Boys and their sheds
For Carbon Property owner and director Ben Lagan, property development is about people.
Ben was raised in a family where the realities of running a company became part of everyday life.
That fuelled a curiosity that would eventually lead him to start his own industrial property development business, Carbon Property.
The path to getting there, however, turned out to be far from straightforward.
That curiosity evolved into more than a decade of learning the industry from the ground up. While he was drawn to the creative and strategic aspects of development, he immersed himself in the technical side first.
“It took years of technical graft,” he says. “I was presented with an opportunity to complete a year-long cadetship working across the functions of property, construction, and manufacturing.
“It was light touches at each stage, but I was lucky enough to see every facet of how the process fits together. It was an incredibly valuable and unique foundation of my learning,” says Ben.
That grounding shaped his philosophy. Rather than simply putting deals together and handing projects to others to execute, Ben believes successful developments come from being involved in every stage of the process.
His career later expanded into executive leadership, where he developed management and leadership skills through extensive internal and external training. While he enjoyed leading people and organisations, he found himself wanting to reconnect with the customer-facing role that first drew him into property.
That desire became the foundation for launching Carbon Property.
Rather than operating as a traditional developer, Ben established what he describes as “property development as a service”, giving businesses access to experienced development expertise without the need to build an in-house property team.
“Property development is knowledge- and network-intensive,” he explains. “It’s often inaccessible unless organisations are willing to commit to building a team of their own or pay the full price for someone else to manage the process,” Ben says.
Carbon Property was designed to bridge that gap and approach things slightly differently.
“Our development approach should be so well refined that everyone enjoys the part they play. We should be aiming to have fun at every stage – that’s our standard,” Ben says.
One of his recent achievements is an Excellence Award for the recently completed Greenstar Level 5 Daikin Park Christchurch development.
“This was a true career highlight for me. It was the epitome of why I set up the company three years ago. The project went well, everyone shared in that, and we had fun along the way,” Ben says.
The business has evolved since opening its doors, but its core mission remains unchanged.
Like many business owners, Ben admits the early years came with lessons.
“You think you can go far and wide,” he says. “Three years in, I’m definitely an industrial guy. You come back to big sheds in industrial areas. That’s what I do, that’s what I’m known for. You’ve got to stick to your knitting.”
As he looks ahead, Ben is equally excited about the next three years.
He is farewelling his administrator, Claire, as she heads off to start a family with her partner, Reece, while welcoming Fletcher, who is completing his studies at Lincoln University.
“We are also moving offices, so there is a bit going on, but we are incredibly excited about entering the next phase of the business,” says Ben.