building mid grade apartment complex

[Scott Lepore]

My mechanic is interested in scraping his shop and building an apartment complex.  It is an 18,000 sf lot and already has sewer, water, gas, electric.  Lets just assume for the case of this discussion that I know what I'm talking about when I say it is a no-brainer location.  The owners of the land are auto mechanics and want to be in on the deal.  They don't want to sell land.  They want to scrape and build apartments.  I have 6 years experience with fix and flips and 2 years with C class apartment complex investing.  Zero experience with new builds.  I feel it would be best to hire a consultant since I know that things always go wrong and are probably magnified 10 fold versus fix and flips.  I guess my question is how to go about dividing up the pie and who gets what and does what.  And how do the owners get paid when it is their land to start with and should they use the equity in the land as construction loan.  This is a prime location in a quaint suburb of Denver that is ideally located close to shopping and light rail and bike paths and there are nice B class apartments across the street.  As you know Denver is insane right now as far as rental demand and new construction.  I'm just kind of at a loss as to how to go about getting the ball rolling.  I know I need to get it approved by the city first and find money.  But beyond that I'm still brainstorming on all the roles involved and how to make sure everyone gets a fair split and who takes on what risk and is paid accordingly, blah, blah, blah.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  If anyone on here is interested in participation in the deal in some fashion, we can discuss that too.  This email is not a solicitation for funding and should not be viewed as such.