My advise is to start with single family or a small multi-family ground up project first but this market environment is truthfully not the time to be completing any ground up projects unless you are self performing the construction which it doesn't appear you are in a position to do.There was a recent Philadelphia  forum chain started by someone else who was contemplating ground up in a similar fashion to what you are proposing and I cautioned they would be better off buying something that was newly built and believe after conducting their own diligence realized it was too cost prohibitive at this time to build with 3rd party GC's in Philadelphia when also accounting for the interest rate environment and cost to build.

Please take my word for it and avoid getting entangled into his network of half truths, lies, and greedy ambitions.

Truth is I would probably consider anything in that vicinity. 

Truthfully, if the fee wasn’t so high, I wouldn’t even bother with this and maybe just take the leap of faith. 1.

I do owe him 5k and told him the checks were ready for pickup but still no response  This is someone who probably will not respond, people that go silent are ones that are not willing to face the truth/cannot meet the expectations.

@Jorge Lee Truthfully most renovations in Philadelphia that meet the description of what you shared are unpermitted.

In all truth, my laminates - even the cheapest off-the-shelf Lowe's stock ones - have held up just fine and were the best choice for my B units.

The truth is, I've been looking into the Columbus market lately and doing a bit of research to see what's going on.

And as you know Cole, most inventory out there is various forms of dumps, that's just the truth.

. :-)Sometimes being objective and completely truthful isn't the best approach lol