Heather Wellington MRED ’11 admits she had no idea what real estate development was as an undergraduate student. A finance major at George Washington University, she had reluctantly resigned herself to a future on Wall Street.
“My classmates were super excited about it—I was not,” she said. “I liked being out and looking and touching and feeling, but didn't know the word for it at the time.”
But when a search for a summer job that would foot the bill for campus housing landed her a position assisting on new dorm construction and renovation projects on campus, she discovered the words she was looking for: real estate. Upon graduating in 2006, she received an offer to work in property and asset management for grocery-anchored, retail centers as a property manager for Combined Properties, and took the leap.
I said, 'Hey, why not?' You don't know what you don't know if you don't try it."
The role eventually led Wellington to the University of Maryland’s Master of Real Estate Development Program to acquire more industry knowledge and strengthen her skills. Since graduating in 2011, she has worked with companies such as The JBG Companies and FD Stonewater, LLC, and gained experience in areas including design and construction management.
After many successful years in the industry, Wellington decided to take another leap and officially launched her real estate development and consulting firm, Cubed Development and Consulting, last fall. The firm works with private and federal clients, specializing in commercial real estate, project management and development management. Cubed had been a side venture for several years, but as Wellington began to map her future—and see the success of enterprising friends—she decided to go all in and pursue something she loves and is passionate about.
“If you would've asked me five years ago, I would’ve started a company with one or two other people that have the strength to my weakness,” she said. “But, seeing changes in the market, I felt like it was time for me to jump out and bet on myself.”
Below, Wellington talks about small-but-mighty accomplishments, lessons learned in her career and guilty pleasures:
The quotes have been condensed and edited for clarity.
What have you accomplished in the past year that you're proud of?
I am proud of training my puppy [Ziggy] to sit. He is nine months old, and before that I had not had a new dog for maybe 15 years. My dog passed away, and my husband and I were like, “We're never getting another dog.” It was so emotional.
Then, you feel the void and end up with a puppy. When we got him, we were like, "What did we do? This is nuts,”—in a lovable, not bad way. He was chewing everything and barking and had a lot of energy.
What's a habit you practice every day?
I hate to be one of those people, but it's working out. I enjoy workouts because I've noticed that I sleep better. It's also a good time to think and process my day. Besides the benefits of staying in shape and moving my body, it helps me with mental clarity and stress dealing with a demanding field like real estate.
What's your favorite book?
My embarrassing favorite is “Twilight.” I love it. I've seen all the movies and read the books multiple times. You would never think this looking at me, but the song I walked down the aisle to [on my wedding day] was “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri from “Twilight.”
What’s one lesson you learned at Maryland that you are still applying today?
I took a real estate law class that taught us how to read legal documents and know what the terms are. That's something I apply to my career now. There's never a document I don't take the time to read myself. You can have attorneys and people summarize things for you, but you need to understand your documents and what you are legally signing yourself up for.
What is the coolest project you've worked on?
Gallaudet University was developing four different parcels that were going to include apartments and retail. While working with them, I had to learn what it was like to be a hard of hearing person as much as I could, which included taking [a course in] American Sign Language. We learned that sidewalks need to be wider because if someone's talking with their hands, you also need to see another person talking with their hands. While the project didn’t get built, experiencing the city [through the lens] of a disability was very eye-opening. People can tell you things all the time. But you don't absorb it until you experience it.
What is your favorite quote you live by?
"This too shall pass." The real estate industry is wild right now, and the world is wild. Whenever I'm at work, and it's a long night, I try to tell myself that it's only temporary. Things come in seasons. There's a time and a place [for everything]. I like to say, "This too shall pass" to myself when I'm going through something difficult.