Associate Spotlight: Tyler Wood, Vice President of Development, Northern California

Shortly after graduating from the University of Colorado in 2007, Tyler Wood joined the real estate world. He worked stints in construction, finance and development and deftly absorbed the details and nuances of each sector.

“I am fortunate in that I worked for a handful of great companies with strong leadership and good mentors,” Wood said.

Wood, who earned a BA in Philosophy from Colorado and a Masters of Science in Real Estate Finance from New York University, first joined LMC in 2014. He has served in a variety of roles before assuming his current position as Vice President of Development, Northern California in June 2019.

In various development roles across all of his employers, Wood has participated on teams that developed over 3,000 homes across 11 communities, which include three type-I high-rises and eight stick-frame variant multifamily buildings. He also contributed to several office projects and one historic adaptive re-use retail project.

Here is a little bit more about the Oakland-based associate:

What is your official title and job description?

My official title is VP of Development, Northern California. I am responsible for all phases of development within the region, from market selection through lease-up of the community and everything in between. I view my role as a composition of many parts, aside from just the actual duties. Foremost, I must always be a good fiduciary to our investment partners.

What is your favorite part of your job?

There are a few parts that immediately come to mind. I enjoy the problem solving across a multitude of disciplines and I also enjoy working with my teammates to solve these challenges. I also like seeing the project come to life from an idea to a real thing and the joy and excitement that our residents receive from being members in our communities. Lastly, I like to think that our communities help with the economic growth and complement the life cycle that cities undergo.

Tell us about the region you work in—what makes it so attractive for a future LMC resident?

There’s an old joke in our business that goes something like, “Schedule, budget and quality… pick two.” Naturally, we aim for all three at LMC. That said, for any geographic location, it might be reasonable to recast the joke as: “Employment opportunities, lifestyle, cost of living… pick two.” Northern California definitely chooses the first two.

These days Northern California is the tech epicenter of the Western World and is home to a disproportionate handful of the wealthiest companies and start-ups. Therefore, it offers incredible job opportunities and an ability to earn a good wage across a broad range of industries, and not just those directly associated with tech.

The other part that makes Northern California attractive is quality of lifestyle. It’s one of the few areas of the country where someone can surf in the morning and ski in the afternoon in the same day.

Why is it so important to be a good development neighbor? And how do you make sure you are good example of this?

There are a lot of reasons to be a good neighbor. At LMC, we strive to build community and being a good neighbor throughout the entire development process is a necessary prerequisite in order to do so. We want add to the municipalities where we develop and not diminish the elements that made that market attractive in the first place.

One of the first steps is to be a good listener to the community stakeholders, politicians and city staff to understand how they envision their community, and then ask for their guidance on the best way we can contribute to the existing community with our developments.

What advice would you give someone looking for a career in development?

I recommend finding a role in a development-adjacent business with a much shorter business cycle where it is faster to accumulate expertise. Once in a development role, this expertise will anchor the person and add relevance to different parts of the development cycle where it will then become easier to ascertain the long cause and effect sequences.

I also imagine that our business may transform in ways that seem unimaginable now. I expect that certain roles may require the understanding or even mastery of certain coding languages like those associated with data analytics or reporting. So, it may be wise to begin to develop a skillset there as well.