Ojeda: Well, it’s not a shift in focus. It’s in addition to. We have three properties that will go up one after the other. What we have seen in this last crisis is that a lot of people jumped into development without the proper knowledge. That convinced me to offer the services of Rilea Group as a fee developer. We are completing the International Financial Bank’s new headquarters by Thanksgiving as the fee developer.

LeClaire: How did the International Financial Bank’s headquarters fee-for-hire engagement come to fruition?

Ojeda: First of all, relationships first. Experience, too. The personal relationship is important because there’s a matter of trust. It’s like if I was saying, “I have rental apartments. I manage all our rental apartments. Since we have the infrastructure to manage our rental apartments, I’m going to start managing for third parties.”

LeClaire: Does the firm have past experience handling this type of work?

Ojeda: More or less it’s the same thing as developing our own buildings. I build the building for a for-fee development client as if I was building it for myself. The process is exactly the same. I’m repeating something I’ve been doing for 30 years for clients. In the new world of banking—a world where when banks will start lending with more prudence and more checks and balances—the fact that experienced developers are developing properties will help people get loans easier.

LeClaire: How does Rilea Group structure its compensation with fee-for-development clients?

Ojeda: It depends on the size of the project. Percentage-wise, it’s lower the higher you go because the brain damage of designing a 14-story building or a 40-story building is the same. It’s a percentage of the total cost. It could be 3%, 4% or 5%. It depends.