This kinds of problems develop when landlords chase money, in this case, by trying to minimize vacancy costs.Depending on the rental market, "moving on" and finding another place to live at this late date might be difficult. 

That is the anonymity of the interweb.Additionally on this forum you are dealing with a lot of people that have developed leather tough skin from repeatedly having to deal with a hole tenants.

You might be able to do some sort of commercial bank lending if you can show 50% or more pre-leases on your commercial and the numbers all make sense.This strategy could work for any of the lenders above.Bottom line, there has to be interest in the resulting spaces to interest the lenders and the developer, or the developer has to front the entire cost.Possibilities: if the town wants to revitalize itself, it can create a corporation to hold the buildings, and then offer to back the developer of the properties (public/private partnership)The town could hold the properties and issue bonds for revitalization, then do a master lease to a developer/Property Manager to recoup it's funds.

Other areas I've considered though are Browntown and Hedgeville because the City has been developing there a decent amount.

PWC ranks Raleigh-Durham #7 nationwide for real estate development.

Great insight from Account Closed, just a heads up that there are most likely bigger changes coming on the development/permitting side of things as the City of Portland just ousted its long-time Director of Bureau of Development Services.  

Is it worth paying a structural engineer to assess to be able to develop a scope and cost estimate, and if the number work out it's do-able?

Obviously in Houston most would prefer a large home for that price, but there are still plenty that prefer condo lifestyle with no home headaches but there's one for sale right now over $5M in my building a little bigger3) David -  Like I mentioned mine is many floors higher as a comp that sold a few months back that was basically stock from the developer, mine is upgraded significantly and higher, but of course that's irrelevant now as that one sold at the time and ours has not.There's really no rhyme or reason in this end of the market, I don't expect a quick sale from my realtor but it has been nearly a year, at some point you just begin to blame the person in charge of selling it for not marketing it properly,etc.

You can read more about it here: https://beltline.org/I love what the Beltline has become and the urban development it has created in Atlanta.

They can be very good but you need to understand what the overall development cost will be.