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This article studies property developers in order to investigate the more general issue of how economic actors turn a profit. By tracing the development history of a major shopping mall in France in conjunction with the developer’s series of financial projections for the project, it shows that contrary to the predictions of Marxist approaches centered on land rent, profit is generated by the entrepreneurial work of strategically “qualifying” (defining, staging and promoting) the given development. Development projects involve a system of actors coordinated by the developer; that coordination consists in developers integrating the wishes and expectations of their strategic interlocutors—local political officials, future tenants, and investors—into the design of their buildings. In doing so, they manage to involve them in the project without relying solely on coordination through prices, which would reduce their profit margins.