty.

This is where a developer’s resourcefulness is measured: in the ability to be flexible,

to change plans and, above all, to rely on the team that will bring

him safely to shore.

And this Shabbat on our menu: shakshuka with fresh tomatoes for a hungry soldier home for the weekend after 21 days at war.