A project stakeholder is any individual or group that can affect, be affected by or believe to be affected by a project during its life cycle and/or its output and can influence its success. A development project has multiple stakeholders with varied and often conflicting interests.
A project participant is any person that is directly involved in the development process, often as a party to the project management development plan. Developers, lenders, operators and investors are the key participants in development projects.
Developers are commonly the property owners or project sponsor. For the financing of the project, commercial real estate lenders are involved. The investors may be a REIT, a private equity fund, a holding company or an individual direct investor. The operators may be the owner-operator, a hotel management company or franchisee.
Every property development project involves different activities and requires interaction among numerous parties from the public and private sectors. These parties have different functions, provide different skills, may have decision-making power over the project and influence its realization, operation and success.
Numerous third-party service providers are engaged by the project participants. These include consultants for the feasibility studies, general contractors and subcontractors for property construction, operators and asset managers on behalf of the investors, and appraisers to value property for developer project exit and sale.
Other stakeholders have different levels of influence and different types of interests and risks in the projects. They include local governments, taxing districts, surrounding communities and their prominent citizens, politicians, existing hotels, and local businesses.
The success of a property development project depends primarily on the developer’s ability to effectively coordinate and lead the process. For this, the developer must balance the demands of all stakeholders and manage their engagement during each distinct phase of the property’s life cycle.
Sustainable development creates shared value for all stakeholders. Together with the project participants, the personnel engaged throughout a project's extended life cycle, the local community, economy and society at large are all project stakeholders.