Ep. 37: She Had No Blueprint. So She Built One.

What do you do when you have a $140M vision, a community that needs it, and no manual for how to pull it off? You build the blueprint yourself.

Kristi Kandel went from small-town Ohio to developing Family Dollar stores and hydrogen fueling stations across California — and then Hurricane Ian wiped out her Southwest Florida community and handed her a new mission.

Now she’s building Elevate: a community sports, wellness, and social complex designed to bring adults back to the third spaces that build real human connection.

In this episode, Katie and Kristi break down the capital stack (crowdfunding + accredited investors + nonprofit components), the psychology of building in public every single day, and what it really takes to develop something when no playbook exists yet.

Keywords: real estate development for beginners, how to structure a development deal, community development projects, women in real estate, capital stack explained, public private partnership, how to fund a development project, community sports complex, women developers, adaptive reuse real estate, real estate without debt

👉If you’re ready to think like an owner, start here.
Comment “ASSESSMENT” for our free Strategic Roadmap.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
01:45 — Small-Town Ohio to Top of the Food Chain: Kristi’s Origin Story
04:43 — Building 30 Family Dollar Stores a Year in Her 20s
07:45 — How Beach Volleyball Led to a Hydrogen Fuel Station Empire
10:31 — “I Like Figuring Out the Puzzle of Things That Don’t Exist Yet”
12:40 — Hurricane Ian Wiped Out Her Community—Then Changed Everything
13:58 — Why She Started Teaching Locals to Develop Their Own Towns
18:34 — The Card Game That Sparked a $140M Vision
20:07 — What Is Elevate? (And Why Every City Needs One)
26:22 — The Capital Stack: Crowdfunding, Accredited Investors & Nonprofits
34:10 — Investing Buckets: W2 Substitution, Long-Term Plays & At-Risk Capital
41:29 — Building a Franchise Model for Community Development
46:35 — Blue Zones, Brené Brown & the Science Behind Connection
52:00 — When a Company Tanks and the Universe Forces You to Listen
55:10 — The Fort Women Build When Life Hits Hard
57:01 — Where to Follow Kristi’s Daily Build-in-Public Journey

🔗 Connect with Katie Kim

🌐 Website:
https://www.katiekim.com – The Katie Kim Educational Platform
https://www.thekimgroup.com – The Kim Group

📱 Instagram:
@thekatiekim
@thekimgroup

💼 LinkedIn:
Katie Arnholt Kim, CCIM
The Katie Kim Educational Platform
The Kim Group

📘 Facebook:
The Katie Kim Educational Platform
The Kim Group

🔗 Connect with Kristi Kandel

📘 Facebook:
Kristi Kandel

💼 LinkedIn:
Kristi Kandel

📱 Instagram:
@kristikandel

Project Pages Instagram:
@elevate_swfl
@elevate_st_pete

#RealTalkWithKatieKim #WomenInDevelopment #RealEstateDevelopment #CommunityDevelopment #WomenEntrepreneurs #FocusedLiteracy #DevelopmentDeals #KatieKim #BuildWithPurpose #WomenWhoLead #ElevateSwFL #CapitalStack #RealEstateEducation #LegacyBuilding