Zoe Daniel, 23
Director of construction and development at Basis Industrial
Zoe Daniel grew up around development.
Her father builds single-family homes in wealthier parts of Westchester County and Connecticut — namely Rye, Scarsdale and Greenwich — and her mother became a residential broker when Daniel was in her teens, so she always knew she wanted to work in real estate. The Armonk, N.Y., native chose her college based on being able to study real estate as an undergraduate, which is why she landed at Syracuse University’s business school.
During her sophomore year, the pandemic hit and Daniel decided to finish school online while living in San Francisco. She got a part-time job doing administrative work at the local Keller Williams residential brokerage office, and then had a similar gig for an independent broker. After finishing her business degree, she quickly got hired at Basis Industrial, an industrial owner and developer based in Boca Raton, Fla.
In her 15 months at the firm, she has helped Basis acquire an industrial property in her hometown of Armonk for $30 million. As part of the deal, Basis leased the existing 60,000-square-foot warehouse on the site back to the former owner, a marble tile company, and arranged financing and approvals for a new 100,000-square-foot warehouse. Daniel oversaw the warehouse’s pre-leasing, which will be split between an indoor pickleball facility and a self-storage operator. Construction is supposed to start in the first quarter of next year.
Daniel is also working on a much bigger deal, helping Basis acquire a million square feet of industrial properties across Dallas, Orlando and various parts of the Northeast for $220 million.
Even after her upbringing and brief stint working in residential real estate, she said she likes handling commercial properties more. “Growing up, seeing my parents in residential, it always felt sort of small town-ish,” Daniel said. “Commercial just felt like this whole world. I knew I would learn a lot. I’m really happy I decided to go this route. I’m seeing so much more than I would see if I were on the residential side.”
When she’s not working, she says she enjoys doing yoga and going to workout classes at Orangetheory.
