Retail Development- New Developer, Please help

[Canesha Edwards]

Well a little background Information. My team has 7.6 acres under contract in a suburb of Atlanta,Ga. Currently, there are 4 homes on the property. However, after putting the land under contract, I discovered that the property would have to be rezoned due to a future land use code the county recently designated for the parcels. I know, mistake number one. I say this because given the extra expenses needed to rezone the property, our contract price is too high. I have some preliminary cost numbers for the rezoning process to renegotiate the price with the owners and a firm that is going to handle the rezoning. We have funding lined up for the construction, contingent upon the county approving our plans.

This would be a low intensity retail development. So, one anchor and 5-7 smaller stores. (This is based on discussions with the zoning department about what they want to see in that area)

originally, I was going to try and wholesale the property to a builder/developer, but I think I want to try and get the deal done with my team or at least JV the deal. I know this isn't the traditional way to get started in investing, but I want to try and figure this out.

Here are my questions

1. How do I determine market rents for commercial properties?

2. How do I go about finding my tenants? ( I’ve been emailing real estate managers for businesses but this strategy doesn’t seem to be working)

3. From an underwriting perspective, what are factors I need to consider when doing my analysis ? I’ve only performed analysis on residential properties.

4. Any words of wisdom, best practices, etc.

Thank in advance for any and all response.