Mothballing a big building
- Thread starter Trollhole
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- Thread starter
- #42
Some pics of it back when it was new.
Thats some neat s*** right there .
I love how the one pix shows where the shelf was for the control box . I can see some ass taking it down going "WTF is this for" and pulling it off with a claw hammer
I love how the one pix shows where the shelf was for the control box . I can see some ass taking it down going "WTF is this for" and pulling it off with a claw hammer
- Thread starter
- #45
Took some video of it yesterday.
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall‏
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall 2‏
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall‏
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall‏
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall‏
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall 2‏
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall‏
YouTube - Joe Cox Color Wall‏
bpenn1980
SILVER Star
Pretty cool story on the history of the place and your family.
I work in the institutional real estate field and I thought I'd give you my thoughts as a complete f-ing stranger
The first thing I'd do is call up some local brokers and get their input. If you talk to the right guys who know what they are doing they will be able to "back of the envelope" rents and expenses for you based on current market conditions. You may have actual operating expenses for when the bank was still a tenant. That may be helpful as a baseline for expenses. If it turns out that the brokers tell you renting it out as office space isnt feasible, they may have other insights. FYI, there's two types of brokers, leasing brokers and sales brokers. Leasing brokers will probably know more detail on current market rents, potential tenants available etc, and sales brokers will have more transaction side knowledge on potential uses (tear down and build apartments? condos? retail?), dirt value, finding buyers, etc.
I agree with other comments about trying to avoid shutting it down. In my experience, buildings that remain vacant will eventually only be worth the land they sit on. Ask those brokers to give you an estimate of land value assuming the building is functionally obsolete. They will have to deduct the expense of demolishing the existing structure, which can be pricey.
To summarize, this is how I see it:
-You can demo the building, selling off what equipment/materials you can in the process, and then have a vacant lot your family can sit on with no maintenance expense.
-You can try and lease it out to a single tenant. May or may not require significant TI (Tenant Improvement) expense to get someone interested.
-You can renovate the building for multi-tenants and hopefully start bringing in some lease revenue even if you cant lease out the whole thing.
-You can board up the building realizing that any value in the existing structure will rapidly disappear. Finding tenants will become nearly impossible without massive cash outlays to bring the building back or demo and build new.
-Speaking of building new. It looks like your building has a lot of parking. Retail companies love lots of parking. I would look into the possibility of bringing in a CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid, etc. These companies sign long term leases and are very low risk from an investors perspective. If you can get one of these guys interested in your location it may be worthwhile. If they agree to the location you can probably get the financing necessary to demo the existing structure and build a new building. If theres enough parking, maybe just build the walgreens on the same site without demoing the office, just depends. Then you'll have a 10-20 or longer lease signed with a strong company. People pay good money for properties with long term credit leases.
PS-Whatever you do, save that cool light display
I work in the institutional real estate field and I thought I'd give you my thoughts as a complete f-ing stranger
The first thing I'd do is call up some local brokers and get their input. If you talk to the right guys who know what they are doing they will be able to "back of the envelope" rents and expenses for you based on current market conditions. You may have actual operating expenses for when the bank was still a tenant. That may be helpful as a baseline for expenses. If it turns out that the brokers tell you renting it out as office space isnt feasible, they may have other insights. FYI, there's two types of brokers, leasing brokers and sales brokers. Leasing brokers will probably know more detail on current market rents, potential tenants available etc, and sales brokers will have more transaction side knowledge on potential uses (tear down and build apartments? condos? retail?), dirt value, finding buyers, etc.
I agree with other comments about trying to avoid shutting it down. In my experience, buildings that remain vacant will eventually only be worth the land they sit on. Ask those brokers to give you an estimate of land value assuming the building is functionally obsolete. They will have to deduct the expense of demolishing the existing structure, which can be pricey.
To summarize, this is how I see it:
-You can demo the building, selling off what equipment/materials you can in the process, and then have a vacant lot your family can sit on with no maintenance expense.
-You can try and lease it out to a single tenant. May or may not require significant TI (Tenant Improvement) expense to get someone interested.
-You can renovate the building for multi-tenants and hopefully start bringing in some lease revenue even if you cant lease out the whole thing.
-You can board up the building realizing that any value in the existing structure will rapidly disappear. Finding tenants will become nearly impossible without massive cash outlays to bring the building back or demo and build new.
-Speaking of building new. It looks like your building has a lot of parking. Retail companies love lots of parking. I would look into the possibility of bringing in a CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid, etc. These companies sign long term leases and are very low risk from an investors perspective. If you can get one of these guys interested in your location it may be worthwhile. If they agree to the location you can probably get the financing necessary to demo the existing structure and build a new building. If theres enough parking, maybe just build the walgreens on the same site without demoing the office, just depends. Then you'll have a 10-20 or longer lease signed with a strong company. People pay good money for properties with long term credit leases.
PS-Whatever you do, save that cool light display
scottm
SILVER Star
It sounds like you're knowledgeable about HVAC, does it have an evaporative cooling tower on the roof and treated water storage tank underground? Those are simple systems to maintain, but pretty labor-intensive to clean. You would want to pump out the storage tank or treat and circulate it regularly, and tarp the tower so critters don't make homes in it.
scottm
SILVER Star
And if you don't know already, letting a cooling tower go unmaintained can get really nasty, I've cleaned out towers and pits. One tower actually had a small tree growing, the fan kept the top well pruned.
- Thread starter
- #50
Yeah. I'm certified class 1&2. Not 3 though which is where this system sits. We are lucky in the fact the cooling towers were replaced 2 years ago and the chillers were rebuilt a year ago. SO we should be good on that for a while. I've been going and inspecting the building monthly. So hopefully we don't have any issues.
scottm
SILVER Star
When we drained our pits the bottoms were calf-deep grit and muck, some old metal chairs, odd debris. Had to shovel it all out and haul it up with a forklift. The towers weren't as bad, but I had to pull all the honeycomb and replace it. If you have a pit to clean, probably a good job for a couple college students, which is what I was. Leaving all that crud in the bottom of the pit would certainly have gotten funky. I guess if you don't drain it, keep the chemicals in balance, and run the pumps occasionally it would keep alright. Kind of like a swimming pool.
