Going to build apartment complex, where to start?

[Brock Y.]

I own a good piece of land in St. Paul Minnesota just north of downtown off i94. Currently it has a SFH on it. The plan is to put an apartment complex on the property. It is already zoned for commerical so that is one less hurdle.

Questions:

1. I have never done new construction nor do I know how many units can fit on the land (I know St. Paul's guidelines for density). What costs can I assume just for feasibility of project? I would just like to get a few quotes on rough costs for a 2 story 20 unit building, just as an example. 

2. Where do I go to find builders, designers, architects? I am not local so I have googled and pulled a few names but assume there are a lot of national companies. Is there a good link to a directory of builders? Any one have one they recommend? 

3. If anyone has experience with cost of an apartment complex build I would be very appreciative. This project is 3 years away so I need to start saving :)

[Account Closed]

@Brock Y. understood.  the reason i asked about timing is that the apartment market is nearing it's peak in this area and you might be developing during a reset of values in 3 years which is obviously not ideal.  that's all.

how big of a site is this?  how many units were you envisioning?  with the run up in construction costs in the past 36 months it's getting extremely difficult to pencil out small apartment construction. 

I'd highly advise bringing in more experienced partners on something like this, as @Robert Tryon suggests.  

You could also think about selling the land to a developer and/or being a part of the JV structure and contributing the land as your equity and making your profit that way.