🎙️ Local Real Estate Developers

How does real estate development actually shape a city? And who gets to decide what stays and what changes? In this episode, Nicole Waters shares what it’s like to operate at the center of explosive growth in St. Pete. From working with developers and city officials to protecting local businesses, she breaks down the real dynamics behind community development. This is not theory. This is what it l...

What if the difference between staying stuck… and building something real… was just one decision to keep going? He wasn’t born into development. No big breaks. No shortcuts. Just a garage apartment, a wife working nonstop, and a guy laying brick for $12 an hour trying to figure it out one job at a time. In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Austin Tunnell to unpack the unfiltered reali...

What if the deal you’ve been chasing is one message away from changing everything In this episode, Kristi and Raphael pull back the curtain on what real development actually looks like behind the scenes. No polished case studies. No overnight wins. Just two active developers in the trenches sharing live updates from their own projects, the wins, the delays, the risks, and the moments where things...

What happens when a laid-off mom straps her baby to her back and decides to start rolling graham crackers by hand? For Rachel DesRochers, it turned into a 16-year journey of building businesses, empowering women, and creating one of the Midwest’s most impactful food entrepreneur ecosystems. In this episode of the Local Real Estate Developer Podcast, Kristi Kandel and Raphael Collazo sit down with...

What if the problem isn’t the developer… but the story no one told before the vote? In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Jon Jon Wasolowski, better known online as The Happy Urbanist, a Chattanooga local who is not a developer, not a city planner, but somehow became one of the most influential voices shaping how his city grows. From single stair reform to accessory dwelling units, fro...

What if the deal you keep driving past is not too risky… it is just waiting on you to believe in it? In this episode of the Local Real Estate Developer Podcast, Dana McMahan shares the real story behind acquiring and transforming a 16-unit building in Louisville. No trust fund. No institutional backing. Just a cashed-out 401k, equity from her personal home, and the willingness to bet on herself. W...

What if real estate stopped extracting from communities and started healing them? In this episode of the Local Real Estate Developer Podcast, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Neal Collins to unpack one of the most honest and unconventional development journeys we have heard. Neal did not grow up dreaming of commercial real estate. He started in the Peace Corps, worked in global community developme...

Most people wait until they feel ready. Steph Weber bought land and learned on the fly. What started as curiosity about real estate turned into a hands-on crash course in zoning, city processes, design decisions, and risk. Steph did not come from a development background. She learned by doing, asking questions, and staying in the room even when things felt overwhelming. In this episode, Kristi and...

What if the people shaping your neighborhood actually lived there? Desmond Dunn didn’t grow up knowing he could be a real estate developer. No one in his community looked like him who was building anything. So he taught himself. For ten years. Nights on Zillow. Deep dives into zoning code. Sketching site plans at the kitchen table while everyone else was out living life. In this episode, Kristi an...

What would it take for you to walk away from a 14-year corporate career with no clear plan and bet on yourself? For Dedria Kolb, it was the pull to build something real. In this episode of the Local Real Estate Developers Podcast, Kristi sits down with Dedria Kolb, a former corporate attorney turned first-time developer who left the legal grind to build a tiny home village in rural North Carolina....

What if the deal you keep driving past is not too risky… it is just waiting on you to believe in it? In this episode of the Local Real Estate Developer Podcast, Dana McMahan shares the real story behind acquiring and transforming a 16-unit building in Louisville. No trust fund. No institutional backing. Just a cashed-out 401k, equity from her personal home, and the willingness to bet on herself. W...

Local development is not just about finding deals. It is about people, trust, and choosing the right kind of capital. In this episode, Kristi Kandel and Raphael Collazo sit down for an in person conversation about what it really takes to scale local development while staying true to your mission. From juggling hundreds of moving parts in a development to deciding when to bring in partners, they br...

Most people look at San Diego and say, “It’s too expensive.” Brian Koons looked at it and said, “There has to be a smarter way.” From serving in the military to house hacking, ADUs, and small-scale infill development, Brian didn’t break into real estate with big money or shortcuts. He built it one disciplined decision at a time in one of the toughest markets in the country. In this episode, Kristi...

After years glued to a screen building income through social media, Christopher Oester hit a breaking point. He was burned out. Tired. And looking for a way to turn short term hustle into something real. So he took a leap. A big one. In this episode of the Local Real Estate Developer Podcast, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Chris to unpack what it actually looks like to jump into ground up develo...

What if the people closest to you can’t see the vision you’re building… but you know deep down you’re right? In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Jacqueline DiMaggio, a designer-turned-developer who’s quietly building a hospitality ecosystem in rural Wisconsin. What started as two Airbnbs with a pond and a beach turned into land acquisitions, a multi-phase farmhouse project, and a gro...

If you’ve been rocking with us all year, listening, learning, sending messages, showing up every week, thank you. Truly. In this short but powerful episode, Kristi and Raphael pull back the curtain and share what this podcast is really about: not big-money developers, not corporate initiatives, but locals with grit who are stepping up to shape their cities one project at a time. It’s a thank-you,...

What happens when life knocks you flat, your business burns you out, and your next move isn’t obvious? Most people wait for clarity. Alan Underwood started building anyway. In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Alan, a high-performance coach and real estate developer who went from owning restaurants to reshaping his entire life around purpose, discipline, and community-focused developm...

What happens when your first big project goes sideways, the money runs tight, and every choice feels like the wrong one? Most people quit. Brett McManus didn’t. In this raw and unfiltered conversation, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Brett McManus, a local developer who learned the business the hard way by getting punched in the mouth on his very first project. Brett walks through how a simple in...

What if the biggest housing crisis of our lifetime isn’t a policy problem… but a leadership problem? And what if the next wave of community builders won’t come from corporate boardrooms, but from people who actually care about the places they live? In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Evan Holladay, founder of Holladay Ventures, a developer who went from a curious college student to b...

Most people wait for the perfect moment. Jeremiah Parker ran toward the fire instead. Before he ever closed a deal, Jeremiah spent years as a career firefighter, working long shifts, responding under pressure, and learning how to stay calm when everything around him was chaos. Those skills followed him into real estate, where he started as a broker, stacked reps, and eventually stepped into develo...

Most people look at development and see something out of reach. Katie Neason looked at it and asked a different question: What if becoming a developer is less about expertise and more about identity? In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Katie for a grounded, brutally honest look at what it really takes to build where you live. From navigating infill projects and fighting “analysis par...

What if the key to success wasn’t more but meaning? After building hundreds of millions in real estate, Meg Epstein could’ve stopped at wealth. But as she tells Kristi and Raphael, money without purpose leads to misery, a truth she learned firsthand in Los Angeles, surrounded by the rich and unhappy. Now based in Nashville, Meg has turned her focus toward freedom, purpose, and people, building pro...

What happens when you stop waiting for big developers to show up and start building for your own community? In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Anne Pollack, a seasoned land use and zoning attorney in St. Petersburg, Florida, who’s helped shape some of the city’s most complex redevelopment projects. Anne doesn’t just know the rules, she teaches local developers how to use them to the...

What if the future of your town depended on you? Jason Duff didn’t wait for investors or city hall to fix his fading downtown. He bought one empty building, turned it into a spark, and built a movement that brought life and $40 million of reinvestment back to his hometown of Bellefontaine, Ohio. In this episode, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Jason to unpack the real, boots-on-the-ground story b...

What if your first real estate deal wasn’t a rental or a flip… but a hotel? Most people would call that insane. Hannah Corbacio called it a challenge worth taking. In this episode of Local Real Estate Developers, Kristi and Raphael sit down with Hannah Corbacio, a first-time developer who alongside her husband took on a 200-year-old historic bank building and is transforming it into The Rosalia Ho...