$7.00M
Sale price
Single Family · Mount Olympus
The Treehouse HH
8070 Laurelmont Dr · Sold · $7.00M · 2021 – 2024
0.73x
Equity multiple — capital loss
$1.90M
Gross project profit
48 mo
Hold period
The Investment
Gross-profitable at the project level. A loss at the equity level. Both are true, and we publish both.
A hillside flag-lot rebuild in Mount Olympus that carried genuine new-construction scope under a remodel permit — new retaining walls and more than thirty caissons. The structural work materially exceeded the original pricing, and on a hillside site that overage is not recoverable through value engineering.
The extended timeline is what converted a cost overrun into an equity loss. Forty-eight months of debt carry and partner-level costs compounded against a project that did generate roughly $1.9M of gross profit at the property level on a $5.1M total cost when it sold for $7.0M in 2024.
At the sponsor-equity level, the deal returned $733,829 on $1,000,000 invested — a 0.73x multiple. It is the only capital-impairment outcome across 21 completed projects, and it is disclosed here for the same reason it appears in the track record: an operator's record is only useful if it includes the deals that did not work.
Gallery
The property.
Return On Investment
The numbers.
| Strategy | Total project cost | Disposition / value | Gross profit | Profit on cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studs-out rebuild — hillside flag lot | $5.10M | $7.00M | $1.90M | 37.3% |
Equity Performance — Realized
| Equity invested | Total returned | Net profit | Hold | Multiple | IRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000,000 | $733,829 | ($266,171) | 48 mo | 0.73x | ~(8%) |
This project was completed by the principals through Thornton Development Group or an affiliated predecessor entity. It was not an Assemble Capital offering and did not involve Assemble Capital investors. Figures are sponsor-level, pre-tax, unaudited, and derived from internal records, closing statements, and lender documentation. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Investment Cycle
How the deal ran.
Every project follows the same arc — acquire, design and permit, build, market, exit. What changes is where the time and the risk concentrate.
2021
Acquire
Hillside flag lot acquired with a studs-out remodel scope underwritten.
2021–2022
Discover
Structural conditions required retaining walls and 30+ caissons — new-construction scope under a remodel permit.
2022–2023
Build
Extended schedule; debt carry and partner-level costs compounded.
2024
Market
Listed and sold into a functioning market at $7.0M.
2024
Exit
Project-level gross profit ~$1.9M; sponsor equity returned 0.73x after debt and carry.
The Takeaway
Project margin is not equity return. Underwriting must test the equity outcome, not just the spread between cost and exit price.
Accountability
What changed afterward.
A loss is only useful if it changes the underwriting. These controls were implemented across the platform following this project.
- Geotechnical and structural investigation before acquisition on all hillside deals
- Hillside-specific contingency and interest-reserve sizing, with maximum-duration limits in underwriting
- A severe-downside case required at investment committee — equity outcome tested, not just project margin
- Preference shifted toward ministerial and flatland product (SB 684, infill multifamily) at greater scale
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