Danielle Kaufman
Danielle Kaufman is the Owner and Consultant of Kaufman Consultants, a commercial real estate development advisory firm. She brings over 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, a career that began in an unexpected way when she was an accounting intern with the Kroger Company in Cincinnati. Initially preparing for a path in capital management, she was advised by her manager that accounting was not the best fit for her strengths and personality, and encouraged to explore real estate instead—guidance that ultimately shaped her entire professional journey.
Following that pivotal moment, Danielle built a comprehensive foundation in commercial real estate through more than a decade with Kroger, working across five different states and gaining hands-on experience in how real estate transactions vary across markets nationwide. This exposure gave her a deep understanding of site selection, development strategy, and large-scale retail expansion. Six years ago, she launched Kaufman Consultants, where she now partners with developers throughout the Dallas–Fort Worth region and Oklahoma, managing projects from inception through completion, including site acquisition, contract negotiations, leasing strategy, and coordination with municipalities to secure incentives for major retail developments.
Her work focuses on large-scale retail projects of approximately 400,000 square feet, often anchored by national tenants such as Kroger, Target, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. Danielle is passionate about the broader economic impact of development, particularly the indirect creation of jobs and long-term community growth that result from new retail investment. After operating her firm independently for six years, she recently reached two major milestones: hiring her first employee, who will begin on May 11, and achieving equity participation in a development deal—transitioning from consultant to partner in project success, a long-term professional goal that reflects her continued growth and expanding influence in the industry.
• Texas Real Estate Salesperson License
• University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business - BBA, Accounting, Real Estate
• Mentoring and speaking to collegiate women about real estate careers
• Speaking to high school juniors and seniors about career opportunities in real estate
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute all of my success to all of the many mentors that I've had along the way. I've had a lot of great bosses when I was working at the corporate level that gave me the opportunities to work on new deals and take on more, and I'll forever be grateful for those opportunities because I got to learn so much. The accounting side, the finance side, pro formas, site selection - I really attribute all of that to the managers that I had at Kroger. They provided me with opportunities to learn various aspects of the industry and take on new challenges that built the foundation for everything I do today.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice that I received was to make a career change when I was interning at Kroger and was young. For that supervisor to tell me, 'Hey, you're really good at what you do, but I think you're gonna burn out,' was the best advice I could have ever taken. He didn't think accounting fit my personality and suggested I try real estate instead, where I could get out of the office and do site visits. I was open to that feedback and willing to take it and run with it, and it completely changed the trajectory of my career.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Go for it. I focus on mentoring and speaking to collegiate women and even high school juniors and seniors, just to broaden their horizon on what opportunities are out there and to always be prepared to receive those opportunities. Just like I was open to that feedback when I was young that maybe I should do a career change, and to be able to take that feedback and run with it. I think there's a lot of women out there that don't realize how many roles in real estate there is. There's a lot of focus on design and engineering and brokerage, but I like to show them that there's more opportunity. You can be a developer, or you can be an attorney in commercial real estate, or you can be a property manager in commercial real estate. There's so many different avenues that you could find and explore and fall into, so not pigeonholing yourself into one category of the real estate industry, but really be open-minded that you might fall into something new and interesting 3 years down the road that takes you down another path, but you're still in real estate.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, it's really tough to source financing because of the war going on. I paused to answer that, because if this call happened 30 days ago, that wouldn't have come up - it would be business as usual. I think that's the challenging part, one of the challenging parts of commercial real estate, is that it's so volatile and changes with the market. If a war begins one day, that could change my whole trajectory of a project. So right now, it's trying to source investment partners who are really nervous right now about what's happening in the world today, and that's affecting my projects. That's a very difficult place to be in, because I can't control what's going on in the market, so I have to be aware of what's happening and be able to pivot and move quickly to make sure that these deals are secure and structured to reduce the amount of risk so that people are still interested in investing in the projects.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Truth and honesty. This business and real estate, there's a lot of deals that happen, and sometimes you're moving so quickly, you have to rely on a handshake deal before legal documents can be put into place. You really have to build the relationships with your clients and the vendors, and build that trust so that when I make that phone call that I need them to produce something today, or immediately, I know that they've got my back to do that. And they know I have their back, right? When there is something urgent, but I know I could give them a couple more days, I give them a couple more days, and that's what builds trust. Same thing within my personal life. I have to have the trust that my family and my friends support me, and I support them. I just think relationships start with that foundation, and if you don't have a firm foundation, then there's no house to build.