The short answer
Look the LLC up in its state’s business registry, then read the deed and the mortgage recorded with the county. Write down every person, company and address you find. A company that turns up in more than one record is your best lead, not yet the developer. Confirm it from a second kind of source, such as its own website showing the project, before you reach out.
A registered agent, a lender, a title company, a law firm or an outside property manager can appear on the same papers. None of them is the owner.
Why the owner is an LLC
Developers and investors often put each property in its own LLC, called a single-purpose entity (SPE or SPV). It keeps each project’s debts and partners apart, and lenders often require it. Fannie Mae’s multifamily guide, for example, requires the borrower to be “a domestic single-asset entity formed for the sole purpose of owning the Property” (Fannie Mae Multifamily Guide, section 302.01).
So a name like “123 Main Street Owner LLC” on a permit tells you little. The company you want to talk to sits one or more steps above it.
1. Start with the record that named the LLC
Go back to the permit, sale or loan where you found the LLC. A building permit names the owner, and often an applicant, a contact person and the contractor. A sale or loan in the news may name the parent company outright.
Note every name, phone number and address. The next steps check them against each other.
2. Look the LLC up in the state business registry
Search the business registry of the state where the LLC was formed, and of the state where the property is. Look for the managers or members and the office and mailing addresses. States show very different amounts:
- Florida. Every year an LLC must report “the name, title or capacity, and address of at least one person who has the authority to manage the company” (Florida Statutes, section 605.0212). Sunbiz, the state’s registry, shows it.
- Texas. The yearly Public Information Report lists “the names and addresses of a corporation’s or LLC’s officers, directors, managers, or members, as applicable”. The Secretary of State warns that this information “is not necessarily current” (Texas Secretary of State).
- Delaware. The free search gives the name, file number, formation date and registered agent (Delaware Division of Corporations). The certificate of formation does not have to name members or managers (Delaware Code, title 6, section 18-201), so look for the same LLC in the property’s state.
If a manager or member is itself a company, such as “123 Main Street Manager LLC”, look that one up the same way. Keep going until you reach a company with a website and staff.
3. Read the deed and the mortgage
Deeds and mortgages are recorded with the county clerk or recorder, and many counties let you search them online. New York City’s ACRIS, for example, covers Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn from 1966 to the present. Read two things:
- Who signed for the LLC. The LLC signs its mortgage (a deed of trust in some states) through a person, often through another company too: “By: 123 Main Street Manager LLC, its manager. By: Jane Smith, authorized signatory.” Both names are leads. The lender named on the mortgage is not the owner.
- The addresses. The buyer’s mailing address on the deed, and where the tax bills go, often lead to the owner’s office or its lawyer.
4. Search the news and the web
Search the LLC’s exact name in quotes, then the project’s address. Local business news, a project’s own leasing website or a zoning application often names the developer directly. Trust a result only when the same page names the company together with the LLC or the address.
5. Confirm before you reach out
Count a company as the developer only when two different kinds of record tie it to this LLC, not two copies of the same filing. For example, the manager in the state filing also signed the mortgage, and the company’s website shows the project. Then check:
- Its LinkedIn page links to the same website.
- It is more than a similar name. A company that shares a word with the LLC but sits in another city is not a match.
Then find the person who decides on your service. The person who signed the filing is often someone else.
Who is not the developer
- The registered agent: a company such as CT Corporation or CSC that accepts legal papers for the LLC.
- The lender on the mortgage.
- The title company, and the law firm that set up the LLC or handled the closing.
- The listing broker, and an outside property manager.
- The landlord of the building where the LLC has its address.
When the trail goes cold
Some owners stack several LLCs in states that show little, and the public record never names the developer. The federal beneficial ownership reports won’t help: FinCEN kept them in a “non-public database” (FinCEN), and U.S. companies have not had to file them since March 2025 (FinCEN), an exemption FinCEN made permanent in August 2026 (FinCEN).
Two places still help. The architect and the contractor named on the permit often show the project and the client on their websites. And the next record for the same property, a new permit, loan or sale, may name the parent company.
How Buildwise does this
Buildwise does this as step 02 of how Buildwise works: we connect the property LLC to the business behind the project, using company filings, websites and other public records, then check the company against your criteria.
Then we find the decision-maker and run LinkedIn and email outreach from your accounts. See our services.
