LOS ANGELES—Not all developers work in a public-private partnership. Public agencies are looking for savvy, sophisticated and experienced developers to bid on public-private partnerships and Metro—which GlobeSt.com reported earlier is looking for private companies to building transit-oriented developments—is no exception. Ron Silverman and Andrew Fogg, both partners at Cox, Castle and Nicholson, sat down with us for an exclusive interview to talk about the elite group of developers that are right for these projects, why specialized expertise makes a big difference and the challenges of building these projects.

GlobeSt.com: What is Metro looking for in partnerships with developers for its transit-oriented development projects?

Andrew Fogg: Metro is looking for developers that have a strong track record and that, candidly, have financial backing, and developers that have executed urban infill developments of a certain scale. Developers that are comfortable with multifamily and retail products, especially because a lot of time you see these developments structured as mixed-use. There are developers that are more experienced in that field than others, and I think that the agencies are going to look for people that have developed projects successfully in this sphere. If it is your first time diving in, you are probably not going to make it through the RFP stage, because there are going to be others than have the experience and have the connections that are going to be able to pull it off with a little greater certainty. Fundamentally, the agencies want to know that the developer is going to perform and is going to perform without issue. It is developers primarily with a track record of success.