Real Estate Development Advisory
“A Developer is like a conductor of an orchestra. A good conductor needs to know the first note, last note, and how to pace the performance. Every performance is a little different. If you are at Symphony Hall, the acoustics may be unlike another hall. You need to be good enough to hire the best violinist, and empower people to play together, since there are a lot of interpersonal relationships between orchestra members. You have to know how to start and finish, learn from each experience, and demonstrate the ability to pick the right team members, which is really critical.”
Leading The Real Estate Development Process
Leading a development project through the entitlement/site plan approval process can be a very challenging, time-consuming, and costly experience. Parabola A+D provides expertise to coordinate all six phases of the development process:
Feasibility & Acquisition
Design
Financing
Construction
Marketing & Leasing
Operations & Management
The six phases of the development process vary widely, depending to a project size, complexity, location, and complexity of the public approvals process. The diagram is derived from Professional Real Estate Development, by Professor Richard B. Peiser, Harvard University - Graduate School of Design
Our primary objective is to mitigate risk for our clients, by developing a strategy to create forward-thinking architecture solutions that significantly increase the value of the real estate asset, provide higher rental rates, and offer significant tax benefits. Parabola works through a very detailed process to evaluate each site, including hiring and coordinating civil and site engineers, landscape architects, traffic study consultants, and all other engineering and specialized expertise required to obtain Site Plan Approval. Prior to going-hard (removing contingencies) and signing an initial purchase agreement, we represent our clients by negotiating with local planning department authorities, until we are reasonably assured that Site Plan Approval will be issued. We have earned admiration and respect from local planning and building department authorities for successfully negotiating through complex entitlement processes for our clients.
We represent clients at public hearings and present appropriate visual and written documents required to obtain Site Plan Approval. We assist clients to prepare a financial pro forma analysis to determine simple returns on investment, computed quickly, and include anticipated hard and soft costs required to attract lenders and inverstors.
How market studies influence creative and innovative design solutions
Market studies reveal what is acceptable to the status quo, and determine highest-and-best-use of a building site. Although market studies are highly valuable, and required by lenders and investors, Parabola digs deeper, to determine how to use research and accumulated data, along with creative imagination, to engage the public to generate more creative and profitable development solutions. Our highly creative, innovative, and energy-efficient design solutions attract a higher rent per square foot, and increase the value of the real estate asset
“Some people say, give customers what they want. But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me - a faster horse!’ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
Medical office building development offers investment opportunity for doctors…
Parabola’a development advisory services provide medical professionals and investors with due diligence and creative insights required to develop a parcel of land into a profitable income producing property. We assist medical professionals to create design solutions, and investment strategies, to own and lease a portion of a medical office building to generate income, and to provide substantial tax incentives.
Lenawee Christian School development, funded by Orville Merillat endowment…
Located on a massive 74–acre corn field site, the large-scale development focused on the following core principles: 1) To design a school environment that enhanced successful guidance and development of children. It is their future that will determine the success of the project, 2) To create a facility that enhanced the site and presents an inviting image to the community, and 3) To incorporate building materials that are indigenous to the geographical location of the school.
Columbia Point, Boston - an example of a large-scale redevelopment site…
Columbia Point is a forward-thinking, highly innovative waterfront community, distinguished by a focus on holistic health and well-being, that utilizes all six phases of the development process.
Bridge Water Park, Toronto -Proposed pedestrian gateway to the CN Tower
A Large-scale redevelopment composed of new mixed use towers and public green spaces, to eliminate views of massive railroad tracks near the CN Tower.