Value Add vs. Ground Up Costs

Couple questions about how total project costs compare on value add vs. ground-up development projects.

  1. Say you have a 100,000 SF warehouse that you're completely gutting and turning into condos. How would costs compare on that project as opposed to building the condos ground-up? How does the construction timeline differ between the two?

  2. Say you have a six story building with 30,000 SF of unused air rights and you could add three floors to the existing building. How expensive is it to build more floors on top of an existing building? How complex is that engineering and construction work? Would it be less expensive to simply demolish the building and build ground-up?

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