Historic 70 Unit Apartments

[Luke Easley]

In my city there is a historic 70 unit apartment that’s famous for its design and mid century modern architectural style. It’s a solid concrete building but windows are busted out and trees are grown up all around it and squatters have been in and out. It’s in a prime downtown area that is in the midst of revitalization boom. But many people have complained over the years because it makes the area look bad because of the state of the property. But no one has bought it yet. It has been under contract several times over the years but they never panned out.

Although I'm not sure yet, let's just say the numbers look good, and there would be several tax breaks from the city because it's historic. How do I get started? I'm new to REI. I haven't gotten official estimates, but say the total cost of the project would likely be around 3 mil.

Do I need a commercial real estate agent?

How do I find contractors that work these kind of properties? Most of the contractors I know work mostly on small multi family and SFH.

Who manages the project to make sure the work is good and each unit is designed nicely. These would be higher end units.

Should I get a partner that has experience with this?

Do I hire an architect team to present the development to the city for approval?

Once completed, do I hire a full time employee to manage? Or use a management company?

I understand this is a large undertaking for a newbie. I have talked with several interested private lenders that would lend for smaller units that I have been looking at, but I haven’t asked if they could do larger projects.

Should I use hard money or private funds and BRRRR this project?

So many questions!

[J.R. Coffin]

I've worked on the renovation of a few historic and "nearly historic" properties and it can be a real pain and elongage the contruction process significantly. I would first check to see if it's in the historic registry or any historic districts - if so there will be specific codes that you need to comply with. For example, you may need to pay extra money hand clean the building and meet the regulations of 'The Secretary of Interiors Standards'. If not your pretty much free to do whatever you like and its most architect's dream to do a mid-century modern renovation. 

I would hire the architect first to put together a brief proposal for the city. Once you get approval, from there the architect can recommend contractors and you can also hire them to perform ' Construction Admin' Services - which means they'll meet with the contractor during construction periodically and make sure the quality of work is up to standards. Because the architect has no formal contract with the contractor during construction admin it is their sole responsibility to protect the client and make sure the finished product is of high quality (for the budget).