Marina Kote
“I am a big believer that if you sincerely show care to people and you give people a purpose, they will willingly want to help and do the work.”
#WomenWhoBuild meet Marina Kote!
Marina is a Structural Engineer with a decade of experience, a real estate advisor with Nest Seekers International, and a CEO of her own development firm Kotelux Development. ArchNative sat down with Marina to discuss how the skills she learned in school translated out into the field, her day to day during her time as a structural engineer, her role as a real estate advisor for Nest Seekers, and the challenges and triumphs of starting her own company.
What was your first introduction to the Real Estate Brokerage field? What made you decide to pursue it as a career?
My first introduction into real estate brokerage was over a couple of years ago while working on my first residential tower in Long Island City. I was managing the construction on one of three towers at Jackson Park developed by Tishman Speyer. I started the project during preconstruction and foresaw it to completion. During this time the sales team at Jackson Park established an onsite office and began to market and sell the units before construction was even complete. Being able to work with them so closely and see how the whole process unfolds is when my interest ignited. Pursing real estate brokerage was the next logical step in the timeline of my career. I wanted to understand and master the entire process and cycle of development. I obtained my Master’s Degree in Structural Engineering at Manhattan College and was able to design buildings, then I worked in construction management at Turner Construction and began to build buildings, and now I am working in new development sales with Nest Seekers. What I love most about real estate is how intricate it all is. To be a good broker you need to understand construction, design, trends, sales, and how to interconnect with people.
567 Ocean/ Nest Seekers/ New Empire Corp Developer
You hold a Bachelor of Engineering from Manhattan College. How did the skills you learned during your schooling translate into the field?
Getting my engineering degree has helped me in all aspects of my life. The definition of an engineer is “someone who solves problems” and no matter what career path I pursue the end goal is always to solve a problem for someone. When you’re working on the construction side, you have a set of plans that you facilitate to fruition and the problem is how you do that in the most cost effective way while staying on schedule. In real estate brokerage, you have an Owner who wants to develop a couple hundred unit new development and the problem is how do you market and position that building to stand out amongst the rest, and sell it out in record time while getting the best and highest value for your client. My schooling also prepared me with so much life management skills and the ability to handle such an intensive workload at one time.
181 Mercer/ NYU
You joined the Turner Construction Company early on in your career. Can you tell us a little bit about your time in Construction Management? What did your day to day look like? What skills did you obtain during this time that you currently use for your own company?
I started interning with Turner Construction back in 2012 and I have been with them for over a decade. My two most prominent projects were Jackson Park by Tishman Speyer, a $600 Million Dollar project, and 181 Mercer by NYU, an $880 Million Dollar project. I also did a notable project over at Manhattan West with Brookfield Properties. Throughout my years there I managed everything from the architectural trades, to mechanical trades, to scheduling, and budget as well. I would start my days in the field at 6:30 – 7am, check the innumerous amount of emails I would get in a day, walk the field, check shop drawings, address field condition issues, and attend meeting after meeting until 6pm. There are a few major skills that I learned at Turner that I want to implement into my own company. The first is to never limit people’s abilities and to continue to help people grow and evolve into the best person, employee, or mentor they can be. The second is how to manage people. I am a big believer that if you sincerely show care to people and you give people a purpose, they will willingly want to help and do the work. The last major skill I learned, especially in managing a project or running a company, is budgeting. No matter what industry you are in, financials will always impact you. It is imperative to keep an organized tight budget to make sure you have funding, profits, and that people are getting paid.
Jackson Park/ Tishman Speyer
You are the CEO of Kotelux Development. What made you decide to start your own company? What has been your process in setting yourself up for success?
Starting my own company has been something that I have always dreamt of doing since I was young. I used to sit home and sketch by hand future homes that I wanted to build and then I would take those drawings and transpose them on to AutoCAD hoping one day they would come to fruition. I needed to first go through all of these years of design and construction in order to be able to create my own projects. That passion still burns inside of me and I want to take the time now to build up my company. To me a home is your sanctuary and that is why I want to build new developments with quality construction and with the home owner in mind. It’s about listening to people, understand their needs, and providing my clients with a home that is custom to them. The company is still very young. All of my focus is going into setting up the right team of builders, contractors, and investors.
You are also a Real Estate Advisor for Nest Seekers International. Can you tell us a little bit about that role?
I work with such an amazing team at Nest Seekers for the New Development Group. The team is structured with agents that have years of real estate experience and knowledge. Our firm has sold over $30 Billion over the last decade, largely in new development, and our team is currently selling $4 Billion worth of New Development inventory. We are an international firm and we are everywhere. Our team provides our clients with market analysis, launch strategies, an insane social media outreach platform that reaches almost 10 million people, and the ability to showcase our developments across major media platforms.
“My advice to someone that wants to start a career in construction is to get out in the field. Construction management has so many different aspects to it from budgeting, to procurement, to scheduling, but the glue that keeps all this together is to know how to build. You should seek a mentor, a builder, and shadow them through the day every day.”
How do you ensure that you are constantly growing and learning in the industry?
I think, first and foremost, you need to have a desire to continue to grow and learn. Every day is a new day, every day brings a new challenge, every day the market is constant changing. I make sure to position myself with great mentors’ whose wisdom I can acquire. In addition, I read… a lot. I read The Real Deal, Inman News, The New York Times, as well as Architectural Digest.
What has been your biggest triumph so far in your career? What has been your biggest challenge?
My biggest triumph has been having the courage to leave my corporate salaried job to pursue my dream and become my own CEO. This has been the biggest triumph for me because it takes a lot of certainty in yourself to leave something stable. You need to trust yourself, your ethics, and your work habits. It has been very challenging and I know the major challenges have not even begun yet but I am excited to see where the future unfolds with real estate and development.
What is your advice for someone considering a career in Construction? What is your advice for someone looking to start their own business?
My advice to someone that wants to start a career in construction is to get out in the field. Construction management has so many different aspects to it from budgeting, to procurement, to scheduling, but the glue that keeps all this together is to know how to build. You should seek a mentor, a builder, and shadow them through the day every day. When I first started years ago, one of my mentors told me “80% of the work is showing up, the rest will take care of itself”. I truly believe if you show up you will figure out the rest. And that same logic applies to someone looking to start their own business. It’s going to be hard and there are going to be so many things you don’t know and so many moments and days where you want to give up. But giving up is not going to get you any closer to your goal and you have to push through those moments and enjoy the hardship. The hardship will be there more than the good times but it will be worth it.