Did you ever realize how we often fail to notice much of the world around us until we have reason to pay attention to something new? Take “For Sale” signs on raw land. Until you start looking for land, it is as if these signs don’t exist. However, the moment you begin shopping for a site for your new facility, you are often amazed at how many land sites are available. That’s when things can get crazy. You or your broker start inquiring about sites, and it quickly becomes overwhelming. You discover the wild differences in pricing, sizes, zoning, access, shapes, and topography. How do you decide?  The answer is both harder and easier than you think. Let’s look at the reasons why.

There are specifics that make this process more complex than most people might consider.  Remember the saying “you don’t know what you don’t know”? That is the case in analyzing land sites. If only it was as easy as choosing the right sized piece of land, at a reasonable price, and engaging an architect to draw a layout reflecting the building size, parking, sidewalks, driveways, and few landscape beds. Consider yourself warned. That is a recipe for disaster. Yet, it is not unusual for buyers to use that approach and think they have vetted the site adequately. The truth is far more complicated. There are virtual land mines sitting just under the surface that can significantly impact the timing, cost, and even viability of your project on a given piece of land. Those include water quality requirements, building line setbacks, zoning, environmental factors, soil conditions, availability of utilities, height restrictions, exterior construction material requirements, impervious cover, drainage,and topography. It is an extremely complicated undertaking, and even one oversight can be devastating.

I recently helped a veterinarian find a site for a new clinic and put it under contract. During the feasibility period we were marching forward with ease, until suddenly a “deal killer” issue was discovered. We determined that one of the oak trees on the site was a Heritage Tree. It could not be removed. We tried to design a building around it, but at best the total building size was reduced from the target size of 6,000 square feet to just over 4,000 square feet. The requirements for building near such a tree are very strict. The site was disqualified, the contract was dropped, and the earnest money was returned to the buyer. Shortly after we found a new site, vetted it thoroughly, and purchased the site. I have heard many tales of stories that did not turn out so favorably.

If it is so difficult to analyze a site for a veterinarian’s particular use, then how do we make it easier? You hire experts to do the heavy lifting. There are four professionals that should be involved in this process: broker, architect, developer, and civil engineer. Each of these experts plays a critical role in locating, planning, and analyzing the site for a buyer’s intended use. The burden of expertise, knowledge, and experience is moved to their shoulders, carrying the weight of that effort for the buyer. There will be some costs associated with this, but those costs should be part of the total budget for the project. You simply can’t shortcut this critical feasibility process.

In follow up articles, we look in more detail at the roles each of these professionals play, as well as some methods of overcoming certain site issues using a variety of land development strategies.