Sharon Solomon is a principal at Northlake Development Group, a family office development business with a pipeline of residential and multifamily projects across Santa Fe, New Mexico and South Florida. At Northlake, Sharon leads development strategy, capital planning, and partnership structuring, building the firm alongside her two sons as a multi-generational platform.

Prior to launching Northlake, Sharon spent 25 years in financial services, including 11 years at RBC Capital Markets, where she served as US Head of Brand and Client Strategy. Before RBC, she was a member of the executive team at Carlin Financial Group and a founder of predecessor firm Nextgen Trading. She began her career as a Product Manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Sharon is a CPA and holds a BS in Accounting from Brooklyn College.

Insights from Sharon Solomon on Finding the Right Development Partners

Sharon Solomon spent two years getting to know a Dallas-based developer before structuring a JV for a 430-unit multifamily project in Santa Fe. She needed a partner with experience in mountain west markets who was also willing to share decision-making with a family that wanted to be deeply involved. That combination took time to find, and the structure they built together reflects it.

Not every project in her pipeline needed that same approach. In Naples, she hired a local developer as a consultant and brought in a builder with deep roots in the market. In Titusville, a planned JV converted into a fee builder arrangement when the structure didn't make sense. The thread across all of them is matching the partnership to what each project actually requires, and making sure the people involved are incentivized well enough to treat it like their own.

In this episode of The Dealmakers' Edge, Aaron Strauss and Sharon discuss how she evaluates what kind of partnership each project needs, why cutting a developer's fees can backfire on the project they're building for you, and how she's building a multi-generational development business with her two sons designed to outlast any single deal.

1:25 - Growing up in a family of Holocaust survivors and starting at Brooklyn College

5:05 - Starting in New Jersey with value-add rentals and Airbnb units

7:05 - Bringing her sons in and committing to a multi-generational development business

10:50 - The Santa Fe assemblage and why Los Alamos job growth drove the thesis

12:35 - Spending two years getting to know RCR before structuring the JV

14:10 - The Hutchinson Island oceanfront assemblage and looking for the right partner

16:01 - Titusville and a planned JV that converted into a fee builder arrangement

18:06 - Decision-making rights and negotiating co-developer status

22:17 - Getting ahead of Opportunity Zone 2.0 before the next designations 

25:37 - Managing the ups and downs of development over years and decades

Mentioned In Finding the Right Partners and Building for Generations with Sharon Solomon

Northlake Development Group | LinkedIn

Sharon Solomon on LinkedIn

Enjoy the show? Have a guest in mind?  Email us at [email protected] to let us know your feedback and who you want to hear on the next episode. 

Connect with Aaron and the A.Y. Strauss team:

• Our website (www.AYStrauss.com)  
• Aaron's website bio page  (Aaron's bio page) 
• Aaron's LinkedIn account (LinkedIn) 
• Our Twitter account (@AYStrauss)