GlobeSt.com: What's the focus now?

Hynes: The rest of our focus will be on new development projects primarily in New York, Boston and Korea as well as some other international opportunities that have come our way that we haven't had the time to focus on properly.

GlobeSt.com: Why the focus in Boston and New York?

Hynes: We have offices there and we see some great development opportunities in office properties. There's some immediate development sites we're looking at right now. We've got other opportunities in Southern California and Chicago. The office building market is coming back. We're recognizing there's a shortage of inventory under construction in some of the better markets. We don't want to be everywhere, but there are some key places we should be and we're working to put that in motion.

GlobeSt.com: Are these projects on spec?

Hynes:Typically we like to prelease, but we're not adverse to doing spec office buildings. We did a million-sf spec office tower in Boston and a year later we were fully leased.

GlobeSt.com: What about the international aspect?

Hynes:We hope to start looking at some other opportunities that we put on hold in Japan, China and India. Things are starting to percolate because of what we've done in Korea.

GlobeSt.com: What challenges do you face in those other countries?

Hynes: Because of the experience we've had in Korea, development opportunities are being brought to us. The challenge is setting up the operation well enough to address the opportunities and underwrite them in a manner that's worthwhile. We'll be able to make better use of our time there so we can cover more ground. We've got a lot going on.

GlobeSt.com: How much more can you take on?

Hynes: We can't take on anything more without growing, but we're certainly not against growing, adding people, opening new offices in other countries, essentially taking the show on the road.

GlobeSt.com: What's the status of the New Songdo project?

Hynes: We closed on 500 acres in December and we got our master plan approved. We're currently under way with a four-million-sf residential project and a 300,000-sf convention center that we started last year. With the new land we bought, we'll start a 500,000-sf international school for $150 million. Then we have a $200-million, 100-acre central park followed by the $1.8-billion first phase of commercial. We've got a five-project rollout scheduled for this summer.

GlobeSt.com: How much time will all this take?

Hynes: every six months over the next 10 years we should start another billion dollars of construction. Every six months beginning in 2009, we're opening up a couple million square feet whether it's residential, commercial, hotel or retail.

GlobeSt.com: Are customer requirements different in Korea?

Hynes: Not design-wise, but the way you get things done and to market is culturally a little different. We've found the costs are very similar and the margins are the same. There's a heavy emphasis on marketing before construction.

GlobeSt.com: How do you make it work?

Hynes:The key is having a very good domestic partner and local consultants. In any overseas real estate activity you need strong local representation and experience. You can't parachute into communities without understanding what makes them tick in the first place.

GlobeSt.com: Do you feel others will see the New Songdo project as an example?

Hynes: There's a wait-and-see attitude to see if this will work. The city of choice in Korea is still Seoul. The product that we're delivering is a little different. That whole project is selling a quality of life--less traffic, a lot more green space and quality design and construction. A lot of people were skeptical over the past few years. But we continued to align ourselves with quality people who understood our culture and mission and we understood their culture and mission. We're having a lot of fun with it, but it took four years to get there and a lot of companies don't have the patience for that. At the end, does all this effort pay off for us and our investors? That's still to be determined.