He started a company that grew so much the City told them to get a proper building for manufacturing their food stuff, so I’m project managing the build and doing anything we don’t hire a contractor for.The annoying part about that is the location is in mount pleasant.

., where the simple act of securing permits to build an average “granny flat”in an average backyard can turn into an epic battle with the city’s Department of Building and Safety, that could take weeks, if not months.

I Love the safety and Due diligence tips on your end.

We also have the same tenant base most other cities do with working class individuals working in healthcare, food service, automotive, education, etc.

And of course the food! 

Does this apply to other expenses related to real estate investing such as travel, food expenses as well?

Check your state laws, but you will likely need to get your tenants out of the property during the remediation for their own health and safety.  

So you have a safety net if hell freezes over.

They won't even let me into the property citing safety.

That will create the paper trail for them.The City does need to assign addresses for fire and life safety, you should have been assigned an additional/new address in the "MIS-Addressing" review for the building before.