If you’re in the process of acquiring a commercial property to buy or lease for your business, it’s important to do your due diligence in becoming familiar with the property history and conditions. These can affect just about every step of the design and build process and its respective expense. The conventional assumption is that it’s too premature to invite a DBGC (design-build general contractor) to collaborate on the front end of commercial property evaluation, but nothing could be further from the truth. As you start to invest your time and money, and your brokers’, into a commercial property deal, you could be overlooking possible deal-breakers that can only be surfaced with the valuable insight of a DBGC. Oftentimes, business owners make the mistake of not garnering this early involvement and either progress too far in the negotiation to be able to rewrite the terms later, or worse, have already made a bad deal.
The top 5 commercial property conditions to review with your DBGC:
-Existing utilities and the upgrade capacity of each
-Current accessibility conditions and the cost of compliance
-Presence and demolition and/or abatement of hazardous materials
-General code compliance and permitting
-Hidden costs (eg. subsurface conditions)
For a complete checklist of items to resolve with your DBGC during the due diligence process: Free Report! 20 Questions to Ask Before Finalizing a Commercial Property Lease.
Most DBGCs will be inclined to help you in this stage of the process and can help save you 10s of 1,000s of dollars by drawing on their unique experience and perspective. They will know the ins and outs of structural conditions, city inspections, and the nitty-gritty of the work that will be required before your dream design can take shape. And just as importantly, they’ll be able to weigh in on the true scope of work and cost of your project. If you’re in our part of town and are getting ready to begin the due diligence process on a commercial property, let us help!
Further Reading:
APSGC: Commercial Site Evaluations
APSGC: The Big 3 Before You Sign the Lease
APSGC: Getting a Good Deal Done
APSGC: The TI Permit Process: Avoiding Scope Creep
