F or most entrepreneurs, one of the best perks of launching a business is breaking free from the constraints of the corporate world. But when Scott Pannick founded his company, Metropolis Development, he continued to work full-time at his real estate brokerage firm for four more years.
At the time Pannick decided to strike out on his own, he worked at the D.C. office of national commercial real estate firm Studley.
He was the lead on the development of the new headquarters for the Department of Transportation, and his loyalty to his employer kept him there until the project’s completion.
“The bad news was I didn’t really have enough time to build my own buildings,” said Pannick, who purchased several parcels of land in 1998 for condo development. “But the good news is I bought a lot of land that went up in value.”
That land helped to finance his company and today Pannick has four condo developments in the trendy neighborhoods of Logan Circle and U Street with a fifth condo project scheduled for a fall delivery.
The condos, ranging in price from $300,000 to $2 million apiece, are an integral part of Washington’s recent development boom, Pannick said. All across the District, neighborhoods like Logan Circle and U Street have seen high-end condos go up, with retail and restaurants not far behind. When Pannick started his company, he wanted to include Metropolis in that residential trend, although most of his previous experience was on the commercial side.
“[I made] the switch to the residential side because most American cities had seen an urban renaissance [by the late 1990s]. Washington had not,” he said. “It was fairly reasonable to predict that there was going to be some sort of urban renaissance here.”
The slogan for Metropolis Development is “Different by Design,” which Pannick conjured up to call attention to the fact that his company didn’t build boring “white boxes,” as he described many of the other condos in the region.
Mostly loft-style, many of his condos feature floor-to-ceiling windows and imported finishes and fixtures.
“We started looking at the idea of sculpting space,” he said. “How do you create space that has a ‘wow’ factor to it? That really became the driving force behind the company.”
BUSINESS
Current job: CEO and President of Metropolis Development Co.
Last job: Studley, Broker
Number of e-mails a day: Approximately 50
Number of voice mails a day: 10 to 15
Best perk: Designing/Working with Architects
Education/credentials: Harvard MBA
Original aspiration: Build great buildings
Career objective: Build great buildings
PERSONAL
Date of Birth: Nov. 20, 1954
Hometown: Norwich, N.Y.
Sports/hobbies: Skiing and swimming
Transportation: Toyota Prius
Computer: Dell
Favorite clothier: Hugo Boss
Vacation spot: St. Barth’s
Role model: My 10-month-old baby
Worst fear: Failure
