Book excerpt: "This book provides a concise summary of the real estate development process, allowing the reader to learn the fundamentals and details of development outside of the sink-or-swim environment of a particular project. The goal of the book is to provide young developers, attorneys and debt and equity associates of the future an in-depth behind the scenes view of the dynamic real estate development world, including how developers make money and how development companies are structured, locating and contracting to purchase a project location, financial analysis, the design and development process, securing project financing and ultimately refinancing or selling the project. Although the early discussions center around multifamily apartment developments, the idiosyncrasies of retail, office, hotels, seniors' and mixed-use projects are described in later chapters. Among other covered topics, this book explains the research necessary to find an acceptable site and how to acquire the site (including land purchases, ground leases and joint ventures with landowners); initial and later stage evaluation of project performance including debt and equity financing metrics; agreements with architects and contractors; the various development phases; project financing and the capital stack, including alternative forms of financing; and project sale or refinance. Professionals involved in real estate development use a large number of acronyms and industry standard terms that are unrecognizable to the novice, and a handy guide to this terminology is included in the Glossary of Terms"--