If adaptability is everything, David Mann has it in spades. The CEO of Lighthouse Living trained as a journalist, then joined the fashion industry and now is building a solid portfolio of multifamily properties, using all of the skills he’s learned along the way.
With a 1.2 million-square-foot portfolio of luxury multifamily buildings in and around metropolitan New York (with a nod to the Southeast) built since 2011, he says he’s just getting started.
“I’ve turned one building to more than 14, and from being able to execute $3 million deals to $80 million deals,” Mann said. “We’re growing organically and have a whole infrastructure — from design professionals to contractors to marketing, debt providers, to capital providers. We have all the pieces of the development puzzle.”
Real estate wasn’t his first stop, however. Growing up on Long Island, Mann could have been expected to join his family’s Garment Center business — instead, he ventured off to earn a degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But family duty called and after a year at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he did join one of the family businesses with his father. (David Mann’s uncle, Jeffrey Mann, is the CEO of Mann Publications.)
“I hated writing research reports. It was so mechanical; but when I discovered journalism, I had a knack for it,” he said. “I didn’t have a desire to become a journalist, but my training allows me to write some very effective emails, presentations and investment summaries. It was useful in the Garment Center and has definitely helped my real estate career.”
After a year as an assistant salesman at one fashion label, he moved over to roles in operations and management. But the rise of internet in the early 2000s changed the industry, cutting into profits as retailers began producing their own goods.
After nine years, he came to a sudden realization — he really didn’t care for fashion design.
“There was a disconnect with the product,” he said. “I know nothing about women’s clothing.”
However, the complex process of dress manufacturing — from design to raw material procurement, engineering, sourcing the contractors to warehousing — served as preparation for the complexities of real estate development.
After speaking with lifelong friends about the opportunities in real estate, he left fashion and enrolled in NYU’s Schack Institute with especially propitious timing. Classes began just days before Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy in 2008, sending the real estate industry into crisis as the Great Recession began.
In a way, however, he learned some powerful lessons from industry leaders on their missteps.
“Counterintuitively, it was a terrific education,” he said.
But by the time Mann graduated in May 2010, newly married and expecting a child, finding employment was a challenge. Many experienced professionals who had been laid off or left the business in 2008 were also seeking jobs, at lower salaries than they would have commanded just two years previously.
“There was nothing going on, no cranes in the sky,” he recalled. “Toward the end of 2009, people saw it wasn’t the end of the world, but in 2010 no one was hiring. I was stuck with an excellent education with no job prospects. It was a frustrating time.”
He was hired in September 2010 by Michael Stern from JDS Development as a project manager for a potential 50-unit apartment building in Park Slope. But that project saw delays.
“By February, I ultimately couldn’t get the green light to start,” he said. “I was just married. My wife was eight weeks pregnant, and she said, ‘Just do it yourself.’”
Initially reluctant and days away from applying for a job at Starbucks, Mann took his knowledge, access to some capital and a relationship with a local construction manager to find a smaller development site in White Plains, New York.
“I literally walked around the city eight hours a day for three weeks, looking at all the multifamily properties,” he said. “I got to know the market and I knew I could build something as nice as the nicest project there, with amazing amenity packages.”
Multifamily appealed because of its multitude of leases, or “customers” as Mann says, a lesson from his apparel background.
“My father used to tell me, ‘You don’t only want to have 10 big clients to sell your dresses to. You need to have many customers, so if one stops buying, it won’t put you out of business,’” he said.
Mann found a site, broke ground in December 2011, and the project was completed in December 2012. He found his second deal in White Plains in 2011, for a 30-unit, four story building. It was at that point that he hired his first employee, and named his company Lighthouse, for the street he grew up on in Great Neck.
In some respects, the shift to real estate wasn’t that dramatic.
“Instead of building dresses, I build buildings,” he said, noting there are some similarities and some very great differences between the two industries. “In fashion, there are myriad moving parts that need to be coordinated to accomplish the objective in a precise period of time. That certainly prepared me for the environment of real estate development. But design, procurement and the level of detail in documents are very different. And if a dress falls apart, the customer just won’t buy again. If a building falls apart, people will die.”
What distinguishes Lighthouse’s projects is its apartment finishes and efficient amenity packages.
“I always had an appreciation for interior design,” he said. “Even as a kid, I’d pay attention to the design of various hotels and other people’s homes, and read architectural design magazines. I also used to help my mom lay out rooms on graph paper. Who knew I would be doing that on a much larger scale 30 years later?”
Even more important is not going overboard on amenities the tenants won’t need.
“Our philosophy is to spend more on the unit itself and make them slightly bigger than the rest of the market, while not building superfluous, unnecessary amenities,” he described. “People spend most of their time in their apartment. We offer what’s necessary — a nice lobby, coffee station, gym, maybe a roof deck or business center space if possible.”
For example, 1 DeKalb Avenue in White Plains offers tech-enabled, hospitality-like amenities, including a media wall, fully equipped fitness center and a rooftop oasis with lounge seating, barbeque grills and greenspace where the company hosts community building events.
The Duet, a boutique apartment community located in downtown White Plains, features the ButterflyMX Virtual Concierge system which connects video directly to residents’ cell phone, allowing them to provide guests entry remotely. Other amenities include a fitness studio, private club and rooftop space.
After the first two projects, more opportunities arose as financing be- came easier, including developments in New Jersey and Connecticut. The developments became larger, too, as properties grew from 10 units to more than 200.
But there were lessons along the way. Mann’s first developments were constructed with a modular method, with his company handling site work, the façade and the foundation. The modular company did the rest. That resulted in a number of properties needing remedial work that has since been completed. By his sixth project, and already with a team of five, he knew he needed to change his system.
“We looked at the designs and started quantifying the different materials and trades,” Mann recalled. “We saw it would be much cheaper to build conventionally. That way we could control the schedule and the quality. No more crooked light switches or wobbly toilets. Now, nine years later with a team of 20, we have very few maintenance issues.”
With each project, Lighthouse Living becomes more sophisticated and assured. In time, it jumped next door to Connecticut, opening The Westporter, with apartments and townhomes for rent — with luxury amenities including private two-car garages and dedicated indoor electric car charging. Coming soon is the Abendroth, offering 204 apartments with 25,000 square feet of ground floor retail at 169 North Main St. in Port Chester, New York.
The greatest leap came when Mann was visiting his brother, who had relocated to Greenville, South Carolina and thought he’d found a potential site. The expected culture shock never came as David found a city with nightlife and strong planning.
“We drove downtown, and I was blown away at how pretty the city was and the interconnectedness of the zoning. Clearly, that municipality put great thought into development,” he said. “I was impressed by how much the city cares about the pedestrian and the experience. They created a whole city with that live/work/play concept, not just segregating zoning uses. Greenville felt like a much larger city than it actually was. The city was vibrant and busy day and night.”
Mann was able to procure two acres in the center of the city center within two months of first visiting, and ultimately closed on the four parcels in late 2018. Challenges included moving a historic building, the home and clinic for Dr. E.E. McLaren, an African American physician who treated Black patients while white hospitals refused medical treatment to African Americans during the Jim Crow era. The clinic was moved 70 feet toward the main thoroughfare and is now a cultural museum. Paying homage to the doctor, Mann named the 10-story apartment building The McLaren. Though delayed because of the pandemic, the property includes 246 apartments and 26,000 square feet of office space.
“We are 65% occupied and hope to be stabilized by the end of the year,” Mann said.
Two more projects are in the works in Fairfield County, Connecticut, as Mann keeps an eye on opportunities in the Tri-state and Southeast. And there is more to come.
“I have a great team around me and a lot of bandwidth available. We’re excited to grow over the next 10 years. My goal is to build several 200-unit projects annually,” Mann said. “Lighthouse has in fact grown to become a major developer in the Tri-state area — and regional. And I feel I’ve only just gotten started.”
