Project Manager

The Santa Catalina Island Company (“ICO”) was founded 125 years ago with the plan of delivering a best-in-class island resort experience to guests and visitors from around the world.  Its namesake, Santa Catalina Island, is located 22 miles from the mainland of California, and comprises 76 square miles of land with approximately 52 miles of coastline.  Largely undeveloped and unchanged in character, Catalina Island represents a refreshing and unusual contrast to otherwise densely populated urban areas of the United States.  In 1972 ICO created the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy (a non-profit 501c3 charity) and, in 1975, deeded approximately 88% of the island to it; the remaining portions of the island also remain privately owned.  After the Conservancy, ICO is the principal landowner, and it is the corporation’s intent to selectively develop a portion of these assets in an orderly and profitable manner while preserving the charm and unique character of the island.

The Catalina Island Company owns, manages, leases, develops, and occasionally sells residential, commercial and unimproved property. These assets are generally concentrated in two locations: within the city of Avalon on the east end of the island and in the community of Two Harbors at the isthmus to the west. Key real estate holdings in Avalon include the Pavilion Hotel, Hotel Atwater, Catalina Country Club, the Casino Ballroom, 1/3 of the commercial real estate on front street, Avalon Grille, Descanso Beach Club, Zip Line Eco Tour, and Catalina Aerial Adventure. The company also owns residential properties, including ground leases for single and multi-family residential developments managed by others, company owned/operated residential projects and for-sale lots.  Public use properties include land/building leases for civic functions (e.g., LAC Sheriff’s and Fire stations, library, and more) as well as roads, storm drains, flood control basins, and fire flow systems.  At the isthmus, ICO owns and manages the community of Two Harbors, providing visitor services to boaters, campers, and divers through its operation of a hotel, restaurant, general store, campgrounds and dive center.  It also owns and operates the sewage treatment facility there.

The ICO Facilities, Design & Development (FD&D) department has five primary roles within the Company:

1. Design: Facilitate the efficient review and approval of all proposed improvements through professional presentation of design ideas to Senior Management and Ownership.
2. Project Management: Primary responsibility for managing the planning, design, entitlement and construction of capital improvement projects within schedule, budget and quality parameters.
3. Master Planning: Identify new development opportunities and create asset strategy, develop master plans, budgets and schedules for implementing these opportunities.
4. Data Management: Organize and manage all planning, design and asset management information in electronic and paper form to support Department and Company needs for easy access to data when needed.
5. Maintenance: Define the Company strategy for each existing asset and implement an efficient maintenance program to achieve that strategy for each asset.

The Project Manager (PM) position will focus on the project development and implementation of growth and renovation projects within the Company’s development program.  The PM will also play an important assisting role in planning, prioritizing, and managing the overall multi-year capital expenditure plan.  The projects comprise a range of project types including major repairs, renovation, modernization, ground-up development, asset repositioning and adaptive reuse.  The projects also comprise a range of sectors including hospitality, residential, recreational and commercial. 

This PM role will be based primarily on the mainland, in the Company’s office currently in Irvine, California, with some limited flexibility for remote work as defined by the Company.  A portion of the PM work will be coordinating with mainland agencies and consultants; however, all of the Company’s real estate assets and all of the Department’s projects are located on Catalina Island.  Therefore, as PM, regular travel to the island is required to facilitate the project work, to analyze projects and assets, coordinate planning and programming with various departments, support design development, meet with the Design Review Committee, potentially appear before the Planning Commission and/or city council and to oversee construction.  Because of the frequent travel between the mainland and Island, this position will require someone with an extremely strong work ethic and the discipline to work independently.

In addition to being able to capably perform the specific job duties listed above, the PM should possess the general knowledge, skill, and/or abilities listed below.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  Must be willing and able to travel to/from Catalina Island up to 30% of the time.  

Education and Experience: Four-year degree in design, architecture, engineering, construction management or related technical field from an accredited college is required.  A Master’s Degree in Real Estate Development, Design or Business is considered desirable. Must have construction-related project management experience. Five plus years of experience in residential, commercial, hotel and/or mixed-use development project management is preferred.

Communication Skills: Successful applicant must be able to concisely summarize complicated issues verbally and in writing.  Must be able to discern the most important information and communicate same to management promptly.

Other Skills and Abilities:

• Experience processing building permits and entitlements will be extremely helpful in successfully performing this role.
• Deadline Oriented; Self-Motivated
• Collaborates with senior management, other employees / departments, and contractors to ensure goals align
• Due diligence, budgeting and schedule
• Demonstrated ability to plan and organize projects
• Comfortable with reviewing contracts
• Strong organizational, problem-solving and analytical skills
• Experience preparing and managing project budgets in Microsoft Excel and project schedules in Smartsheet (or similar) is preferred; pro forma underwriting for deal analysis a plus
• Highly developed skills in presenting projects to agency staff and officials at public hearings
• Team-oriented and collaborative approach to work
• Strong attention to detail with focus on accuracy
• Excellent interpersonal, relationship management and negotiation skills
• Experience in Design and Presentation programs including: Photoshop, InDesign, PowerPoint, SketchUp and AutoCAD; Creative Suites proficiency a plus

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects or tools; reach with hands and arms; and talk and hear.  The employee is also required to frequently stand and walk on construction sites.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds, including often carrying heavy bags/boxes of plans and/or design materials to and from the ferry and to the offices and/or project job sites. Specific vision abilities required by this job include the ability to adjust focus.