Manager, Acquisitions

Position Summary

The Manager, Acquisitions sources and secures the land and existing assets that feed DF Development's pipeline. This seat owns deal flow from first look through closing: market research, site identification, broker and landowner relationships, preliminary underwriting, letters of intent, and due diligence management.

This is a deal-facing individual contributor role with no direct reports at hire. The person in this seat works alongside DF Development's project management team, Capital Markets, Forge Construction preconstruction, and Vector Design Group to confirm that a site pencils before the company commits capital.

Key Responsibilities

• Market research and site identification
• Track submarket fundamentals — rent growth, absorption, supply pipeline, employment drivers, demographics — across assigned target markets.
• Identify and screen land and existing assets that fit DF's multifamily, senior living, and industrial criteria.
• Build and maintain relationships with land brokers, investment sales brokers, landowners, municipal staff, and economic development officials.
• Maintain a written pipeline of tracked sites with status, control path, and next action.
• Underwriting and deal screening
• Build preliminary underwriting models: land basis, unit or square-foot yield, development budget assumptions, rent and expense comps, exit assumptions, and return metrics.
• Coordinate preliminary cost input from Forge preconstruction and program input from Vector before a site advances.
• Prepare investment screening memos and present go/no-go recommendations to the development and capital markets leadership.
• Stress-test assumptions on interest rates, construction cost movement, and lease-up timing.
• Deal structuring and closing
• Negotiate letters of intent and purchase and sale agreements in coordination with Legal.
• Manage the contract calendar: feasibility periods, extensions, deposit milestones, and closing deadlines.
• Coordinate title, survey, environmental, geotechnical, wetlands, utility, and zoning due diligence, and resolve findings that affect value or schedule.
• Support Capital Markets with the diligence materials needed for debt and equity placement.
• Entitlements and handoff
• Assess zoning, entitlement risk, and approval timelines during diligence, and define the path to a buildable site.
• Support rezoning, variance, and site plan submittals alongside the development and Vector teams.
• Hand off closed sites to the assigned Development Manager with a complete deal file and documented assumptions.
• Internal coordination
• Keep pipeline and deal status current in company reporting and present at pipeline reviews.
• Contribute market intelligence that shapes where DF pursues new development.

Requirements

Qualifications

• Required
• Bachelor's degree in real estate, finance, business, urban planning, or a related field.
• Four or more years in real estate acquisitions, development, land brokerage, investment sales, or development finance.
• Demonstrated involvement in closed land or income-producing acquisitions, with a track record the candidate can walk through deal by deal.
• Working command of Excel-based development and cash flow modeling, including IRR, yield on cost, and sensitivity analysis.
• Familiarity with purchase and sale agreements, title commitments, surveys, and third-party environmental and geotechnical reports.
• Willingness to travel to target markets and to work in the Jeffersonville office.
• Valid driver's license.
• Preferred
• Experience with ground-up multifamily, senior living, or industrial development.
• Existing broker and landowner relationships in respective markets.
• Direct experience carrying a site through rezoning or entitlement approvals.
• Experience at a vertically integrated developer where construction and design sat in house.