Forum Archive: Posts by: keithan

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I’m interested in joining with 2 (or perhaps 3) others to build an “owner-occupied and built ” 3-unit apartment building. We’d agree on a site and basic layout and of course share the build cost.

I’m currently looking at a 50×100 R6 lot in a somewhat under-developed part of Bedford Stuyvesant – just east of Clinton Hill / Fort Greene. In some ways the location is a compromise – certain amenities aren’t in place yet. But there is a much improved G-train nearby. And the street is bright, quiet, and safe.

My idea is to build 3 stacked duplex-mezzanine units (height permitting) with frontage of 25 feet. I call this “Phase 1”. Approximate unit size: 2000 sft. Approximate cost per unit: $630k. Note that these are very preliminary estimates.

Each owner-buyer contributes a deposit that would go to financing the project. This deposit would eventually be treated as a downpayment for mortgage purposes. The owner-buyer mortgages & purchase cost of the apartments would “take out” the full cost of the land (all 50×100 sft).

Phase 2 – the other 25 x 70ish feet of buildable area – would be built and sold later as and when market conditions improved – as a cost offset to the owners and potentially yielding a return to an outside investor…

Since Phase 1 takes out the cost of the land, Phase 2 is a high margin project – benefiting the owners. There is little to no carrying cost for the temporarily unbuilt land. Phase 2 would build smaller units to increase yield.

If interested, I’m happy to discuss project costs and other important items and issues. (keithan@kgdevllc.com). I’ve discussed many of these issues with architects, lenders, and attorney and continue to have discussions.

Finally, I am pretty detail-oriented with respect to the design, layout, and materials – and I lean modernist. And I’d like to find some roughly like minded individuals who are interested in this type of arrangement.

Some design ideas that I have in mind are:

* double height living area with over-looking mezzanine
* floor to ceiling windows with “hidden” mullions
* central HVAC (maybe forced air combined with ceiling fan for convection and “smart” thermostat)
* concrete super-structure, perhaps with exposed concrete interiors (@ owner-buyer’s option)
* gas hot water (each unit)
* big fan of Poliform, Hans Grohe, Boffi, etc.

Anyhow, enough of my rambling. If interested, contact me at the email below.

Best,

Keithan
keithan@kgdevllc.com