The @DG Advantage: Joe Schlais, Managing Partner at Bahnhof Partners and the art of master planning

Across the world, people continue to seek out biophilic options for living, where nature, community and wellness are front and center. However, creating a successful planned development around these principles requires more than simply good intent. Joe Schlais, Managing Partner at Bahnhof Partners, breaks down the comprehensive process behind creating these benefit-rich communities and emphasizes the value of teamwork behind each project.  

“I think where people get it wrong, in the excitement of building a new urbanist project with greater density, are they forget that humans still need a fair amount of privacy and solitude,” says Schlais. “Nature is key, and it needs to be more than accessible, it needs to be curated in the right way so that it’s usable in a way that makes it a real amenity. It's not enough to have green space, forests and trails. You have to activate those trails and spaces by having anchor activities that welcome an authentic use.”  

Even with this expert knowledge in his back pocket, Schlais acknowledges that encountering the unknown is a recurring challenge in any new project. “There are always endless unanswered questions at the outset. But with time, we typically reach an inflection point where we become more confident with those unknowns. What’s key is assembling a great team – which we’ve done with @properties Development Group (@DG) – and just working through questions as they come up, no matter what the project may be.”  

To establish a firm foundation early, Schlais believes alignment is everything. And while financial success is always required, the project must go further by benefiting both the physical and social environment. “If the ways a project will both preserve the natural surroundings, and also be financially successful, aren’t absolutely obvious from the beginning, or can’t be made clear on the back of a napkin, then it’s not a project I want to be involved with,” says Schlais.  

And because developers can’t always guarantee that each project will directly align with their beliefs, Schlais feels a tremendous amount of gratitude that he can team up with others to work on projects that matter. “Launching a new community is more than just a financial undertaking — it’s an emotional one, and having a team that understands the importance of that is key,” says Schlais.  

Schlais emphasizes that in light of the fact that he is currently developing his first residential project of this scale, working with a team like @DG makes him feel comfortable and confident, giving him the peace of mind that he has the right equation for success. He shares, “There’s an expression about writing; ‘If you want to write anything worth a damn, you have to put your blood on the page.’ I’ve always supposed, likewise, if you’re going to build anything worth a damn, you have to put your blood into the dirt. And that means you have to have a team that understands that. My team at @DG understands that.”