During the red-hot years of the mid-2000s,many commercial real estate developers opted to bring activitiesin-house. It was common to see development companies offeringeverything from leasing and land acquisitions to both vertical andhorizontal development and even design, all under one umbrella.

Then the Great Recession came, followed by the global financialmeltdown. Four years after the collapse, the economy continues tostruggle toward an ambivalent recovery. But economics changed howdevelopers operate. What once might have been a start-to-finishproject under one roof is likely to be completed by partners.

Alan B. Wynne, a member of the firm of Epstein Becker &Green PC, points out that, during the financial meltdown,developers that wanted to survive were forced to scale backoperations to the bone. This meant cutting back on departments thathad little to do with project development. As a result,"development companies have returned to their roots and corecompetencies," comments Wynne, who operates out of the company'sAtlanta office. "More than ever, developers are partnering withothers who provide complementary services, rather than trying to doeverything in-house."