Commercial development is a severe undertaking. Get it right, and you come away with a good profit and happy buyers or tenants. Get it wrong, and you could lose money and your reputation, making it difficult to obtain financing next time round.
The project
A proper project plan should take you through your development with ease. By necessity, it needs to be comprehensive. Still, the detailed requirements of such a project often turn the plan into a complex document that confuses everyone who reads it. Use the following steps to help keep everything clear and organized:
Write a clear initial plan outlining each “chunk” of the project:
- Land purchase
- Use and design
- Planning requirements
- Initial building requirements
- Central building phase
- Fitting-out
- Marketing
- Sale or rental
Breaking down each area will tell you precisely what has to be accomplished to make the project successful. It is a brilliant idea to use the available expertise of your architect, excavation contractor, construction company, local government, and other advisers to ensure that everything is covered and in order.
The timetable
A project should always have an achievable timeline. Without one, you’ll get people trying to accomplish a development too quickly by cutting corners creating a lower standard build, and unplanned problems. Lastly, rushing, in turn, will hurt your ability to rent or sell the development at completion. A realistic timescale is essential, and you should have an estimated schedule for each task in your project plan. With every aspect of the project notated into a clear timetable. The table will allow you to see which projects are done simultaneously and which are done consecutively.
Keeping on track
A commercial development uses the talents of many people, and there will be an ongoing requirement to source and track these talented contractors to make sure that everything runs smoothly. With that said, there must be a professional in charge of the project full-time in order to keep it on track. Contractors work well when there is a single person to report to and guide them through the project.
Successful commercial projects are carefully planned, efficient, and scheduled before any work starts on the site. These projects are always fluid, and you should prepare for things to change along the way. A smart way to prepare is to always pad the schedule because it is better to finish earlier than later. Regardless, you must have a solid written plan because if you don’t your project will most likely cost more and take longer than what was planned.
