David Belt is a cofounder of New Lab, a making space, workshop, and co-working space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A New York-based international real estate developer, he is also the Founder and Managing Principal of Macro Sea and DBI. Over the past twenty-five years, Belt has developed a diverse range of projects that vary widely in size, scope and location; he has executed over $1 billion in private and institutional development projects worldwide.
How and why did you become involved in your line of work? What would you even call what you do?
I’m an entrepreneur and a founder. Mostly I do real estate and building projects. I’ve been in construction for a long time. I started as a laborer and worked my way up. My projects have just followed a natural progression based on my interests.
Tell us a little bit about your present work, the Cliffs Notes version of your day to day and what is at stake.
I’m running Macro Sea (my development company) and I’m also the CEO of New Lab. I guide both companies, and try to work with the teams from both companies to encourage them to do their best work, their most interesting work, and to challenge them to dig deep and to be great. I also am the founder of DBI and I am part of the management team there.
