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Canadian Real Estate
Account Closed
  • St Catharines, ON
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Converting School To Apartment Complex

Account Closed
  • St Catharines, ON
Posted May 17 2017, 13:34

Hi All,

I have recently had an accepted offer on a property in NS. It's a retired school and I am looking to convert to an apartment complex. The property is in very good shape and I've now got to line up financing to firm up the deal and move forward with construction.

I'm used to residential properties so this is a little out of my comfort zone but still an insane deal.

I'd like to get a sense of what operating costs I should be expecting to see. I've received a year's worth of utilities bills from the previous school board owners for heating oil, electricity, water and I'm in the process of lining up estimates for property tax and insurance. The city has already agreed in writing to change the zoning to residential which was a bonus...no fight there.

The finished project should bring in around 19k in month gross rent. Looking at the previous utilities, estimating around $6k - $7k for operating expenses, plus whatever the insurance and taxes will be.

Is there anything else I should be including in my cost estimates other than property management fees? Are there any "gotchas" that I should watch out for?

For those of you who may have done similar greyfield conversions, what were your lessons learned?

What should I be expecting in terms of conversion costs? I realize that this is a massive black hole without more details but let me say that the school is fully structurally sound. No vandalism. Good functional boiler based heating in the building. Roof is in great shape. How would you go about estimating your renovation/conversion costs?

Btw, I've already done an asbestos survey and the costs for abatement will need to be included in my estimates.