Large project advice

[John Donahue]

A friend and I have an investor that is willing to back a large project and we are trying to decide what direction to go. The projects we are considering so far are purchasing lots ready to build, which would probably be the easiest but also most competitive. Purchasing a lot with a preexisting business, demoing it and building mid-rise condos. I like this option, but there are a lot of variables we are not sure about, ie. costs to build such a building and the process and likelihood of getting it approved. The third is submitting a plan to the city to develop land owned by the city into condos. This would take a long time and we would have no guarantee that our project would ever be approved but the city seems to be eager to get something done on the land and I think we could be the first to submit a proposal. I know this is a very general question but we are in the early stages of trying to analyze these projects and decide what direction we should go.

We are also trying to figure out what we need to bring to the investor for a project proposal as we don't have a lot of liquid capital to spend on doing conceptual drawings, site surveys and budgeting.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and if anyone knows any good builders in Orange County for either SFR developments, condo developments or mid-rise condos please let me know. We need to start getting some accurate building costs so we can decide which way to go.

Thanks