The development company I work for buys land, rezones and permits the land for development, and builds our product on the land, which happens to be apartment buildings. Some companies, like ours, work as one company because we keep all of our communities and profit from the rents that we collect.
Most people start out as a single person or couple of buddies that get together to develop land. Typically they buy the land and design their project the way they want. Once the due diligence and approvals are complete they need to build it. This single person or buddies may not have any construction experience at all so they have to hire a general contractor to build and manage the construction. The developers pay the general contractor to do the work.
After they have developed a number of projects and have gained a ton of experience working with different general contractors the buddies can decide to start being their own general contractor. Some developers will then set up two companies, one for the development and one for the construction. In the case when you here a developer getting paid for construction it is likely because they own both companies and Joe the developer pays Joe the contractor to build the project. In general terms Joe pays himself (you would have to talk to an accountant or attorney to learn more on setting these entities up right). That may be the reason you hear or read that Donald got paid to construct a building.
There are many pluses and minuses to creating a business like this but they only become apparent once you start down the path.
