The DD process includes, but is not limited to, having a soils engineer prepare a soils analysis, an environmental engineer prepare a Phase 1 environmental report, market studies, title review, legal review, and zoning review.

The downside is their fees are pretty high including environmental studies, commercial type appraisals and their bank attorney fees.  

An overly simplified way(not as simple; will take months and money) is to: Get a general contractor to create a budget and building plan; work on getting permits; get environmental done, re-zone if need be/possible; feasibility study; see how much cash you will have to deploy and then seek lenders for lending offers.There are way more steps but at a minimum these are some .Since you are looking to build,A bridge loan(interest only)/private money loan for a storage unit or a ground up construction project.

Wildfires and air quality aside, Portland and the west coast take climate change and environmental regulations more seriously than other parts of the country. 

Looking at Zoning & Codes for: setbacks, easements, egress, accessibility, max height, max density, max open space, parking, site access, traffic access, utility location, environmental impacts, green building strategies, site orientation, optimal MEP systems locations...

On all our DST properties, we conduct/review lease audits, environmental reports, insurance audits, building inspections, economic/demographic surveys, and we send someone to conduct onsite inspections.

Hi Brad, Auto Repair businesses tend to freak lenders out for the perceived potential environmental issues associated with some of the activities that you have to do in your normal course of business.

South Side of Chicago), regulatory, environmental etc.?

Seller can guarantee the Certificate of Occupancy upon close of the escrow but when I requested that we include the Certificate of Occupancy as part of the materials provided in the Buyer's Contingencies to be reviewed prior to closing escrow (along with the lease, environmental reports, etc.), the agent said the seller will not accept this.I'm confused as to why the seller wouldn't agree to this.

They are basically de-constructed from the top down to bottom-up with very little environmental impact - no muss no fuss :)Check out the video at the bottom of this page http://www.kajima.co.jp/tech/kaitai/about/@Glen UnderwoodDemolition is called "kaitai".