Alright I have a piece of land, now what do I build?

[Michael Wayne]

Hey BP,

I'm new to the development game. With that said, I'm closing on my first 48-unit ground up deal in about a month. We're buying it completely entitled with an approved PUD in place, so we were not involved in any of the true development work on this project.

Looking ahead to our next deal, we have an investor who owns a piece of land in Brighton, Mi, an affluent well-supported suburb on Detroit, on which we wish to build. The lot is just off Main St. so we feel it is perfect to support a multi-family product. We've looked at existing products in the area and everything seems to be performing very well (no occupancy below 98%). Admittedly, this is about all we have determined at this point. 

My question for BP is: what do we do next? How do understand things like number of units to build? What unit mix to build? How many parking spaces do we need? What is the highest and best use for the lot?

Should we engage a broker to help us understand the market better? Should we engage an architect to help us decide what to build?

Really looking for a good starting point here. What does everyone think?

Thank you, thank you!

- MW