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Hall of Fame Realtor

Steve Van Amburgh, a member of Washington and Lee’s Class of 1975, will be inducted into the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors Hall of Fame next month. Steve is the chief executive officer of KDC Real Estate Development and Investments. He manages that firm’s strategic planning, coordinates all new business development efforts and oversees all acquisition and development activities for KDC’s regional offices.

Steve took over leadership of KDC in 2001, and since then the company has completed more than 100 corporate build-to-suit and speculative office and industrial projects valued at more than $2 billion and totaling more than 13 million square feet. The company had its best year ever in 2010.

“D Magazine” has just published a great conversation with Steve about his business philosophy. Among other secrets that he reveals is his belief in collaboration rather than combat. “We try to eliminate the combativeness the minute we start discussing the project. Our goal is to, as quickly as possible, sit on the client side of the table,” he told the magazine. “We don’t like to sit across the table and arm wrestle and negotiate with them. We like to state the economics, state what our fee and profit would be, and as quickly as we can, get to ‘Red rover, red rover, let KDC come over’.” Read the entire interview here.

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