By day this executive vice president of commercial and residential development for Forest City Ratner Companies is developing the new arena-home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets (among many projects). By night she’s on homework and bedtime duty with her three kids—a crowded but cool life.
She lives in upstate New York with her husband James; children Devin, 15, Aidan, 13, and Tess, 8

Fitness and Coffee

I’m not a morning person by nature, but for my fitness, I get up at 5:30 a.m. By 6 I’m in a very hard spinning class by candlelight that’s an eight-minute drive away. Every other week a yoga teacher comes to our house, and my 15-year-old, who loves yoga, and I do it together. At 7 I’m in the shower. After that, it’s the family’s time together at the breakfast table. We set the table the night before, and eat a decent non-sugar cereal or fruit yogurt—simple. I just have coffee (I know, I know) while the kids eat and sometimes say, “Why do we have to eat breakfast, you don’t?” I take one or more of them to school in Scarsdale, where we live; my husband, James, a retired detective and lawyer and now an at-home dad, takes the others. I leave for work in Brooklyn at 8. We chose to live where there’s grass underfoot and have me commute to work, which is my time to focus.

Crazy Days

By 9:15 I’m at our office in downtown Brooklyn (our parent company is in Cleveland). I’m a real estate developer. I figure out where the land is, sometimes negotiate with the government, buy the land and make it ready to develop by bringing together financing, the architect and so on. (Sometimes we own part of a building we develop, like the New York Times building in Manhattan, so we manage and rent it out.) I’m a rainmaker, always out and about seeking the next opportunity and the financing. Our ongoing projects are a labor of love and take long-term care and feeding—somewhat like raising a child. Every day I lunch with someone outside the company, a real estate person or client or a potential client. I may meet with a reverend from a community group about my current project, Barclays Center sports and entertainment arena in Brooklyn that will be home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. Our company bought the team to bring to Brooklyn and then sold 80 percent of it. After lunch, I meet with my CEO. I also have meetings about sites, design, layouts. I go to the arena and tour it with a prospective lender, climbing over pipes in heels and a hardhat. I ride the hoists up the building. My kids may come to a groundbreaking or ride the hoist to the top of a building under construction. I love that they can see the fruits of my work. I manage a team of 20, mostly women, and I’ve cultivated some unbelievable talent. They see me do the work-and-family thing and feel they can do it, too.

Meanwhile, at Home

There are so many things at home that are outside my control, so I try to organize things as well as I can. Coming home to a house that’s not organized can totally unnerve me, and I want my daughter and sons to be able to go to their different afterschool activities. James could make that happen, but much of this is about my control issues, so we employ Vanessa from 3 to 7 p.m. to clean the house, do laundry and take Tess to soccer or art class while the boys go off and do sports. They all start coming home around 6.

Dinner Flex

 I get home around 8, after the kids have had dinner. We have salad and chicken—James does a mean chicken Parmesan—or salad and fish; the kids might eat pasta. My kids love do-it-yourself tacos. Fresh and simple does the trick. We’ve evolved from chicken nuggets to grilled chicken. Sometimes we do pizza from Trader Joe’s. We also order in. James often waits for me to eat, and the kids have dessert at that time. Dinner isn’t perfect, but … When I know by 5:30 that I can get home by 7:15, I let them know that we can all eat together. When I get home I try to leave my work outside. James walks our two dogs when I get home to get outside.

Bedtime Routine

From 8 to 10 p.m. I’m part story reader, part storyteller and part study buddy. James is off the clock. First I’m with Tess, who goes to bed by 9:30. I always say we have the longest bedtime routine in the history of the world. We read Pippi Longstocking, Madeleine, Alice in Wonderland—things I loved as a child. Tess reads, I read. The boys are doing their homework, and if there’s a test, James pitches in. There’s very little TV on weeknights. I lie down with Tess, and I get the best information and stories out of her after the lights are out. Then I go to Aiden or Devin, depending on who’s got what to study. James may go check on his mom, who lives nearby, or to the store. The boys are in bed by 11. My BlackBerry is out of sight when I’m with the kids. From 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. is my “me time” for work, in bed with my iPad and BlackBerry. I’m cozy and I have my tea and I’m happy. Or I read a book. I’m reading Bossy Pants right now. When I hit the pillow at 12:30, I’m out until 5:30. I always say sleep is overrated for the working mom, something I may live to regret as time goes on. It’s the best I can do now. I have high energy and am passionate about most everything I do, so … it works.

Weekend Calm
What gets cheated is James’s and my time together, but we both recognize that this time in our lives with our kids is fleeting, and that’s where we are right now. On the weekends, he needs his time to stay social. I want to be at home with my kids underfoot and to cook in my kitchen. It’s seems boring, but it’s what it is. We bring people over and I put dinner together. Sometimes James and I go out late for dinner or a movie or a concert with another couple. I love bringing the kids to the city, too. We like Broadway! The boys resist, but we go, and afterward they’re glad they did. It’s tribal, all of us together as much as we can. Fortunately my travel for work is slim to none. But our company is in 26 states, so if, say, I go to California, I try to bring the whole family.

—As told to Barbara Turvett