Development sites, land and assemblages

How a site search actually runs

Most land searches fail before they start because the buyer brief is too loose. “Multifamily sites in Southwest Florida” describes thousands of parcels and none of them well. We start by writing the brief backward from the product: unit count or building size, construction type, parking you are willing to provide, the rent or sale price the deal needs, and the land basis that leaves room for your margin.

Once the brief is tight, we screen. In Florida that means pulling parcels by zoning and future land use designation, then filtering out sites with obvious problems: no central sewer nearby, wetland coverage, a shape that kills the building footprint, or frontage on a road where the county will never give you the curb cut you need. In New York the screen is about zoning district, lot dimensions, existing built floor area against what is allowed, and whether the lot sits in a mapped inclusionary area or carries an environmental designation.

What survives the screen goes to a short list, and we call owners directly. Plenty of good sites are owned by people who have never thought about selling and have no idea what a developer would pay. A short, respectful conversation about what their parcel could support often goes further than a broker blast. We keep your name out of it until you want it known.

1. Brief: product type, size, budget, timing and deal-breakers in writing.
2. Screen: zoning, utilities, flood, shape, access and ownership pulled for every candidate parcel.
3. Short list: a handful of sites with a one-page feasibility read on each.
4. Outreach: direct owner contact, listed sites and broker relationships worked in parallel.
5. Underwrite: residual land value and a rough construction budget on the sites that respond.
6. Contract: letter of intent, then a purchase agreement with a feasibility period that matches the real diligence timeline.

Florida and New York sites are underwritten differently

We work land in both states, and the questions that kill deals are not the same. A Brooklyn lot almost always has sewer, water and a sidewalk. The risk is in zoning math, neighboring buildings, soil, and what the last occupant left in the ground. A Lee County parcel can look clean on paper and still need a lift station, fill to reach required elevation, and a wetland permit before a single footing goes in.

The point of the table is that a developer moving between markets should not carry their old checklist with them. A Florida builder looking at Gowanus needs to think about environmental designations and party walls. A New York developer looking at Cape Coral needs to know which areas have utilities in the ground and which are still waiting.

Contract terms that protect a land buyer

Land contracts look simple and are not. The price gets all the attention, but the terms decide whether you can walk away cleanly when the site turns out to be something other than what you hoped. These are the provisions we push on for buyers, and the ones we expect a seller’s attorney to resist.

• Feasibility period long enough to finish the work. A Phase I, a boundary and topographic survey, a geotechnical report and a zoning opinion all take time. If the window closes before reports come back, you are buying blind.
• Deposit that goes hard in stages. A small initial deposit during feasibility, with more going non-refundable only as risk is retired, keeps both sides honest.
• Entitlement or approval contingency where the plan needs one. If the deal depends on a rezoning, site plan approval or utility commitment, the contract should say so and give you extension rights while the application is pending.
• Seller cooperation clause. You will need the owner’s signature on applications. Get that obligation in writing.
• Access for testing. Borings, environmental sampling and survey crews need a right of entry with clear insurance and restoration terms.
• Title and survey objections. Easements, encroachments and old restrictions on Florida plats or New York deeds should be caught early with a defined cure period.

None of this is legal advice. Your real estate attorney drafts and negotiates the contract. Our job is to make sure the business terms in the letter of intent already reflect how long diligence will actually take, so the lawyers are not fighting about it later.

Assembling lots without tipping off the block

An assemblage is a sequence problem. The first owner you approach usually sells at a fair price. The last owner, once they realize they are the missing piece, may ask for multiples of what their lot is worth alone. Everything we do on an assemblage is designed to avoid creating that holdout.

We map every parcel, every owner and every lien before making a single call. We decide which lots are essential and which are nice to have, because a building that works on three lots with an alternate design for four gives you leverage. We use option agreements or contracts with long closings so you are not carrying land you cannot build on. And we keep the buyer identity confidential, often contracting through separate entities, until the key pieces are tied up.

In New York there is a second tool: a zoning lot merger, which can let a site use unused development rights from an adjacent lot without buying the whole building. Whether that works depends on the zoning district and how the neighboring property is built, and it requires careful legal documentation. In Southwest Florida, assemblage is more often about corridor frontage, access points and stormwater area than about air rights. Either way, we run the math on the full site and on each fallback version before anyone signs.

What landowners should pull together before we go to market

Developers price uncertainty. Every question they have to answer on their own becomes a discount in their offer or a longer feasibility period. Owners who hand over a clean package up front get sharper bids and fewer retrades. Here is what we ask for, and what we will help you obtain if you do not have it.

• The deed, any recent title commitment or policy, and copies of recorded easements or restrictions.
• The most recent survey, even if it is old. A boundary survey answers half the questions a buyer will ask.
• Any environmental reports, tank records or remediation correspondence, good or bad. Hiding a problem only moves it to the closing table.
• Leases or occupancy agreements if anyone is using the property, including billboard, parking or cell tower agreements.
• Utility bills or letters showing what service exists at the property line.
• Prior permit history, site plans or zoning determinations, including denied applications.
• For Brooklyn and Manhattan lots, the certificate of occupancy history and any open violations on the existing structure.

We then prepare a short offering memo showing what the zoning allows, a test-fit of a likely building, and the comparable land sales we think matter. That memo goes only to qualified developers whose product fits, which keeps your site from being shopped to death.

Sale, joint venture or ground lease

Not every landowner should sell outright. Families holding a corridor parcel for generations, or an operating business sitting on more land than it needs, sometimes do better keeping an interest. The trade-off is always risk and time against upside.

Tax treatment varies widely between these structures. A 1031 exchange may defer gain on a sale, while a contribution or lease has its own rules. We frame the business options; your CPA and attorney confirm the tax and legal consequences.

A hypothetical walk through the residual math

For example, picture a hypothetical corner parcel on a commercial corridor in Fort Myers. The owner has an offer based on the value of the old building on it. We would start by asking what a developer could put there. If the zoning and a possible Live Local Act path support a multifamily building, we estimate the units, the rents the finished building could achieve, and the value of that income stream.

From that value we subtract site work, construction, design, permits, impact fees, financing costs and a developer profit a lender would accept. What remains is roughly what a rational developer can pay for the land. If that number is well above the existing-use offer, the owner has a development site, not a teardown. If it is close, the existing-use buyer may be the better outcome because they close faster with less risk. As a contractor, Sal checks the construction side of that math himself, which is where many broker valuations go wrong.

Mistakes we see on land deals

• Pricing land per acre or per square foot of lot without checking how much of it is buildable after setbacks, stormwater and wetlands.
• Assuming utilities are available because the neighbor has them.
• Skipping a geotechnical report on a site with a history of fill, which is common in parts of Brooklyn and coastal Florida.
• Letting the feasibility period expire while waiting on a single report.
• Underestimating what flood elevation does to construction cost and building height in coastal zones.
• Approaching an assemblage owner by owner without a plan for the last lot.

How we are paid on land assignments

On a land sale we are usually paid a commission at closing under a written listing agreement. On buyer-side searches the fee is typically paid by the seller or written into the purchase terms, and in some cases a developer retains us directly. Feasibility studies, residual analyses and entitlement advice done outside a transaction can be billed as consulting. Every arrangement is disclosed in writing before we start. To talk through a specific site, contact us or call 239-256-5005.

Land terms we use with clients