Monetizing Commercial Building

[Chris Carson]

Just looking to bounce ideas with some experienced folks on here.

My law firm has been expanding and has outgrown our current space. The seller of a unique property accepted our offer a month ago and we are set to close in about another month. The property is close to our current office but much larger. It's separated into two buildings, which are comparable in size and take up a good chunk of a city block. One of the buildings is half occupied by a long term tenant (established law firm) and our firm will be occupying the other half. We have it under contract at a price that makes sense for that building alone, so the second building is gravy. The second building is 2 stories ~ 9000 ft^2 and is occupied by two small tenants who pay almost nothing. They are on m2m leases. The buildings are on the located in downtown Jacksonville and are within an opportunity zone. The surrounding area is being developed with a number of large residential projects and is about to see a massive influx of money from the owner of the Jaguars. I need some thoughts on how we should analyze the highest and best use of the building. We are using a well known broker for the transaction but we just haven't heard any stellar ideas for the other building. It's both awesome and scary to have a good sized building and no idea what to do with it. Thoughts on how we should be looking at this as a commercial landlord?  

[Chris Grenzig]

@Chris Carson just as reference we own 200+ units in jax and have another 800+ under contract to close in 2-3 months time. 

We just did our first opportunity zone deal in Columbus, and I'd be happy to help if there's anyway I can from looking at the zoning or just talking OZ stuff to see if I can help clarify some stuff for you. 

I'm definitely curios where it is because the OZ in downtown are mostly in some pretty "rougher" areas except some small pockets so it sounds like you could've picked up a gem.

If it were me I'd look at what the zoning permits, and then I'd talk to someone at the zoning office to see what the rezoning process would look like and then potentially what could be built there. If there's an opportunity to knock down and build up, it could be very interesting to spend the money to rezone, have plans done and sell off the a developer in a couple of years. The development would also only help your buildings value as well.