VP Real Estate & Development Executive Search — Site Strategy & Pipeline

VP Real Estate & Development executive search — sometimes titled Chief Development Officer or VP Site Selection & Development — places the leader who shapes a company's physical footprint over the next decade. Delivered through Alder Koten and coordinated globally through IMD International Search Group, the mandate covers site strategy, real-estate acquisition and lease negotiation, construction and build-out, landlord and municipality relationships, and portfolio management.

This is a strategic seat with a very long shadow. A retailer or restaurant group's real-estate pipeline built today defines the company's competitive position for the next ten to fifteen years. Getting the seat right is not about deal-making instinct alone — it is about operator discipline applied to the deal.

What this search covers

VP Real Estate & Development mandates typically cover site strategy and market research, real-estate acquisition and lease negotiation, construction and build-out oversight, franchise development where the system requires it, landlord and municipality relationships, incentive negotiation, and portfolio management of the existing footprint. Reporting is usually direct to the CEO, country manager, or COO, with a peer relationship to store operations and finance.

Typical VP Real Estate & Development assignments

• Retail VP Real Estate — site strategy and pipeline for a grocery, convenience, department, or specialty operator
• Restaurant Chief Development Officer — franchise development and company pipeline for a multi-brand restaurant group
• Hospitality VP Development — hotel, resort, or lifestyle-destination pipeline and portfolio management
• Franchise Development Officer — franchisee recruiting, development standards, and pipeline for a franchise system
• Nearshoring Site Selection Lead — multi-site industrial or distribution pipeline for a company relocating manufacturing to Mexico
• Portfolio Optimization VP — resetting an underperforming portfolio under sponsor or board pressure

What makes this search different

Assessment has to test two very different muscles in the same candidate: the deal-making and market instinct that gets a great site under contract, and the operating discipline that gets it built on schedule and on budget. Candidates strong on one and weak on the other underperform in different but predictable ways — the deal-heavy leader accumulates a pipeline of great sites that never open on time, and the operations-heavy leader executes flawlessly on mediocre sites the company should not have chosen.

Cross-border mandates add regulatory complexity that is often underestimated in search. US and Mexican permitting regimes, municipal relationships, and construction ecosystems are meaningfully different, and a candidate who has run pipeline in only one country needs a specific onboarding plan to succeed in the other. Reference work reaches the landlords, municipalities, general contractors, and construction leaders who worked with the candidate — not just the executive references who repeat the résumé.

Adjacent capability — leadership advisory

Development-organization design questions — how site strategy, construction, franchise development, and portfolio management should be structured, and how a new development leader should integrate with an incumbent operations team — are advisory work delivered through Anker Bioss. See Leadership Advisory →.

Coverage

VP Real Estate & Development search is concentrated in retail, restaurants, hospitality, and nearshoring across the US–Mexico corridor — see retail and consumer executive search and nearshoring executive search. Related seats include COO, country manager, and VP Store Operations.

How to engage

A VP Real Estate & Development search begins by defining the pipeline scope, the construction and franchise-development integration, and the portfolio-management accountability — before any candidate conversation.

Start a VP Real Estate & Development search conversation →

VP Real Estate & Development executive search — frequently asked questions

What does a VP Real Estate & Development own?

A VP Real Estate & Development — sometimes titled Chief Development Officer or VP Site Selection & Development — owns the pipeline that shapes a company's physical footprint over the next decade. Scope typically includes site strategy, market research, real-estate acquisition or lease negotiation, construction and build-out oversight, landlord and municipality relationships, and portfolio management of the existing footprint. In restaurant systems, franchise development sits under the same seat.

Which industries hire VP Real Estate & Development leaders?

Retail, restaurants, hospitality, and lifestyle operators are the biggest hirers. Adjacent industries include convenience and fuel retail, healthcare and clinic networks, and industrial or manufacturing companies with a multi-site or nearshoring site-selection mandate. The practice covers all of these where the seat carries real portfolio accountability rather than transactional lease work.

How is this search different from a real-estate brokerage or investment role?

A VP Real Estate & Development is an operator, not a broker or investor. The seat is measured by the units opened on schedule, the ROIs achieved, the landlord partnerships built, and the portfolio health managed — not by transactions closed. Assessment tests operating discipline as much as market instinct: a candidate strong on deal-making but weak on construction pipeline discipline will miss opening dates and burn capital.

Do you handle nearshoring or manufacturing site-selection mandates?

Yes. Companies relocating manufacturing or distribution to Mexico often hire a VP Real Estate & Development or Site Selection lead to build the multi-site pipeline — permitting, incentives, land acquisition, and construction oversight. This is a distinct mandate from retail or restaurant development, and the practice runs both under the same discipline.

Do you handle cross-border real-estate and development searches between the US and Mexico?

Yes. Mexican operators expanding into the US Sunbelt, US brands entering Mexico, and multinationals building nearshoring footprints all need development leadership fluent in two municipal and permitting regimes, two construction ecosystems, and two commercial-real-estate markets. Alder Koten runs those searches from Houston, Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara.

How long does a VP Real Estate & Development search take?

Typical retained searches complete in 90 to 120 days from mandate calibration to signed offer. Chief Development Officer searches for franchise systems or aggressive-growth operators can run longer when the pipeline expectations are aggressive and confidentiality with the incumbent is part of the process.

Retained or contingent for VP Real Estate & Development search?

Retained. The strongest candidates are sitting operators at competing retailers, restaurant groups, or franchise systems, and the confidentiality required to approach them is not something a contingent process can reliably protect.