Real Estate Development Analyst

Full job posting: https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/241841

The School of Government works to improve the lives of North Carolinians by engaging in practical scholarship that helps public officials and citizens understand and improve state and local government. The School offers up to 200 courses, webinars, and conferences for more than 12,000 public officials each year. Faculty members annually publish approximately 50 books, reports, articles, bulletins, and other instances of print and online content related to state and local government. The School is also home to a nationally ranked graduate program in public administration.

Position Summary

This position may be eligible for a hybrid work arrangement that may include a partially remote work location, consistent with System Office policy. UNC Chapel Hill employees are generally required to reside within a reasonable commuting distance of their assigned duty station.

The Development Finance Initiative (DFI) at the School of Government partners with local governments in North Carolina and beyond to attract private investment for transformative projects by providing specialized finance and development expertise. DFI partners with communities on projects including: building reuse and downtown revitalization; master development planning and execution; community and neighborhood development; industrial shell buildings; small business loan programs; and affordable housing development. DFI has worked on over 250 projects since its inception in 2010. DFI projects have resulted in over one billion dollars in private investment. DFI is experiencing high demand for its services and, accordingly, is seeking to expand its talented team of mission-driven real estate development experts.

The Development Finance Initiative (DFI), a program of the School of Government, is recruiting a Real Estate Development Analyst for a full-time EHRA Non-Faculty appointment. The Real Estate Development Analyst position reports to the DFI Associate Director and will work in close collaboration with DFI Project Managers.

This position will perform advanced data extraction, manipulation, management, and sophisticated analysis for real estate development projects aimed at assisting local governments with recruiting tens of millions of dollars in private investment for projects that accomplish local community and economic development goals. This includes measuring job growth, demographic analysis, assessing housing needs, analyzing neighborhood or downtown tax parcel data, modeling public-private partnerships, and other types of analysis. Analysts will work with project leads to develop narratives about local market conditions and challenges while also participating in project strategy sessions.

The ideal candidate will thrive in a quantitative research environment, demonstrates intellectual curiosity, enjoys data visualization challenges, and is excited by real estate development practices, public-private partnerships, and community development strategies. Responsibilities will include the following: creating analytic data files using techniques to extract and aggregate community and market information; performing sophisticated geospatial analysis using GIS and parcel data; conducting market analyses and financial feasibility modeling; and designing and preparing reports and presentations. The position will also include oversight, training, and support of graduate student fellows in extracting, manipulating, managing, and analyzing data. The Real Estate Development Analyst will work with a team of analysts to standardize and improve analytical processes. The successful candidate will be highly organized, creative, extremely detail oriented, and self-driven. The candidate will also be an effective interpersonal communicator with demonstrated ability to respond to changing workloads and priorities.

The School of Government recognizes the importance of an educational and work environment in which all individuals are respected and valued. To that end, we are strongly committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. For more information about the School’s commitment to diversity, please visit our Diversity and Inclusion page: https://www.sog.unc.edu/resources/microsites/diversity-and-inclusion.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

Relevant post-Baccalaureate degree required (or foreign degree equivalent); for candidates demonstrating comparable independent research productivity or comparable background in independent academic or instructional activities, will accept a relevant Bachelor’s degree (or foreign degree equivalent) and 3 or more years of relevant experience in substitution. This experience may be related to the direction/oversight of programs that focus the academic and research resources of a higher education institution towards community or regional issues.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• Directly related experience or demonstrated interest in mission-driven real estate development, affordable housing, and/or community economic development.
• Strong critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, creatively, and accurately in a fast-paced environment with multiple projects and stringent deadlines.
• A high level of competency with GIS mapping: experience conducting geospatial analysis, site suitability, socio-economic, and demographic analysis.
• A high level of competency in Microsoft Excel.
• Data project management experience: extracting, cleaning, organizing, and merging raw or uncleaned data for analysis.
• A high level of competency with demographic and market data sources (such as but not limited to data products from the US Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, or HUD CHAS data).
• Experience analyzing relevant qualitative datasets including but not limited to survey responses, zoning codes, or other local government ordinances.
• Strong data visualization and communication skills.
• Demonstrated experience distilling, translating, and communicating complex analysis into key findings for specific audiences.
• Strong interpersonal skills (ability to manage sideways, comfort giving and receiving feedback, etc.) as well as an ability to interact effectively with colleagues who have a variety of working styles.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• Experience in community development, real estate, or other related fields OR a Master’s degree in planning, geography, public administration, public policy, business administration or a related field.
• Experience with (or eagerness to learn) cleaning, analyzing, and visualizing data in R.
• Strong financial modeling skills related to real estate development including experience modeling debt, cash flows, and tax credits (historic, low-income housing, mill, and/or new markets).
• Experience working directly for a local government or with local governments as clients, and/or with public-private partnerships.
• Experience conducting market research and analysis for real estate development including supply and demand for commercial space, housing, and/or hospitality.
• Advanced knowledge of real estate capital markets.