Adaptive Reuse Of Underutilized Real Estate

Cool Projects – A Love Affair Revisited

We are entering a new frontier for adaptive re-use. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has left the urban commercial landscape in tatters. Shuttered vacant commercial space is commonplace throughout cities and towns. Doors and windows are boarded-up in shopping districts and entertainment districts that were thriving as recently as February 2020. Some have become barely recognizable.

Looking to the Future

What is to become of this vast inventory of vacant retail space, shuttered restaurants, empty hotels and office buildings, abandoned shopping malls, cavernous and empty theaters, stranded travel destinations, and more? Who will have the vision and courage to adapt and redevelop these properties into newly viable economic jewels? And when?

Make no mistake; it will happen. And it’s likely to happen much more quickly than you think.

While many are just beginning to peak their cautious heads out from under their COVID blankets, value-add developers are assembling to scoop-up valuable assets to be reimagined and repositioned for economic glory. If you believe the residential real estate market is hot, hold onto your collective hats. There are enormous profits to be made in commercial real estate and new business. These COVID-depressed sectors have struggled during the COVID shutdown, but unless the government blows it with short-sighted regulation and foolish tax policy, substantial economic revitalization is about to commence. Jobs, business opportunities, community-desired services and amenities, and great economic rewards are on the horizon. The ingenuity and creativity of value-add developers and the entrepreneurs they enable, coupled with vast amounts of available capital, are about to be unleashed in a torrent.

Pent-up demand is a powerful force. We are about to witness the creative power of visionary value-add developers as they reimagine and reinvent vacant and underutilized commercial space and turn it into some remarkably Cool Projects. I can’t wait!

COOL PROJECTS – Real Estate Projects I Love to Work On.

I love cool real estate projects. Cool projects are why I became a lawyer. Cool projects are why I come to the office each day. Cool real estate projects are why I did not become an astrophysicist (well, one reason – although, that might have been cool too). Cool projects are the reason I live, smile, dance, breath, scour the earth for new deals, jump for joy.

And by “cool”, I don’t mean in a thermal sense – but rather in a “this project is so cool” sense. I am referring to real estate projects that are awesome. Real estate projects that are fun. Real estate projects that make you say “Wow – what a cool project!”

Cool projects don’t need to be costly projects in major urban centers – although those can be cool too. I’m talking about projects that are creative. Projects that require vision and imagination. Projects that take something mundane and turn it into something special.

Some people think I only like huge projects. To be honest, I do like huge projects, but largely because the huge projects I have worked on also happened to be cool projects.

Redevelopment of the commercial portions of Marina City in downtown Chicago was a cool project. Ground-up development of Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois was a cool project. Work on various mixed-use projects around the Midwest and upstate New York have been cool projects. But so has been the much smaller development of an 8,000 square foot microbrewery in the historic Motor Row District of Chicago using TIF financing; development of countless restaurant and entertainment venues throughout the Midwest; conversion of a multi-story industrial building into a high-tech office center; conversion of an outdated office building into a stylish, luxury hotel; adaptive reuse of outdated retail strip centers, bank buildings, city and suburban office buildings, bowling alleys, warehouses, industrial buildings, gas stations, and various small to medium sized special purpose buildings into modern, fully functional jewels – reinvented to provide much needed retail and service amenities for local neighborhoods and communities. It is not the size of the project that makes it cool – or the cost – it is the concept, imagination and creative challenge involved that makes the difference. At least for me.

Cool Projects Test

Here’s a test [call it the “Cool Projects Test”, if you will]:

Which of the following projects is more likely to end up on Kymn Harp’s list of cool projects?

Project Choice No. 1:

a. Developing a stand-alone bank building on a commerical outlot?

Or

b. Converting an historic firehouse into an upscale restaurant and wine bar with take-out bakery?

Project Choice No. 2:

a. Developing a 196 unit apartment complex on a large vacant lot?

Or

b. Redeveloping a former 3-story Main Street department store into a mixed-use project with first floor restaurants, sidewalk cafés, first floor retail, a side street residential lobby, apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and a rooftop sundeck and fitness center?

Project Choice No. 3:

a. Developing a stand-alone strip shopping center?

Or

b. Developing retail shops within the underutilized first floor and lower level pedway serving an existing hotel/convention center?

Project Choice No. 4:

a. Developing a multiplex movie theater?

Or

b. Converting a former multiplex movie theater into a multi-tenant, specialty entertainment center with intimate live music venues, restaurants, an art gallery, and ethnic-focused shopping boutiques to serve a growing ethnic population in the surrounding community?

Project Choice No. 5:

a. Developing a national chain pharmacy on a corner lot?

Or

b. Redeveloping a former church as a music and theatrical venue with a restaurant, music store and gift shop?

Project Choice No. 6:

a. Developing a new suburban office tower?

Or

b. Coordinating economic redevelopment of a suburban downtown business district to transform a stagnant center of town into an affluent Millennial-friendly live-work-play lifestyle environment?

Project Choice No. 7:

a. Developing an industrial/office park?

Or

b. Developing a multi-user sports and entertainment complex with restaurants, retail and parking?

Which Project Choices listed above qualify as “cool projects”? Not everyone will agree. There is no absolute, right answer. And don’t get me wrong, if a client walked through my door with any of these projects, I would be happy to jump on-board. But, the truth is that – in a perfect world, if given a choice – I would choose Project Choice “b” every time.

Why? There is just something exhilarating about taking tired, underutilized or functionally obsolete properties and reinventing them as revitalized developments that make users say: “WOW – what a cool project!”

Cool projects require a lot of planning, legal insight, and specialized due diligence to make sure a successful transformation can be achieved, but the value-added turnaround can be long-lasting and well worth the effort.

I am always on the hunt for cool projects. I enjoy working with all my clients, but my favorite clients are investors, developers and business owners with creative vision, who can imagine the future, and make it happen.

Not every project I work on is a cool project. As a real estate lawyer, I work on the deals that clients bring me. Some projects are just good investments waiting to be built. I’m fine with that. There is nothing wrong with building projects that just serve a need. I endorse the concept, and am always glad to help, so give me a call. I am at your service.

But . . ., for sure if you are contemplating a cool project – please stop whatever else you are doing, pick up your phone and call me. My direct line is 312-456-0378. Let’s talk. My partners and I can help you get it done – and, I assure you, we can each have a blast doing it.

There is no thrill quite like the thrill of like-minds working together in sync, with skill and creativity, to move a cool project forward, from concept to completion. I would love to be part of your team.

Thanks for listening.

Be cool.

Be creative.

Call me.

Thanks,
Kymn