Real Estate Journal: This millennial developer built his first house before he could drink

At a time when most of his high school classmates were concerned about parties and where they would go to college, Christopher Longsworth was starting a development company and buying property to build homes.

It’s no wonder that the projects in Pompano Beach and Plantation by Longsworth, 33, have proven popular with fellow members of the millennial generation. He takes a forward-thinking approach to crafting projects that focus on advanced data, finding underserved segments of the market, and literally living the job. Longsworth said he’s signed annual leases and lived in the apartment buildings of three competitors so he could see what he’d be up against.

He currently has a lease at Related Group’s Icon Las Olas.

“I noticed what amenities people like and what is actually used versus what looks good on a brochure, but is never used,” said Longsworth, CEO of Plantation-based Invesca Development Group.

Invesca has completed 46 townhomes at Koi in Pompano Beach, and recently broke ground on an apartment tower there. It is delivering the first of 147 townhomes at Strata in Plantation, and it has two more phases in the pipeline. The company also owns a fitness center and a shooting gallery, plus it supports a nonprofit school for developmentally disabled children that’s housed in its headquarters.

Before he became the head of a group of companies with 134 employees, Longsworth was a student at Hollywood Hills High School, where the burly athlete played basketball and football. Inspired by his single mother, a commercial mortgage lender, he gravitated toward the business world at an early age.

At 9, he learned about the debt and equity markets from his mother and reviewed her credit files. As a pre-teen, they attended motivational speaking events by business gurus. In high school, he started originating loan files with his teachers.