Two Weeks’ Notice When Mark Joseph started the Shelter Group 25 years ago, he was developing multifamily communities from his law office. For the first few years he developed one project per year with the assistance of a secretary. His first deal was with a Minneapolis-based development firm that put up the capital, while Joseph did the work, explains Marilynn Duker, president and COO of Shelter Development.
By 1982, Joseph had four or five projects in the pipeline and decided that he needed help. “I was having lunch with a friend of mine, Tom Hobbs, who was the head of the area [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] HUD office,” explains Joseph. “I was looking for a smart, young person who could help me be a developer in [the Baltimore] area.”
Duker was Hobbs’ ex-assistant, and she was about to take a position in New York. “Tom said, ‘I know someone, but you better call her right now because she is taking another job today,'” says Joseph.
After lunch, Joseph called Duker. They met for drinks that night, and Duker put off the people in New York for two weeks. “I thought she was terrific,” recalls Joseph. “Our personalities seemed to mesh very well.”
For the next two weeks, Duker and Joseph spent every day together. “We had breakfast and lunch, went for a beer in the afternoon, and just spent time getting to know one another,” she adds. At the end of the two weeks she was offered the job. And 20 years later she is head of the development company and a partner of The Shelter Group. She has run every aspect of the business, but enjoys the development side most.
–M.L.