The tension

What gets financed gets built.

There is an essential spreadsheet called the proforma. It helps you figure out a place development project. With the right mix of spatial programming, the hope is that the project idea will produce a return on investment for cash put into assets.

If the answer is yes, you have a project. If the answer is maybe or no, the project will likely remain on the shelf.

The other day I was working on a proforma that initially looked like a no-go. But, with a table conversation, that pro forma is now in a yes position. It took a mix of creativity, critical thinking, and tinkering.

While the risk in the project will remain even past its groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremony, the project will create a sense of place.

That’s the tension.

While the cash might yield a 5-10% more internal rate of return in another market, the decision was to create a sense of place with a minimal viable project worth the risk and something the financial market will approve.

Eventually, this mix of creators, critics, and tinkerers will deliver a minimal viable project that will allow you to go to the bank or investor of choice and enable the marketplace to expand beyond commoditized assets and places.