Asked what Uncommon Developers seeks to bring about with its mixed-use and multifamily projects, co-founder Ryan Hekmat replied, “job creation.” More broadly, Hekmat told Connect CRE that the goal is to grow the local communities surrounding the projects. “Our focus is to create environments that strengthen communities economically and socially through housing, opportunity, public spaces, and experiences that elevate quality of life,” he said. 

Hekmat will be among the experts taking the stage for the “Development: Block by Block, Project by Project” panel discussion at Connect CRE Los Angeles 2026, scheduled for Thursday afternoon at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown. As a preview of the panel, he provided insights into his company’s community-building approach. The company is a vertically integrated real estate platform that handles acquisition, entitlement, design, construction, and property management in-house across an LA–focused portfolio of multifamily, mixed-use, and large-scale development projects. 

A case in point is The 24, built on the site of a former Los Angeles Times printing facility in Chatsworth. “On the 24-acre campus, nearly five acres are dedicated to outdoor living, including dog parks, a community garden, four pools, walking paths, basketball and pickleball courts, a citrus grove, outdoor movie theater, and expansive community green spaces,” Hekmat said. “Every day, the campus comes alive with families gathering, neighbors connecting, and residents enjoying an active, vibrant lifestyle together.

“And the news gets even better—we are currently working on opening an on-campus preschool to truly offer a one-of-a-kind live, work, play, and grow experience,” he continued.

Beyond the outdoor amenities, The 24 offers elevated spaces for work, collaboration, and connection, including dedicated work lounges, conference rooms, and reservable event spaces designed for productivity, community, and modern living.

Development can require reserves of patience, fortitude and persistence, and it’s not a coincidence that both city and state governments have sought to streamline the approvals process in recent years. However, Hekmat believes such initiatives are undercut by red tape and a lack of coordination elsewhere in the system. “It’s not the straightforward things that these entitlement and new legislative rules account for; it’s the ancillary things that need to be dialed in,” he said. 

Take fee schedules, for example. “The changes in costs, like impact fees or the school fees, create instability and destroy underwriting for projects,” said Hekmat. “If we have that underwriting from the beginning of the project, we can see if the deal makes sense. But even a dollar-per-square-foot change in the school fees can destroy a project. So that stability is something that is tantamount to success” in a development project. 

Conversely, the company is positioned to capitalize on dislocations in the market. “We look at the turmoil and the difficulty in financing these projects and all the instability in local and state codes as an opportunity for us to grow,” Hekmat said. “We have been doing everything that we can to keep our eye on the markets and look for deals based on other people’s inability to make things work and we’re very disciplined. We’re able to take advantage of being vertically integrated and developing with modular [construction], which enables us to grow at a basis that makes sense even when there is turmoil in the market.” 

On May 28, Connect Los Angeles brings together 600+ high-level owners, investors, developers, brokers, and lenders shaping the region’s market for a full day of insights and networking. Be in the room with decision-makers driving deals across LA, SoCal and the nation—register now: www.connectLA26.com

Preconstruction requires a well-oiled machine, with each part functioning optimally. While on-site challenges are inevitable, proper planning from a committed team can navigate these bumps in the road.

Preconstruction is particularly important for ensuring structural integrity and reducing costs for wood framing, a construction technique in which lumber is used for a building’s skeletal structure. 

Colt Builders, a prominent wood framing company, specializes in prefabrication and stick framing for multifamily, student housing, hospitality and senior living properties.

Colt Builders CEO Glen Yates said the firm’s strong company culture has helped it weather tough storms, such as in 2021, when demand for wood frame homes increased but lumber prices were at record numbers and supply chain volatility caused many construction challenges. 

“We’ve had staying power for two decades because of our integrity, honoring commitments and attracting great people who believe in delivering and executing at a high level,” he said. “Even when things don’t always go as planned, we run to the problem instead of running away from it.” 

The Colt Builders team walked Bisnow through how it has maintained this momentum through its run-to-the-problem mentality and its outlook on the future. 

Colt Builders’ hands-on approach to quality control, safety and speed begins well before the company does anything on-site. Colt Builders Chief Development Officer Janusz Sakowicz said that creating a flow to the project and removing obstacles before labor gets to the jobsite is a “critical element.” 

“We control labor by controlling the inputs,” he said. “The timing of when we win the work, the quality of preconstruction and our own discipline of operating and planning are elements that allow us to control it. When those things are managed well, execution becomes much more predictable, which is our secret sauce of how we control labor costs.” 

An In-House Team That Can Identify Problems 

Another key factor to Colt Builders’ success is a dedicated in-house team that can handle the job from start to finish while troubleshooting problems. 

Colt Builders structural engineer Tres Warner, who is also the director of its preconstruction and advisory services department, said the company’s ability to identify roadblocks before a job goes into production helps ensure project success. 

“Our team’s preconstruction department is about doing more upfront work, such as reviewing the site drawings and identifying problems between architectural and structural items that may not be identified,” he said. 

This process includes firewall assemblies, fire-retardant-treated lumber requirements, hardware optimization and efficient structural detailing, where Colt Builders’ experience can help save valuable construction dollars, he said. Colt also emphasizes coordination with architectural, structural, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing trades, helping to reduce requests for information and change orders and shortening construction schedules.

Although a construction problem can’t always be avoided, it is important to catch it early, because “identifying it late may cost 10 times as much,” Warner said. 

Colt Builders was called for a 307-unit, 307K SF multifamily project in Charlotte where there was an on-site problem with drilling post-installed concrete screw anchors into post-tensioned slabs, fastening the property’s walls to finished concrete.

Warner said the problem was the team had been drilling in the wrong place, potentially costing the client hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs due to extensive structural damage, such as broken concrete, ripped cables and a ruptured PT slab.

The team quickly identified the issue and used powder-actuated fasteners, or PAFs, which are specialized nails that are used to fasten into concrete. Warner said that while PAFs are commonly used in nonstructural applications, Colt Builders’ approach to using PAFs for load-bearing walls and shear walls has been successful.

“We supplied engineering calculations showing structural equivalency between PAFs, post-installed anchors and cast-in-place anchors,” he said. “The result was a safer project with higher production rates and lower costs. PAFs also eliminated the need for X-ray scanning of the slab and reliance on the concrete subcontractor to accurately place cast-in-place anchor bolts.”

Another project that utilized Colt Builders’ problem-solving skills was a 361-unit, four-story multifamily complex in Littleton, Colorado. 

Colt Builders provided value engineering services, backed by engineering calculations. The project documents originally required several hundred linear feet of engineered wood products, wood stud bearing walls for the lowest level. Sakowicz said that his team reviewed the work and discovered that the structural engineer had designed the stud walls for the “worst-case condition.”

“Some walls were taller than others, and some walls utilized two-by-four studs while others used two-by-six studs,” Sakowicz said. “Through our vendor, Technical Framing Solutions, we were able to analyze and optimize the stud bearing wall requirements, saving the project $150K.”

Outlook For The Future

Looking ahead, Colt Builders sees more opportunity to simplify wood framing construction by reducing field variability and creating more predictable outcomes through utilizing technology like building information modeling to dissect project plans during the design stage. Sakowicz said that the company’s vision for the future is to leverage artificial intelligence to help identify and resolve constructability issues ahead of getting on the jobsite. 

“We invest time and effort into looking into new ways of harnessing AI and bringing it to our reality,” Sakowicz said. “While AI could help us streamline some of the things that are coming through our door, we will always rely on the experience of our team to verify the accuracy and reliability of estimates.”

Colt is also expanding into more design-assist services, helping its clients in the schematic/development phase. Warner said that this is a service that many of Colt’s competitors don’t offer and the company’s extensive construction knowledge can help guide owners, architects, engineers, contractors and U.S. subcontractors.

“A lot of times we see drawings that are crazy and have unconstructible and expensive details,” he said. “The earlier we can get involved, the sooner we can eliminate these issues.”

Yates is excited for the company’s future. The company is looking into more untapped opportunities like the Midwest, but doing so with the same care that has helped it stand out in the market.

“We want to continue to provide an amazing customer experience while empowering people in our company,” he said. “Aligning our customer base to our values will help us continue to grow as we expand into new markets.” 

Join Colt Builders at Bisnow’s Dallas-Fort Worth BMAC event on May 12, where executives will speak on the state of the multifamily market in DFW with other leading CRE experts. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Colt Builders and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.