Distressed Commercial Building with potential upside

[John Maynard]

There is a building in the center of the old downtown portion of my city that is for sale. I haven't looked at it yet, but it's 3 stories and about 5K sqft total. It's going to need a major rehab (I'm assuming electrical work, heating system, remodel interior, etc). Here is where my mind is stuck: I think I can get the building for dirt cheap, the rehab will cost a lot, but the ARV would be huge. Plus, the downtown area is going to be refaced and redesigned which I think will add to the value of the building. Sounds great, but it's a little city. Old manufacturing area that no longer manufactures really. There is a "new" downtown area that people go to more often than the "old" downtown. My idea was to make it a vanilla building, but update it and make it clean to attract tenant(s). What do you think?