Lucian McPherson (left) and Kevin Mapp (right). Photo courtesy of McPherson Development
Lucian McPherson
Founder, McPherson Development
Age: 53
Industry experience: 29 years
Kevin Mapp
Vice president of operations, McPherson Development
Age: 53
Industry experience: 2 years
Decades after they roomed together at Boston College, Lucian McPherson and Kevin Mapp went into business full-time to accelerate the growth of McPherson Development, a Milton-based firm that specializes in multifamily development in Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities and Boston neighborhoods alike.
In Fall River, McPherson Development is wrapping up conversion of an abandoned parish school into income-restricted condominiums, after receiving a subsidy from MassHousing’s CommonWealth Builder program. And it’s preparing to break ground on a nine-unit ground-up development on Wendover Street in Dorchester. McPherson and Mapp are members of The Builder Coalition, the Boston-based networking and professional education group that hosted a capital investors summit last fall to connect financial executives with local developers.
Q: What prompted you to enter real estate development full-time?
McPherson: I’m a born-and-raised Boston resident. I grew up in Roxbury. I was a METCO student, went to Reading High School, and after graduating from Boston College, I tried to assist my mother with buying some foreclosures from Shawmut Bank to get into a home opportunity. And then I worked for a mortgage company and specialized in home improvement loans and construction loans. I was helping homeowners on their loans and got into development, renovating a lot of triple-deckers. In the late ‘90s, I did a lot of development along Blue Hill Avenue and in Dorchester and Roxbury, seeing a void in the marketplace. And then I retired as a mortgage banker and started renovating houses full-time.
Around COVID, I teamed up with Kevin, with his background in finance and corporate, so we could scale the business. We’ve always had passion to work in the inner cities: Dorchester, Roxbury, Fall River, New Bedford. Gateway Cities are our home base. It’s where we’ve planted our flag. We know the markets and the demographic we serve.
Mapp: We were roommates and very good friends at Boston College. We’re like brothers and we’ve always talked about doing things together. I went to corporate America, specialized in operational finance and accounting for Nestle, Office Depot, American Airlines, McDonald’s: everything from supply chain finance to building data analytic teams and running marketing programs. So, we decided it was a good opportunity and the stars aligned for us to get together and help scale McPherson Development and do a lot more new construction.
Q: How long have you been working on the St. Louis Parish Schoolhouse adaptive reuse project in Fall River?
Mapp: That was a property that Lucian acquired several years ago, and figured out how to bring that to life. And that’s what you’ll see in Gateway Cities. When you do the math on what you could sell those units for based on what it costs in construction, sometimes it’s very difficult to pencil. So, we partnered with MassHousing [on the CommonWealth Builder subsidy program for income-restricted home ownership developments] and started that process in late 2023 and we’ve been working on that for the last year-and-a-half.
That program is very critical, because there’s very little support for [income-restricted] home ownership models. I hope to see it continue to get funded and just grow bigger to help us in other projects. We’re very close to completion in the first quarter, and we have some units under contract, so we’ll be looking to close out in the next few months.
Q: What are the challenges and opportunities in Gateway City development?
Mapp: On the financing side, the big picture is that Gateway Cities have the infrastructure. A lot of the cities have great access to transportation. The towns are very much, from our experience, looking to work with you to develop. We’ve had very good support from city government. The challenge is economics. The cost is a lot lower, so that’s very attractive for some people to obtain home ownership which they probably wouldn’t be able to afford in Boston. But construction pricing doesn’t change whether you’re doing it in Fall River or you’re doing it in Dorchester. In fact, there’s probably some areas where it’s more expensive in Fall River because there are less experienced contractors out there. The revenue-to-cost model gets really out of whack. The margins are very tight. So that’s why programs like CommonWealth Builder are huge.
Q: What changes have you noticed in Fall River’s real estate market since completion of South Coast rail?
McPherson: It’s been a huge boost to the local economy. Just the neighborhood’s response to our project on Division Street, just the economic boost and the neighborhood, the South Coast Rail and mass transit, you’re really identifying a demographic. There’s a bad connotation when you say “affordable housing,” but it’s workforce housing for teachers, firemen, city workers. For that demographic to be able to live close to their community, then you’re starting to build generational wealth and getting their foot in the door. To get your first house, that’s a challenge and it’s a huge way to bridge that gap.
Q: How did participating in The Builder Coalition networking and professional education group change how you do business?
Mapp: Giving us access to experienced mentors, people who are in our shoes and kind of could tell us some of the pitfalls that they’ve experienced. Also, just being able to communicate and connect with our peers. There’s a lot of people in this game. We realized it’s less about competition, because there’s no lack of deals out there. It’s just the right deal for the right person. We find it more of a community for developers than it really is competing against developers for deals. A lot of people are willing to share resources or contacts or vendors. And The Builder Coalition has given us a lot of introductions to finance partners. It’s all about working capital. You can never build that network big enough.
McPherson: I would dovetail on what Kevin touched on. To be able to have access to those specialty lenders: gap financing, entitlement financing. When you’re doing these projects, especially an adaptive reuse, or something that’s been abandoned, there’s just so much entitlement costs. It’s been great where we’ve had many meetings and introductions to the whole spectrum: private investors, large banks, certain divisions of Wells Fargo and Bank of America that I never knew existed that help in financing multifamily projects.
McPherson’s Five Favorite Books:
- “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama
- “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
- “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki
- “An Illustrated Life of Bob Marley” by James Henke
- “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Champman
Mapp’s Five Favorite Leisure Activities
- 1.Morning exercise for a daily reset
- A quiet cup of morning coffee
- Playing golf
- Practicing yoga to reset the mind and body
- Unplugging with family
