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Joann Kalogianis Spaneas and Demetrius Spaneas
CEO and President, Land and Sea Real Estate
Ages: 53 and 54
Industry experience: 32 and 8 years
Joann Kalogianis Spaneas and Demetrius Spaneas had a year of life-changing milestones in 2015, as the two Lowell natives reconnected, married and formed a new real estate development company, Andover-based Land and Sea Real Estate. Joann grew up in a real estate family as the daughter of a construction company owner, while Demetrius carved out a successful career as a saxophonist, classical composer and music professor. Land and Sea specializes in luxury properties in the Merrimack Valley, where Demetrius heads the development arm while Joann specializes in sales and marketing. The firm’s projects include redevelopment of 491 Dutton St. mill in Lowell into condominiums, offices and a restaurant, and raising equity for a planned downtown Lowell hotel.
Q: How did each of you originally get introduced to the real estate industry as a career?
Joann: I was born into it. I’m a second-generation builder myself. My father’s company, Olympic Construction, was widely known in the Merrimack Valley and built over 1,000 housing units. His office was in Andover, and that’s where I got my start with marketing and sales and construction. I was the boy he never had. The majority of what we built was single-family, and there were some condo projects and we also did some resort building in Florida. I learned how to draw up house plans, and was supervising work crews and doing our own sales and marketing.
Demetrius: This was almost like a change of life for me in my 40s. I had a very different career. I was a college professor and a classical composer. Joann and I had known each other growing up in Lowell, and we reconnected and got married. I was very interested in real estate, and it seemed like a perfect time in 2015. We launched the company and never looked back.
Q: How do you try to separate your personal and professional lives?
Joann: We certainly do. We have an office in downtown Andover and we also have our own office suites in our home. We make it a priority to separate work from our normal life. Our home was purposely built, and we designed it before COVID with two pools and a big gym. Working from home, you have to regenerate yourself, so we were able to build that into our space.
Demetrius: After a certain time of day, when someone brings up business, one of us says, “Have a glass of wine.”
Q: Where does Land and Sea do the bulk of its business and what other markets are you looking at for development opportunities?
Joann: My general area is Merrimack Valley, and most of the focus is Andover for my residential property.
Demetrius: I’m more on the development side, and I’ll bring in equity to create partnerships for developments. Luxury tends to be our focus, including the multifamily side. Even with the COVID challenge of people not wanting condos and high-density development, the luxury market hasn’t changed much. We kept going like clockwork.
Q: What price categories in the luxury residential market are most and least resilient in the current interest rate environment?
Joann: On the upper end, we are still seeing people tolerating the interest rates. There are all-cash buyers and demand for luxury properties have been strong. How interest rates are affecting the market is not as many people are selling their homes, and just creating a supply-and-demand issue. For those who are in the market, the supply is still low.
Demetrius: Quality is always going to sell. Traditional luxury properties take a lot longer and they’re on the market sometimes two and three times what the standard residential property would be. What the rest of the world thinks of luxury is over $500,000. In Massachusetts, one of the biggest segments of home purchases is $1 million to $2 million. Our definition has changed rapidly over the past five years, especially since COVID.
Q: How do you overcome the difficulty of finding good development sites in a region with so little vacant land?
Demetrius: We’ve done some mill building renovations and turned those into luxury residences, and that’s been very fruitful in the past few years. The demand is there. They are fantastic buildings. You do have to work with historic boards. And we’re running out of mill buildings. About 90 percent of what I do is off-market. Sometimes it’s like finding a needle in a stack of needles.
Joann: There is a challenge finding land, especially in the communities that are in high demand or very popular. We are looking deeply for where those parcels are sitting, and you have a lot of competition.
Q: As an active member of the Middlesex 3 Coalition’s real estate initiatives, what are some of the top goals for the Metro North corridor?
Demetrius: The whole thing is to bring energy and commerce and workforce development. Transit-oriented development has been a big topic for us, being able to do high-density housing in certain areas. Burlington has been very aggressive with their zone changes, creating life science zones and focusing on trying to create new life science campuses, and with that, more amenities, more retail and more hotels. I’m actually doing that myself, bringing in equity and seeing who will finance a boutique hotel in downtown Lowell, and a tribute to the immigrants who built the city. That’s what Lowell is about. It’s almost a passion project. I’ll do what I can do to get it done. The city is 100 percent behind it and they want to see it done. Since it’s our hometown, it’s always been a passion to see that it be redeveloped.
Joann’s Five Favorite Recent Books:
- “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek
- “Pretty Intense’ by Danica Patrick
- “Self-care for the Wisdom Years” by Cheryl Richardson
- “Super Brain” by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi
- “The Blue Zones” by Dan Buettner
Demetrius’ Five Classical Music Picks (in chronological order):
- “Piano Sonata no. 13 in Bb,” W.A. Mozart (1783)
- “Symphony No. 7 in A,” Ludwig van Beethoven (1812)
- Preludes” for piano, Claude Debussy (completed 1913)
- “Appalachian Spring,” Aaron Copland (1944)
- “Desert Music,” Steve Reich (1983)
