Development

There are a lot of factors involved in development.

For one, there are many parties to be satisfied by the developer including various public bodies, possible lenders, potential investors, and last but certainly not least, potential tenants. The latter are often represented by an assortment of other agents, bankers, marketing specialists, insurance providers, and other practitioners of little known but important specialties. Every single one of them has his own ideas about what is wrong, or more rarely right, with the project in question. Just imagine this forum trying to build a project except worse.

At the same time the legal negotiations are underway with the developer on one side with her attorneys (one for each required specialty). Across the table, or more accurately the Internet now, the other constituencies gather also armed with attorneys. One important constituent is the land owner. In that group may also be pipe line and other strange easement holders and (or) specific restrictions represented by document that originated with the run. And then there are new proposed restrictions sought by each of the new tenants as well as more imaginative proposals submitted by the land owner family.

If the project survives sufficiently to move into the serious (as in making plans that a contractor can use to bid and build) civil engineering stage, then it turns out that the site is either too flat or too hilly. The engineer might say something like "you can't defy the laws of physics regardless of who you are" to the developer.

At each stage those cherished plans and elevations and scribbled renderings undergo vicious modifications, each one an emotional blow to the poet heart of the developer. And, it must be remembered, that with each tedious step the developer's wallet loses a little cash.

Finally, say a couple of years or maybe longer from first thought, the project is far enough along to submit to "pandz" (the way it is said). There are opponents who demand this or that. So begins another chapter.

Assuming that one concludes and another begins - not necessarily a good assumption either - then there are likely a few more public appearances necessary before zoning and platting can be finalized.

Then there is the final title work perhaps and the final investor and lending efforts. The latter may well have been disrupted by the price of oil, the collapse of Bear Stearns, or an overly cloudy day. The former is just disruptive period.

Now it is time to solicit bids and find out that the budget figure for the cost of the project (the same budget that was supposed to be overly conservative) is about 1/2 what is actually needed.

At the same time one (or several) of the future tenants withdraws his letter of intent because of the immigration bill, the cost of corn syrup, his chapter 11 filing, or, perhaps, he got a better deal across the street.

I've omitted the more complex and nefariously detailed steps in the interest of brevity and sanity.