Joel Barrett

Managing Partner, 43 North Real Estate & Bace Build

Years in current role: 10

Where do you see the most untapped potential for development in the Rochester region?

In Rochester, the greatest development opportunity lies in transforming obsolete office and underutilized industrial buildings into vibrant residential and mixed-use communities. By leveraging Historic Tax Credits, grants and creative financing, we close the gap between cost and value that limits conventional development. Our integrated approach — aligning design, construction and capital — allows us to reposition overlooked assets into housing that meets today’s demand. This strategy preserves historic character, strengthens neighborhoods and delivers a scalable, sustainable model for urban growth.

What’s one challenge in today’s market that keeps you up at night?

The greatest challenge is the widening gap between total project costs and achievable value. Construction, financing and compliance costs continue to rise to the point where Historic Tax Credits alone can no longer bridge the gap. Projects increasingly depend on layering grants, affordable housing programs, and additional incentives to remain viable. At the same time, the availability and pricing of HTC syndication capital is uncertain, creating execution risk. The concern is not demand for housing — it’s whether the capital stack can reliably support adaptive reuse at scale.

How do you approach decision-making when facing uncertainty on a project?

A project decision starts with financial feasibility — but it doesn’t end there. We underwrite value vs. cost and identify the gap, then test whether it can be closed through incentives like Historic Tax Credits and programs through New York State Homes and Community Renewal. From there, we evaluate the building itself — its structure, layout and constraints — to ensure a realistic path to execution. We assess market fit (rents, unit mix, absorption), alignment with community and municipal priorities, and complexity risk across design, construction, and approvals. Finally, we consider our ability to control outcomes through an integrated development and construction approach.

Are there innovations you’ve adopted that have significantly improved efficiency or outcomes?

We’ve built our platform to operate more like a professional services firm than a traditional developer, drawing on systems and discipline I experienced at Deloitte. We are fully paperless, leveraging Dropbox, QuickBooks Online and a CRM-driven leasing platform to manage operations in real time. We integrate AI tools into underwriting, deal structuring and decision support to move faster and with more clarity. Innovation also happens within each project — through design efficiency, energy strategies and creative capital stacks — where we grind out basis point improvements across financing, incentives and execution. By self-performing construction through our integrated model, we maintain control over cost, schedule and quality, translating directly into better outcomes.

If you could collaborate on any project in the region, what would it be?

If I could collaborate on any project, it would be those where scale, complexity and impact align. The 111 Parce Ave. project with Doug Calabrese stands out for its size and transformative potential, along with the Piano Works campus and First Federal in the Four Corners Historic District. Early on, I saw Rochester’s west side — particularly the Four Corners — as having the potential to evolve like Brooklyn, complementing an “East Side as Manhattan” dynamic, anchored by workforce housing through Historic Tax Credits. Projects like the Wilder Building and the RG&E headquarters on East Avenue, and partnerships with experienced owners to execute HTC strategies across existing portfolios, represent powerful opportunities to unlock value and reshape the city.

This profile is part of Rochester Business Journal’s Power List for Construction & Real Estate for 2026. Information used in this profile was sourced from the honoree.