August 6, 2007
Property value | Steven Brier dives into the real estate market to keep the Little Dolphin School afloat
By Jeffrey Bouley
Steven Brier knows firsthand how difficult it can be to run a private childcare facility. Profit margins are slim and overhead is high, and providing high-quality educational programming without breaking the bank for parents can be a financial tightrope act. That's been Brier's experience at the Little Dolphin School, the childcare and early education facilities he runs in Scarborough and Westbrook.
Brier says aside from a few modest grants, the nonprofit Little Dolphin School doesn't have any outside support. That means the school must raise its $1.45 million annual operating budget all by itself ˆ a difficult proposition, says Brier, for a school that tries to keep its tuition affordable. "If we were to try to fund our operation through tuition alone, parents would be paying at least $400 a week to send their kids to us ˆ Boston prices and then some," he says.
But Steven Brier's got an ace up his sleeve: real estate.
Brier says commercial real estate has allowed him to fund a program he admits hasn't broken even in its eight-year history. If it weren't for real estate and the rapid growth of the southern Maine market in recent years, he says, there would be no way to fund a school like Little Dolphin. "When I saw that we weren't able to fund our mission, I knew I had to figure out a different way to do this," Brier says.
In less than a decade, Brier has spent nearly $5 million on real estate, including a five-acre, 12,000-square-foot campus in Westbrook and his newest venture, the Little Dolphin Marketplace in Scarborough ˆ a retail development anchored by the Little Dolphin School. Along the way, Brier has played the real estate speculation game, buying under-priced properties and flipping them for a sizable profit after performing some routine improvements.
By using commercial real estate to bolster his program, Brier believes he has a model that can work for bringing similar infant care, toddler care, preschool and kindergarten programs to Maine, both in the urban and rural markets. But it's a model that takes careful attention to financial details and property selection, he says, and one that requires a lot of sacrifice on the part of anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps.
Renaissance man
Brier moved from to Maine from New York City in 1995. A physician by trade, Brier opted out of his medical practice after battling the lingering effects of Lyme disease, instead opting to follow in the footsteps of his mother, Sheila Brier, who founded the first Little Dolphin School in Manhattan nearly three decades ago. "When I first relocated here to Maine, everyone said, 'Can't your mother comes up here? There aren't a lot of good choices for children,'" Brier notes. "And frankly, there aren't a lot of good choices in New York either, but there are more choices."
Brier was keenly aware that location was going to be a critical factor in establishing the Little Dolphin School in Maine. He needed to be in a place where he could afford rent on top of the school's other overhead ˆ staff salaries and fresh-produce-based children's meals take the largest chunks of the pie. And the locations also needed to be high-visibility areas accessible to the professionals with children who mostly worked in Portland.
So Brier leveraged his assets, including his house, to help finance the creation of the Little Dolphin School, giving "his whole life to the bank," he says. In 1998, Brier bought five acres on Route 22 in Westbrook for what ultimately turned into a $1 million project to develop a 12,000 sq. ft. facility with 12 classrooms. (Brier says the Westbrook campus is the largest childcare center in the state, and was recently appraised at $1.62 million.) The Little Dolphin School opened its doors in June 1999 with a handful of students, but was filled to capacity before the end of the first year, he says. These days, the Westbrook facility now serves some 200 families each year ˆ or 175 children enrolled at any given time.
In December 1999, he spent $240,000 for an adjacent 12-acre parcel, and did architectural and pre-engineering studies before selling the lot for $830,000 in November 2005 to Zyacorp Entertainment, which built a Cinemagic movie theater complex. That sale, he said, helped continue funding the Little Dolphin mission.
In May, Brier took his real estate venture one step further, opening the Scarborough campus of the Little Dolphin School on Route One in the former VIP Plaza. But this time, Brier didn't simply buy and sell some real estate to finance the school ˆ he became a developer. The school was to be the anchor tenant of the Little Dolphin Marketplace property, taking over a property with 20,400 sq. ft. of potential retail and office space that previously was anchored by a fitness center.
The key to the plan, however, was that Brier planned on rounding out the nine-store plaza with other businesses, the monthly rents from which would help subsidize the property's mortgage and, indirectly, the financing of the school itself. Under the auspices of Dolphin Investment LLC, Brier paid $3.6 million to purchase and refurbish the VIP Plaza property. While the other tenants pay full market rates, the school pays what Brier says is about 75% of market rates for its 9,600 sq. ft. of space.
And in keeping with the nature of the school, Brier says he wanted family-friendly tenants in the marketplace, which currently houses six businesses, from a children's performing arts center to a meal preparation franchise.
And though Brier has scant commercial development experience, he's gotten high marks for his work on the marketplace project. "I don't know exactly when the VIP Plaza was built, but it had to be in the 60s or early 70s, and boy did it look the part," says Harvey Rosenfeld, president and executive director of the nonprofit Scarborough Economic Development Corp. "What he did first of all was take a really nondescript site and make it a class-A, aesthetically pleasing one."
Brier says that the businesses in and around the Scarborough campus like being near the Little Dolphin School because they get high-visibility property and have a flow of professionals dropping off and picking up their kids at the school. Brier expects to serve roughly 125 families a year at the Scarborough campus, and already has September's pre-enrollment up to about half of the school's capacity. Brier predicts that with the Little Dolphin reputation already in the public consciousness, it will take about six months to completely fill the Scarborough campus.
That's good news for Carol Cronin, owner of Jean Jungle, a tenant of the marketplace, whose clothing store primarily targets men and women over 30. "The minute I sat down with Steven [about becoming a tenant] I just knew," says Cronin. "It just felt right."
There are other synergies as well: Stages, the performing arts center, was founded by a pair of Little Dolphin parents, Brier says, and sometimes provides performance programming in the extra rooms of the schools set aside for special activities. And the prepared-food company, Entrée Vous, delivers meals to some of the parents at the Westbrook campus (and Brier himself often gets several meals a week for his family).
Upping the ante
Having cut his teeth on real estate development with the Scarborough campus, Brier is now eyeing the downtown Portland market with plans for a 60,000-square-foot facility that would house not only another Little Dolphin school, but also the Cumberland County District Attorney's office. His plan is a response to a request for proposals issued by the county to develop the parking lot adjacent to the current district attorney's office on Federal Street.
In addition to the school, Brier's plans for the building include a restaurant on the first floor, space for the D.A. and for professional offices, which Brier expects would mostly be small- and mid-size law firms. He estimates the total project would cost $15.2 million and could be complete in 15-18 months if everything goes as planned.
County officials plan to visit the current Little Dolphin campuses soon as part of the review process. There is no firm date as to when he'll get a thumbs up or down on his downtown proposal, but Brier suspects he might know something by the end of summer or so.
(The proposal submitted by Brier is one of three received by the county, says Bruce D. Tarbox, facilities manager for the Cumberland County Facilities Department. A final decision will be made as early as this month, though Tarbox couldn't be more specific.)
Brier does think he'll get some points for originality. "Our proposal, which no one else would be crazy enough to do, is to bring a beautiful school downtown," he says. "There is nothing like this downtown."
He realizes his plan may be a long-shot, but his ace in the hole is that he has so many lawyers' children in Little Dolphin that "everyone in the DA's office knows about us, and I think that will level the playing field for us somewhat."
He also believes his plan would "liven up and change the feel" of the Lincoln Park area, which he feels is currently underutilized.
Despite his success in establishing two campuses, with a possible third on the way, Brier admits that the operation is not a money-maker, which is precisely why the schools are set up as part of a nonprofit foundation. He believes that the real estate investment and development angle could one day fully support his schools and perhaps let him break even, but for the time being, some of the funds that keep things going come out of his own pocket.
That's the cost, he notes, of school amenities such as catered food service using fresh produce for the kids' meals, and having specialty rooms in the schools ˆ for things like yoga, performance art and movement arts classes. In addition, Little Dolphin spent nearly $150,000 in the past academic year on tuition assistance, he says, which is given to roughly 30% of the students.
Regardless of whether there's black ink in the books in the near future, Brier says he doesn't plan for his position as executive director to ever support his family. Unlike a typical executive director that might make $90,000 a year, Brier pays himself just $100 a week ˆ enough to qualify for the same healthcare benefits he provides to the school's employees.
"Many people have joked that Little Dolphin is a lousy business, and I agree," he says. "A fantastic school and a great place to work, but a lousy business."
Brier says aside from a few modest grants, the nonprofit Little Dolphin School doesn't have any outside support. That means the school must raise its $1.45 million annual operating budget all by itself ˆ a difficult proposition, says Brier, for a school that tries to keep its tuition affordable. "If we were to try to fund our operation through tuition alone, parents would be paying at least $400 a week to send their kids to us ˆ Boston prices and then some," he says.
But Steven Brier's got an ace up his sleeve: real estate.
Brier says commercial real estate has allowed him to fund a program he admits hasn't broken even in its eight-year history. If it weren't for real estate and the rapid growth of the southern Maine market in recent years, he says, there would be no way to fund a school like Little Dolphin. "When I saw that we weren't able to fund our mission, I knew I had to figure out a different way to do this," Brier says.
In less than a decade, Brier has spent nearly $5 million on real estate, including a five-acre, 12,000-square-foot campus in Westbrook and his newest venture, the Little Dolphin Marketplace in Scarborough ˆ a retail development anchored by the Little Dolphin School. Along the way, Brier has played the real estate speculation game, buying under-priced properties and flipping them for a sizable profit after performing some routine improvements.
By using commercial real estate to bolster his program, Brier believes he has a model that can work for bringing similar infant care, toddler care, preschool and kindergarten programs to Maine, both in the urban and rural markets. But it's a model that takes careful attention to financial details and property selection, he says, and one that requires a lot of sacrifice on the part of anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps.
Renaissance man
Brier moved from to Maine from New York City in 1995. A physician by trade, Brier opted out of his medical practice after battling the lingering effects of Lyme disease, instead opting to follow in the footsteps of his mother, Sheila Brier, who founded the first Little Dolphin School in Manhattan nearly three decades ago. "When I first relocated here to Maine, everyone said, 'Can't your mother comes up here? There aren't a lot of good choices for children,'" Brier notes. "And frankly, there aren't a lot of good choices in New York either, but there are more choices."
Brier was keenly aware that location was going to be a critical factor in establishing the Little Dolphin School in Maine. He needed to be in a place where he could afford rent on top of the school's other overhead ˆ staff salaries and fresh-produce-based children's meals take the largest chunks of the pie. And the locations also needed to be high-visibility areas accessible to the professionals with children who mostly worked in Portland.
So Brier leveraged his assets, including his house, to help finance the creation of the Little Dolphin School, giving "his whole life to the bank," he says. In 1998, Brier bought five acres on Route 22 in Westbrook for what ultimately turned into a $1 million project to develop a 12,000 sq. ft. facility with 12 classrooms. (Brier says the Westbrook campus is the largest childcare center in the state, and was recently appraised at $1.62 million.) The Little Dolphin School opened its doors in June 1999 with a handful of students, but was filled to capacity before the end of the first year, he says. These days, the Westbrook facility now serves some 200 families each year ˆ or 175 children enrolled at any given time.
In December 1999, he spent $240,000 for an adjacent 12-acre parcel, and did architectural and pre-engineering studies before selling the lot for $830,000 in November 2005 to Zyacorp Entertainment, which built a Cinemagic movie theater complex. That sale, he said, helped continue funding the Little Dolphin mission.
In May, Brier took his real estate venture one step further, opening the Scarborough campus of the Little Dolphin School on Route One in the former VIP Plaza. But this time, Brier didn't simply buy and sell some real estate to finance the school ˆ he became a developer. The school was to be the anchor tenant of the Little Dolphin Marketplace property, taking over a property with 20,400 sq. ft. of potential retail and office space that previously was anchored by a fitness center.
The key to the plan, however, was that Brier planned on rounding out the nine-store plaza with other businesses, the monthly rents from which would help subsidize the property's mortgage and, indirectly, the financing of the school itself. Under the auspices of Dolphin Investment LLC, Brier paid $3.6 million to purchase and refurbish the VIP Plaza property. While the other tenants pay full market rates, the school pays what Brier says is about 75% of market rates for its 9,600 sq. ft. of space.
And in keeping with the nature of the school, Brier says he wanted family-friendly tenants in the marketplace, which currently houses six businesses, from a children's performing arts center to a meal preparation franchise.
And though Brier has scant commercial development experience, he's gotten high marks for his work on the marketplace project. "I don't know exactly when the VIP Plaza was built, but it had to be in the 60s or early 70s, and boy did it look the part," says Harvey Rosenfeld, president and executive director of the nonprofit Scarborough Economic Development Corp. "What he did first of all was take a really nondescript site and make it a class-A, aesthetically pleasing one."
Brier says that the businesses in and around the Scarborough campus like being near the Little Dolphin School because they get high-visibility property and have a flow of professionals dropping off and picking up their kids at the school. Brier expects to serve roughly 125 families a year at the Scarborough campus, and already has September's pre-enrollment up to about half of the school's capacity. Brier predicts that with the Little Dolphin reputation already in the public consciousness, it will take about six months to completely fill the Scarborough campus.
That's good news for Carol Cronin, owner of Jean Jungle, a tenant of the marketplace, whose clothing store primarily targets men and women over 30. "The minute I sat down with Steven [about becoming a tenant] I just knew," says Cronin. "It just felt right."
There are other synergies as well: Stages, the performing arts center, was founded by a pair of Little Dolphin parents, Brier says, and sometimes provides performance programming in the extra rooms of the schools set aside for special activities. And the prepared-food company, Entrée Vous, delivers meals to some of the parents at the Westbrook campus (and Brier himself often gets several meals a week for his family).
Upping the ante
Having cut his teeth on real estate development with the Scarborough campus, Brier is now eyeing the downtown Portland market with plans for a 60,000-square-foot facility that would house not only another Little Dolphin school, but also the Cumberland County District Attorney's office. His plan is a response to a request for proposals issued by the county to develop the parking lot adjacent to the current district attorney's office on Federal Street.
In addition to the school, Brier's plans for the building include a restaurant on the first floor, space for the D.A. and for professional offices, which Brier expects would mostly be small- and mid-size law firms. He estimates the total project would cost $15.2 million and could be complete in 15-18 months if everything goes as planned.
County officials plan to visit the current Little Dolphin campuses soon as part of the review process. There is no firm date as to when he'll get a thumbs up or down on his downtown proposal, but Brier suspects he might know something by the end of summer or so.
(The proposal submitted by Brier is one of three received by the county, says Bruce D. Tarbox, facilities manager for the Cumberland County Facilities Department. A final decision will be made as early as this month, though Tarbox couldn't be more specific.)
Brier does think he'll get some points for originality. "Our proposal, which no one else would be crazy enough to do, is to bring a beautiful school downtown," he says. "There is nothing like this downtown."
He realizes his plan may be a long-shot, but his ace in the hole is that he has so many lawyers' children in Little Dolphin that "everyone in the DA's office knows about us, and I think that will level the playing field for us somewhat."
He also believes his plan would "liven up and change the feel" of the Lincoln Park area, which he feels is currently underutilized.
Despite his success in establishing two campuses, with a possible third on the way, Brier admits that the operation is not a money-maker, which is precisely why the schools are set up as part of a nonprofit foundation. He believes that the real estate investment and development angle could one day fully support his schools and perhaps let him break even, but for the time being, some of the funds that keep things going come out of his own pocket.
That's the cost, he notes, of school amenities such as catered food service using fresh produce for the kids' meals, and having specialty rooms in the schools ˆ for things like yoga, performance art and movement arts classes. In addition, Little Dolphin spent nearly $150,000 in the past academic year on tuition assistance, he says, which is given to roughly 30% of the students.
Regardless of whether there's black ink in the books in the near future, Brier says he doesn't plan for his position as executive director to ever support his family. Unlike a typical executive director that might make $90,000 a year, Brier pays himself just $100 a week ˆ enough to qualify for the same healthcare benefits he provides to the school's employees.
"Many people have joked that Little Dolphin is a lousy business, and I agree," he says. "A fantastic school and a great place to work, but a lousy business."
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