Where real estate meets rhythm | Developer, investor, live music enthusiast, and mountain seeker.

By Daniel Kaufman This year has been a full throttle ride — working with smart real-estate developers across land acquisition, zoning & entitlements, cost reduction, value engineering and subcontractor networks. I spend most days knee-deep in zoning maps, procurement spreadsheets, blueprint revisions and builder punch-lists… and though I’m busy, I’m always happy to help. Here’s a summary of how I’ve been delivering for developers this year — from raw land to realized margin. 1) Finding the Right Piece of Land for Townhomes & Apartments One of the first steps in any development is securing the right parcel. Early this year I worked with a developer focused on suburban infill townhomes. Together we: scouted several 10-acre sites in growth markets where rents and absorption looked strong modelled unit count, circulation, parking, storm-water constraints landed on a 9.8-acre site that allowed 72 townhomes with strong frontage and amenity potential negotiated the purchase with an LO...

When I look back at my early years in real estate and construction, the 1990s stand out as the decade that defined my professional foundation. Between 1992 and 2000, I was working as an electrician, earning my degree in architecture, and spending every free hour investing in and restoring old homes across Detroit and other post-industrial cities like Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. These were cities with incredible bones—neighborhoods lined with early 20th-century architecture, built by craftsmen who believed in permanence. But decades of economic decline had left many of those homes vacant and forgotten. Where others saw blight, I saw opportunity and history worth saving. My construction background gave me the technical confidence to take on projects others avoided. I understood systems, structure, and wiring—but I was equally drawn to how buildings could be reimagined. My architectural studies helped me think beyond repair and toward design—toward how a building could serve both ...

It looks like housing is finally taking center stage in Washington again. The Trump administration is reportedly weighing the idea of declaring a national housing emergency this fall — a move that would mark a major shift in how the federal government approaches affordability and supply. According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the administration is exploring a range of options aimed at tackling the affordability crisis and boosting housing supply. Speaking with The Washington Examiner, Bessent said the team is looking at ways to standardize local zoning and building codes, reduce closing costs, and even roll back tariffs on construction materials — all part of a broader effort to make homes more attainable. While the administration says it doesn’t want to “step into the business” of state and local governments, Bessent also made clear that everything is on the table. And that includes keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates further, which remain elevated. F...

When you build in gigawatts instead of megawatts, the questions aren’t just about engineering—they’re about money, politics, and timing. That’s what makes Project Stargate the most fascinating (and concerning) infrastructure initiative I’ve seen in years. Scale: From Big to Ludicrous Since its White House debut earlier this year, Stargate has ballooned in scope. What started as 1.2 GW of planned capacity at a $12 billion Texas site has quickly multiplied: 4.5 GW here, 7 GW there, announcements in the U.S., UK, UAE, and even Norway. The ambition isn’t incremental—it’s exponential. In July, Oracle and OpenAI confirmed 4.5 GW of new capacity (on top of the original site), backed by two million Nvidia GPUs. Then in September, Oracle’s stock jumped 30% after revealing a cloud backlog north of $500 billion—later tied in part to a jaw-dropping $300 billion OpenAI commitment. To put it in real estate developer terms: this is like announcing you’ll build Manhattan, then immediately promising to...