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Such a broooooad question so instead of telling you that “it depends”, I’m going to give you a broad answer. This is what was I doing back when I worked for a large multi developer that did high rises.
Probably $275-$300 psf building costs. Maybe add another $15k-$20k per parking space assuming a parking deck. This is what it was costing us before I left. Some firms might be able to get these costs cheaper (we had a reputation for having high build costs for whatever reason). Obviously very dependent on location. I imagine it could be cheaper to build a high rise in Nashville than Miami.
Exactly what I was looking for, thanks. Really just trying to back into a land value from the lender perspective without relying heavily on borrower underwriting.
what’s typical parking ratio? 1.5?
Shoot, 1.5 is probably what it should be. But no, probably closer to 1.2. Some of these 1 bedrooms are so expensive that they are shared by two people, plus you have everyone working from home.
You really need to understand that this can't be used as a rule of thumb at all times and across markets - high rise construction costs for above-grade costs alone have gone up like $30-$40/sf over the last 2 years alone (more in some markets). That $300psf is likely only for the above grade costs, you also need to account for site work and below grade parking (if included).
In terms of parking ratio, that is 100% market dependent. In one market it may be less than 1.0 while another requires 1.4. Development is not a field where you can really apply a "rule of thumb" to underwriting, you really need to do your research and speak with consultants.
With high build costs, how did you guys compete? Did you get higher rents than market generally too?
You do the same thing everyone else is doing now. You build smaller units than the competition to achieve a higher rent per square foot while showing the same or similar rents on an overall basis and then you craft a narrative of how your project will achieve a more successful lease up than all competitive comps around it lol.
Competing isn't your issue. Plenty of institutional money that will gladly sign the JV agreement to put out capital and accept anemic returns in the initial few years to hopefully get to a sub 5 unlevered IRR.
Hey, another quick question I want to confirm. Is your $300 number inclusive of other hard cost related items like contingency, general conditions, etc? Also confirming it is excluding soft costs.
Thanks again.
$300/SF (assuming we are talking gross SF) would be high for just the HC number is my guess. I just priced out a 13-story tower (underground parking) with union construction and the HC number was around $200/SF. Different markets so not completely comparable, and if it's Miami that'll be more expensive than a Charlotte. That being said, every certain number of floors added increases the cost to build, so maybe the jump from 13 to 20 stories is significant.
No, it is not inclusive and it does exclude soft costs.
Please also do not refer to me in your Investment Committee review.
Your secret is safe with me.
$300 PSF is way low for Type I high-rise construction. Agree there are a lot of factors here with biggest drivers being do you have underground parking? What is average unit size? Is it a market with higher/union labor costs? CA high rise is pushing almost $600 PSF. Phoenix/TX easily pushing $400+. For context, we just bought out a Type V surface parked deal in Phoenix at $210 PSF and a 5-story wrap deal in TX with a precast garage at $230 PSF.
In a Tier 1 market (LA, SF, Boston, NYC, DC), my previous firm was getting bids at $300-$325/SF for ~40 units, 5 stories with underground parking (1:1 ratio) for hard cost. We ultimately decided to construct in-house at ~$250/SF. This was ~3 years ago. I imagine it’s about $350-$400/SF today given labor shortage and crazy price increase in materials
At my current firm looking at deals in a Tier 1 market. In terms of costs for a value-add deal with an existing building we are renovating would $125/SF in hard costs and $50/SF in soft costs make sense? Across our projects both value-add (adding a few floors) to ground up our hard costs have historically been in the $100-300ish/SF range in outer borough projects. These are generally not multifamily, but also I am at a smaller shop and some guys are giving me general hard cost and soft cost ranges without clarification of ground up or value add and they really don't seem to know what they're doing so I wanted to make sure these were ballpark figures and since I am interviewing I could explain it without getting a "your costs are insane" if I thought they were normal for the market. For our costs it's assumed by our principals and in house head of construction but that doesn't help me learn and understand if they just say hey put this, material costs are high, etc.
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