Mustafa Abdul-Jabbar joins Ryan Glick to discuss public infrastructure financing and the role special districts play in Texas land development. Mustafa is a land development and public finance attorney at Allen Boone Humphries Robinson, where his work focuses on special districts and the public-private partnerships behind them.

Mustafa explains how municipal utility districts, or MUDs, and other Texas special districts can finance infrastructure including water, wastewater, drainage, roads, parks, and recreational facilities. He walks through how the reimbursement model works, where the development risk sits, and how removing eligible public infrastructure costs from a project's pro forma can affect the economics of a development.

Ryan and Mustafa also discuss the growth taking place across Texas and the need for infrastructure and housing to support that growth. Mustafa compares the Texas special district model with assessment-based approaches and explains why understanding the allocation of risk is important when evaluating different public financing tools.

The conversation also covers Mustafa's path from education to energy law and eventually land development, his involvement with Dudes in Development in Dallas, and lessons from his career. In the lightning round, Mustafa discusses misunderstood financing tools, infrastructure costs developers should consider, lessons from teaching, daily habits, and the value of being willing to change careers.