building a commercial/residential building

[Jennifer Pletcher]

Hi everyone.  Looking to see if anyone has ever built a mixed use building in a city/town.  We are buying a lot from the city to build a first floor commercial (general use) and 3 floors of residential above it on an 8000 square foot lot.  We own several rental properties, but this will be the first time we are building from scratch.  The building that was there was knocked down by the city due to condemnation.  They are selling us the lot for $7500, and their only requirement was the first floor needed to be commercial.  We have an engineering firm working on the plans for us right now and getting us a quote for building something of this size.  For those of you have ever done this - was it successful?  Did the number you were quoted to build stick basically to the finished number?  

[Dan Genzel]

I've built about $25m of commercial buildings.  I did a building similar 10k of retail and 24 units above.  Is the residential for rent or for sale?  I would by lying to you if I said I never went over on my projects - but you shoudl expect that.  They were decisions we had to make on the fly.  If I was you I would make it for rent with the ability to condo it.  Pay attention to your views!  Make sure you have 5-10% in for a contingency and you have a construction attorney review contracts and hold the contractor accountable.  Lots more on this DM me if you want.