Scott Development Company

For more than 25 years Vince Scott has been shaping the future of housing across Northern Nevada and California. As both a real estate developer and broker with Sierra Sotheby’s International Realty, Scott has closed out transactions in the multifamily, commercial, hotel and resort markets totaling over $800 million. Doing business under the name Scott Development Company (SDC), Scott offers a full slate of residential, commercial, leasing, development, planning, design, mortgage and consulting services.

This expansive set of skills makes SDC a one-stop shop for both residential and commercial customers as well as cities and municipalities seeking expert guidance around public-private partnerships and other types of developments, including the federal government’s EB-5 foreign investment incentive programs.

“I wear a lot of different hats from environmental planning to working with the Tahoe planning agency to balance the economy and the environment,” says Scott. “It’s a very healthy mix of sustainability projects that includes as an example a ski area development project that will be designed to include a high-speed tram and high-altitude fitness facility. To accomplish this I’ll be working with the United Stated Forest Service on cooperative agreements and potentially working with the Reno/Tahoe Olympic Committee to attract future Winter Olympic Games to the Reno/Tahoe area.”

As a Certified Green Builder, Scott is committed to bringing the newest sustainable technology to the front lines of development in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin. With years of experience in balancing environmental concerns against economic interests, SDC has earned a reputation as one of the area’s premier green builders, with more than 200 single family residences and over 500,000-square-feet of commercial and mixed-use developments in the Basin alone.

“I started off doing land use planning and environmental planning in the Lake Tahoe Basin, which then evolved into being a sustainable builder and developer,” says Scott. “Now we specialize in green building and sustainable living communities that fit within the economic and environmental thresholds of cities and towns.”

Housing that evolves with age

In recent years SDC has seen growth in the active adult community market, launching a number of such developments across California and Nevada. “We’re integrating neat green technology and clustering smaller homes with more open space and common amenities including walking trails and parks to create a more active, healthier senior living community that is targeting the baby boomer generation,” says Scott.

Scott currently has one such project in the works in Carson City, Nevada. The all-inclusive, age-in-place transitional active senior community will feature 200 rental units and 175 for-sale units in four distinct styles. This age-in-place model is a new take on healthy active senior living.  The community allows residents to transfer between residential settings as their autonomy decreases with age.

“They can go from their own simple home or cottage and transition to an assisted or independent living accommodation with a full range of services including skilled nursing, memory care and dementia care,” says Scott.

Designed to promote a healthy lifestyle, SDC’s active adult communities include farm-to-table dining options, as well as easy access to biking, hiking and Lake Tahoe itself, located just 20 minutes away.

The development features a number of sustainable technologies, including Tesla’s Powerwall. The innovative in-home battery stores energy produced by the development’s solar panels, helping residents to reduce energy costs. Scott sees the development as something of a testing ground for Tesla’s products, and is eager to keep integrating the company’s technology into his projects. “We’re hoping to have their golf carts within the community,” he says.

In downtown Carson City, Nevada, SDC has a completely different sort of development in the works. As technology giants such as Google and Tesla begin to set up shop in the area, its residential needs are changing quickly with Scott forecasting a need for an additional 35,000 units.

SDC is currently working to help Carson City and the Northern Nevada Development Authority transform the city’s downtown into a revitalized urban core complete with incubation and acceleration programs for startup companies. The team is also putting together a venture capital group that will help fund select startups. “The target is those millennials who love outdoor recreation and all the amenities but have a more flexible work environment, so we’ll be creating an urban housing live/work model,” says Scott.

The best of both worlds

Scott’s background in real estate brokerage gives the developer a decided advantage in the market. “I know the ground-up construction management side as well as the brokerage and lending side,” he says. This skillset is particularly useful when it comes to securing financing for certain developments.

“You can have a perfect project in a perfect place at the perfect time, but if you don’t have the financing options or a lender and equity partners that have “bought in” to the project, you can be in serious trouble,” he says. Scott’s connections in the brokerage world also help when it comes to finding investors. “As a broker with Sierra Sotheby’s International, I have been fortunate to gain access to high net-worth investors and capital.”

SDC has also been an active proponent of the EB-5 program, which grants U.S. visas to foreign investors who create jobs while investing in the United States job market. “We hope that stays an active investment vehicle because it has the potential to create a lot of jobs,” he says.

As SDC continues to make its mark on the California and Nevada residential housing market, Scott sees potential for both the company’s development and consulting divisions for municipalities. “That seems to be where a lot of efforts are moving right now; they have great ideas for infrastructure enhancement but don’t know how to structure the financing to put it together,” he says.

Scott’s experience as both a developer and broker, along with his familiarity with the Lake Tahoe Basin area, will ensure Scott Development Company’s role in the community as a premier provider of residential, commercial, hotel, development, planning, design and consulting services.