Residential to commercial conversion

[Jason Collins]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on BP forums.

I am a physician in southwest Florida with several small vacation rentals as well as a duplex.

We just had our offer accepted on a residential property with just over 4 acres of land. This is located on a main road very close to a large new hospital that will be completed next year.

The area is rapidly growing and the property is less than 2.5 miles to the beach.

We are in the due diligence phase and I have already had several preliminary conversations with a local land planner/zoning expert.

My hope was to use the house as a vacation rental to cover my overhead while rezoning the front 2.5 acres into a commercial lot.

My goal would be to eventually use my medical connections and pair with investors/developers to build a medical office complex.

1. Any thoughts on the ease/difficulty of splitting and rezoning into commercial?

2. Could I possibly rezone the entire parcel with the house into a commercial property to give me more flexibility in the future?

3. We would like to make extra temporary revenue by either using the land for wedding receptions or boat/rv storage. Any thoughts on legal/liability issues this may create?

Thanks,

JC

[Joel Owens]

Is the land planner a zoning attorney? They should know a ton and how cases have played out with zoning. If you have never developed a property you might want to look at doing a joint venture with a developer or hiring a fee for developer.