Three Make It Big in a Man’s World : Women Rise to Top in Real Estate Scene
Women have climbed to the top in medicine, law, accounting and many other areas of business in the past 10 years.
But one field has remained tough to crack: real estate development, where there are few women who own their real estate companies or are partners in development firms.
A real estate developer is a deal-maker and a risk-taker and needs vision to see a high-rise office building, an apartment complex or a community of single-family homes on empty land where most people simply see dirt.
A successful developer must deal with a myriad of people through the lengthy development process--real estate brokers, property owners, lenders, government officials and community groups.
Janay Kruger, Julie Dillon and Maureen L. O’Connor are three of the few San Diego women who have made it in this tough, competitive, male-dominated industry.
JANAY KRUGER
For three years, Kruger, 44 and an 18-year veteran of the construction and real estate business, has headed her own company, Kruger Development.
Married when she was still in her teens, Kruger found herself at the age of 24 a single mother with two children to support.
For eight years, she worked for Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics. Then she became the secretary and bookkeeper for Odmark Welch Co., a San Diego development firm, where she eventually was promoted to treasurer. She was also in charge of government affairs, which required getting the necessary approvals for construction projects from the state Department of Real Estate and other government bodies.
After several years there, Kruger moved to the Baldwin Co., where she was vice president of sales and marketing for five years. She later spent four years as a vice president of Baramelea Ltd., where she handled land acquisition, development, government affairs and marketing in all parts of the real estate industry--office, retail and residential.
These two positions required her to commute every day to Orange County from San Diego.
Despite the hardship, Kruger took the jobs because they were good career moves with higher salaries and more responsibility. She continued to live in San Diego because she felt it was the best environment for her children.
How did she manage all of this?
“I am very spirited, and I have a high energy level,” she said. “I love housing and the construction industry, and I love my children. When you’re a mother, the problem doesn’t come until 5 p.m., when you don’t know if you’re a mother who is a builder or vice versa. Doing it was a matter of keeping a positive attitude.”
Then, three years ago, Kruger formed her own company.
“I had been commuting for nine years, and I was exhausted,” she said. “When I got caught in a corporate squeeze play, I said, ‘Why am I putting up with this?’ I saw that the market was right, and I had found the opportunity to do my own project.”
Though she has taken several business courses and regularly attends industry seminars, Kruger never obtained a college degree.
Has she faced discrimination as a woman in obtaining financing or in dealing with contractors?
“No,” she said, adding, however, that she has “always had male partners. However, I believe a lender looks at your track record and the project.”
Nevertheless, she has recognized that subcontractors might not listen to a woman, so she usually hires a male construction superintendent to oversee them.
Kruger specializes in building and rehabilitating apartments in the North Park section of San Diego. In addition, she builds small condominium projects, typically with 24 units or less.
Community activities are also an important part of her life.
Kruger has served on the Centre City Development Corp. for 18 months and has been a major proponent of the need for more housing downtown. In addition, she is on the Mayor’s Housing Committee, the National Advisory Council for the Small Business Administration, and the Greater North Park Community Planning Group.
Her long-term dream is to build the “House of Hope,” which would be a public-private joint venture to provide apartments for homeless families.
To what does she credit her success?
“Hard work in learning the business and paying my dues,” she said. “Real estate development is a tough business. It is still a man’s business, and a woman must find her niche and work hard at it.”
JULIE DILLON
Julie Dillon, 39, also started at the bottom of the real estate business.
In 1971, when she moved to San Diego as a single mother with one son to support, Dillon went to work for U.S. Financial as a secretary. At that time, she did not have a college degree and she had no knowledge of the real estate business.
Her boss, however, believing that she was bright, taught her how to evaluate real estate transactions. Nevertheless, her title was still administrative assistant.
Sensing that she had no future with the company, Dillon left and spent six months selling real estate in Rancho Santa Fe.
Then a contact made through a night school instructor led to a job with Corky McMillin, who was then a small South Bay builder.
McMillin needed a salesperson for the company’s first condominium project. Dillon, however, wanted to do market research. She took the sales position with the understanding that within six weeks McMillin would find a replacement and she could start doing market research.
When this didn’t happen, she showed the initiative that has been a major reason for her success. Dillon called a friend, Roni Hicks, who now heads her own public relations agency, and talked her into taking her place.
Later, when McMillin’s land acquisition and development person left, Dillon moved into this slot also. The company continued to grow, giving her more and more experience over the four years she was there.
In 1977, Dillon branched out on her own, doing consulting for builders on land development processing. With the increasing opposition from environmental groups, this was becoming a more important facet of development.
By that time, she had remarried and had one more son. Having her own business gave her more flexibility.
“Even though I often worked longer hours, I could go to the Little League games and do other things for my children,” she said.
Two years later, when she was single again, she found a 60-acre parcel in Poway. To tie up the land in escrow and pay an engineer to prepare plans, she borrowed $20,000 by taking out a second mortgage on her house. During the escrow process, she found a new buyer and, with the profits, had enough money to start Dillon Development Co.
Currently, she and partner Phil Taylor, who was her first boss at U.S. Financial, are working on developing 1,100 lots in Carmel Valley in a joint venture with AM Co., a Santa Barbara firm. Dillon found the property and later brought Taylor into the deal.
Without a male partner, Dillon believes it would be very difficult to obtain financing.
“Unfortunately, you (sometimes) need a male partner to be taken seriously,” she said.
Within the industry, however, she said she has not experienced discrimination. “The guys tease me a lot, but they include me in their camaraderie.”
Like Kruger, Dillon is very active in community activities. She is the only women board member of the San Diego Building Industry Assn. She is also chairwoman of the Housing Committee for the California Building Industry Assn., a member of the Air Space Advisory Commission for the California Transportation Commission, and is active in Republican politics.
A year ago, she married attorney Jim Roberts, a man she describes as being very supportive of the demands of her business.
She credits her success to “persistence. I’m not particularly creative, and I’m not a genius, but I have the ability to efficiently identify a task and complete it. Also--importantly--I like people, and this is a people business.”
MAUREEN L. O’CONNOR
Maureen L. O’Connor, 33, often called the “other Maureen O’Connor” to differentiate her from the mayor of San Diego, is a vice president and partner with Nexus Development Corp.
O’Connor, a UC San Diego graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communications, had planned to go into newscast directing. Her only business experience was in selling Este Lauder cosmetics.
But she has been a partner at Nexus since it opened in 1978.
The company has expanded rapidly, and it currently has projects under way worth more than $300 million. These include the $50-million, 268,000-square-foot Nexus Tech Center and a $25-million, 140,000-square-foot Nexus Research Center, both in the Golden Triangle.
At Nexus, O’Connor has handled the land planning and financing for many of these projects.
O’Connor said she has not encountered discrimination. She has gone out of her way not to make her sex an issue.
“I dress conservatively in the same color tones as the men, so I don’t stand out,” she said. “I also try to think the way men do and play by their rules because it is their fraternity. I am also a believer that if you have something intelligent to say, do it. If not, be quiet.”
Like Kruger and Dillon, O’Connor also is active in community activities. She is a member of the San Diego Housing Commission, the University City Planning Group, the UCSD Chancellor Associates, and helps with another UCSD Program--SOURCE--which helps UCSD students learn about different types of jobs before graduation.
Recently, she married Ron Bonaguidi, the founder of Nexus, who now is the corporation’s chairman and chief executive officer.
Though she admits this could pose a problem in the company, she said, “Ron doesn’t treat me with any favoritism. In fact, he demands more of me. We both love the business.”
