I own a good piece of land in St. Paul Minnesota just north of downtown off i94. Currently it has a SFH on it. The plan is to put an apartment complex on the property. It is already zoned for commerical so that is one less hurdle.

Questions:

1. I have never done new construction nor do I know how many units can fit on the land (I know St. Paul's guidelines for density). What costs can I assume just for feasibility of project? I would just like to get a few quotes on rough costs for a 2 story 20 unit building, just as an example. 

2. Where do I go to find builders, designers, architects? I am not local so I have googled and pulled a few names but assume there are a lot of national companies. Is there a good link to a directory of builders? Any one have one they recommend? 

3. If anyone has experience with cost of an apartment complex build I would be very appreciative. This project is 3 years away so I need to start saving :)

@Brock Y.  send me a PM if you'd like.  I can point you in the right direction.

Have you ever developed a property before?  Why are you planning to wait 3 years to develop?

 @Brock Y. : it is probably best for you to team up with a developer who focuses on small apartment building development. There are many, many issues to figure out on a development and time will grind your resources up if you don't know how to move quickly through issues and problems. If you want to connect with local developers let me know.

Account Closed I have never developed a property. Just rehabbed. There are a lot of reasons for waiting but in a nutshell grandparent lives in the SFH and I would need to find a replacement home first. The other reason is right now I am in the middle of purchasing some properties and I do not have unlimited funds. It is not an immediate need but I assume new construction will be near 2 million so I need to save for the down payment if it's feasible. I would like to know soon if I should be saving for it or just buying other properties. Hope this makes sense.

@Brock Y.  understood.  the reason i asked about timing is that the apartment market is nearing it's peak in this area and you might be developing during a reset of values in 3 years which is obviously not ideal.  that's all.

how big of a site is this?  how many units were you envisioning?  with the run up in construction costs in the past 36 months it's getting extremely difficult to pencil out small apartment construction. 

I'd highly advise bringing in more experienced partners on something like this, as @Robert Tryon  suggests.  

You could also think about selling the land to a developer and/or being a part of the JV structure and contributing the land as your equity and making your profit that way.

Account Closed I will be contacting you soon.

@Brock Y.  sounds good.  i've been the in development/multifamily game for over 10 years and have relationships with just about every developer in town.  let me know if I can be helpful in any way.