All Forum Posts by: Jean H.

Hello - I'm a newbie when it comes to real estate development but wanting to learn. Have an interesting opportunity that i'd apprecaite input/views on. Lot is in a suburb, south of Seattle.

Combined site for sale is ~3.6 acres, retangular shaped. Fairly flat with the exception of a small portion of the lot (back end). The site is currently zoned public/quasi-public. A portion of the lot was used as a school bus lot and about 2.8 acres of the lot used as a soccer field.

The zoning around the two parcels is zoned residential w/ majority of them 7,200 sq ft lots. I think we'd be able to construct ~2,000 sq ft homes.

The price for the lot $1.3 million. New homes in the area can fetch around $200-$250 per square foot.

What i'd like input on for this type of development is:

1) Whether undertaking this project would be financially feasible if rezoning to residential (w/ 7,200 sq ft lots) were possible?

-I'd specifically like to get an estimate/ball park figure re how many homes I would be able to construct, taking into account the roads/communal areas that would need to be in place for the homes.

2) The process and key milestones to get this developed from submitting an LOI/offer for the land all the way to construction/selling the homes

3) Any good resources on the topic?

Thank you. Any input would be much apprecaited!

Thank you very much Joel - that's very helpful

We're planning on developing and holding for at least 5-7 years. Fortunately, there isn't a lot of commercial/retail around the area. It's largely a newer industrial/warehouse area with a substantial amount of residential homes/apartments.

To your point, we are trying to target national retailers/fast food chains to make it worth our time. Otherwise the financials just don't make too much sense for us to pursue.

I've read and heard from others that recommend creating a marketing package and sending it over to the various real estate teams as these national retailers/fast food chains - this just seems ineffective in all honesty. Others recommend hiring a local broker which I feel is the best route. If I do reach out to a local broker, how do I approach them and what types of documents will they us to prepare?

Thanks! 

Hello -

First post here and a newbie when it comes to commercial real estate development! Wanted to get some input/thoughts on how to attract national tenants for a build to suit project or ground lease.

We own a highly trafficked commercial corner lot (~2.2 acres) in a suburb south of Seattle WA and are committed to developing the land as we see good financial potential in developing it ourselves vs just selling it outright. Obviously, our first choice would be to go with the ground lease route and second would be to do a build to suit w/ a national tenant(s) e.g. 7-11, McDonalds, Walgreens etc.

But before we go any further, we'd like to know what are the necessary/important steps to attract national retail/fast food tenants. Do national retailers that go with the build to suit or ground lease route usually find their own sites, purchase the land and develop them w/ a developer/contractor they've done business with in the past? Or would they consider ideas/sites proposed by developers? Last but not least, would hiring a commercial leasing agent specializing in retail be the best route and would they help source potential clients?

Thank you so much in advance! Any input would be highly apprecaited.