Creating Value Through:

Land Use Policy Community and Municipal Collaboration Site and Program Design

Company Background

WestGate Ventures (WGV) is a full-service real estate company offering development, advisory and brokerage services. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the primary focus of the company is to pursue infill opportunities in established and emerging locations in the Bay Area. Through its development and advisory services, WGV’s goal is to enhance values by maximizing return on investment for the company or client.

With a strategic emphasis on infill opportunities, WGV is experienced in managing challenging entitlement environments, facilitating neighborhood and community outreach efforts to gain support, creating effective site solutions, solving existing site conditions and understanding market conditions to create the best and highest use for properties. Strong attention to a project’s adjacencies and the end-user further enhances the project’s design, identity and community endorsement. Strategic development combined with detailed financial analysis maximizes the project’s value.

WGV’s regional focus provides an unparalleled network of private and public relationships and market expertise. Supported by in-depth analysis and decision making from the developer’s perspective, WGV evaluates opportunities and creates effective solutions that enhance value.

The company’s management team has over 80 years of collective real estate experience in the Bay Area and has been involved in investments valued at more than $2 billion.

Development

WGV’s principals have completed dozens of projects over the last two decades, managing all phases of the development process, from initial site selection, program conceptualization and due diligence, through project construction and sales close-out. WGV can assemble and coordinate a team of trusted professionals to develop a project from the ground up. With a market-based approach to development, WGV prides itself on its ability to understand local market conditions and buyer preferences to create a cost effective program with maximum buyer appeal. In addition, WGV tactfully engages the municipalities in which it works, listening to neighbor concerns and incorporating community input into the program while meeting the financial needs of its investors. What results is a ‘win-win’ project that safeguards returns for its investors and partners, and that fits organically into the existing neighborhood.

WGV can act as the lead sponsor on deals with an equity partner, or as the development management consultant for its clients.

Entitlement

WGV has decades of experience programming and obtaining approvals for developments all over the Bay Area. From conditional use permits to General Plan Amendments and Final Maps, the company prides itself on engaging municipalities and securing entitlement for projects in a manner that is both profitable to the client and gratifying for the neighborhoods and cities involved. As a testament to its healthy relationships and working style, WGV has been asked to work for the very cities in which it has also obtained approvals for its clients.

WGV works with its clients during the entire entitlement process, from initial contact with municipal staff, through the last discretionary approval, or for any particular step during the process. And because of its longstanding relationships with municipal entities, WGV can both evaluate the entitlement prospects quickly, and more importantly, obtain them efficiently.

Advisory Services

With over 70 years of combined experience in real estate development, WGV is equipped to perform and coordinate all aspects of the due diligence process and analyze the feasibility of client development proposals. With a bottom-line driven approach to development WGV not only strives to maximize returns for its clients but also works to uncover risks for its partners, thus mitigating the potential for loss that accompanies any large scale development. We work with an experienced team of contractors, civil engineers, architects, biological, geotechnical and environmental consultants to ensure that all potential issues are uncovered before they derail a deal. Our relationships with Bay Area municipalities also allow us to assess the approvability of all types of projects.

  • WGV has extensive experience programming and developing projects with all manner of product, from townhomes and single family homes, to stacked flat condos over retail. With a goal towards creating a development program that both enhances the existing neighborhood and maximizes investor returns WGV can tailor a product solution for any local development site.

  • WGV can provide expert financial analyses and cash flow modeling for all manner of projects. WGV employs its proprietary models to analyze the financial feasibility of all new projects as well as options for existing assets. Each analysis is specifically adapted to fit the needs of its clients’ projects and include evaluation of all revenue, cost and timing assumptions.

  • WGV is a market-driven enterprise that continues to monitor local sales conditions and end-user preferences, and has extensive experience analyzing the market for both new and existing assets. While market research is a vital component of any feasibility analysis or project conceptualization, understanding the market and accurately assessing current conditions can be a valuable component in any decision making process in real estate.

  • WGV can analyze local market conditions, research current costs and evaluate the local regulatory environment in preparing highest and best use recommendations for a given development site.

Brokerage

WGV is a licensed brokerage and can assist clients in a broad range of real estate transactions, from small investment properties to the purchase or sale of raw land for development. Because of their extensive experience and relationships in the development process as principals, including market research, financial analysis and entitlement, the partners at WGV is able to offer expert advice above and beyond the assistance offered by typical real estate brokers.