Commercial Real Estate Coaching

My commercial real estate company Van Gogh Development Corporation will be offering coaching and mentoring on commercial real estate development this spring to interested investors. O.Thomas Harper who founded VGDC in 1994 will be offering these services, with assistance from some of the many commercial contractors with whom he has worked.

If you want to know more, please attend our FREE general orientation session this coming Thursday, April 3 from 4-5p in North Seattle. The meeting will be held at Evergreen Home Loans located at 9709 3rd Avenue NE, Ste 115, Seattle. There is free 2 hour parking available as well.

O. Thomas Harper graduated from West Bremerton High School, and from Seattle University with a BA in Economics. He was a Small Business Administration loan officer for five years, and then Principal and Project Manager for Directions Development Design Corporation. His responsibilities there included Pre Purchase Site Analysis, Site Acquisition, Selection of Development Team ( architectural, engineering, scientific, contractor, lenders, permitting process, marketing, etc) for the following types of real estate projects: Single family housing, apartments, condominiums, mixed use and small office development.

He founded Van Gogh Development Corporation in 1994, for the purpose of acquiring and developing real estate. In 1995, Van Gogh Development Corporation purchased a site in the Beacon Hill neighborhood,located on N.W. Corner of 15th Avenue South and South Lucille Street. Environmental testing revealed the site had a hydrocarbon remediation issue because of its former use as a Chevron Gas Station. With the assistance of the Chevron Oil Company of California VGDC was able to mitigate the hydrocarbon issue and attain approval from the State of Washington, Department of Ecology to proceed to site development. VGDC attained a Master Use Permit for 25 Apartments and 3,000 square feet of retail commercial space from the City of Seattle, and then sold the land and Master Use Permit to an investment group.

In 2000, VGDC purchased another site in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The subject site had two sensitive area environmental issues, wetlands and a steep hillside. Van Gogh Development mitigated both environmental issues, and attained Master Use Permits from the City of Seattle for two buildings with a total of 150 apartment units, before selling the site along with the Master Use Permits to a investor/developer in August 2012.

Wendy Ceccherelli joined as a principal in 2013, to explore new opportunities in south Seattle. Our current project, Van Gogh Lofts, is a 40,000sf mixed use commercial development 1/2 block east of the Rainier Beach Light Rail Station in Seattle. There will be approximately 34 units of residential live-work units for artists and other creative entrepreneurs, and 2000sf of ground floor commercial retail space.

This coaching/mentoring opportunity is not a solicitation for funding, partnership nor equity in the Van Gogh Lofts project. However, we will certainly be using this project as an example of commercial development for our clients wanting to learn more about commercial real estate development in general through the training, coaching and mentoring we will offer. Additional speakers and trainers will come from the professionals with whom we work.

For more information, please email wendy@vangoghdev.com, 425-270-7292.

Happy investing!