"How Buildings Learn":
Understanding Adaptive Reuse
CRE101 | October 21st
Lucas Lindsey
Development Manager
Venue Projects
@urbnist | urbnist.com
Q: What is adaptive reuse?
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A: The ongoing change of style, culture, and economics as expressed in buildings.
When structure outlives function, when markets shift values, when the roof leaks--these forces of man and nature threaten buildings. Adaptive reuse is one answer to extending their lifespan.
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
A "somebody 'oughta"
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
A "somebody did"
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Happy Motoring!
1215 S. Adams St. TLH, FL - Southside
Roadmap
1. Three Beliefs
2. Another Example
3. Some Discussion
Three Beliefs
A building is never finished.
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"The word building contains the double reality."
- Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn
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Circle K: An Adaptable Time Traveler
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The Shearing Layers of Change
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Different layers change at different rates, triggered by different things, and slow layers limit adaptability of fast layers.
Reusing a building can be good business.
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Making the Economic Justification
Adaptive reuse hinges on the tension between land value, improvement value, and rehab costs.
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Can you get a low enough basis going in and extract enough irreplaceable value from the existing structure to justify reno?
The Best Kind of Leverage
- Reused buildings are emotionally resonate, tied to history, and often endearing to neighbors and customers = inherent marketing and goodwill
- Done well, adaptive reuse results in income-producing art, a cultural artifact with economic returns, a unique experience that commodity products have trouble authentically recreating
- These advantages can make long tail profit outcomes possible and result in trophy assets with a legacy
- At Venue, we measure this and more using Holistic ROI
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Risky Business
Adaptive reuse shares the risks of most value-add or opportunistic strategies: entitlement, construction, lease, and operations.
🔑s: Know your strengths, partner or hire for your weakness. Arch/Eng & GC due diligence early. Recruit stellar operators from day 1.
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Adaptive reuse is a full contact sport.
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"We know we're going to spit blood on this one, and that's what we signed up for."
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Suiting Up for Battle
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You’ve got to ask yourself: Do I believe in a vision others don’t *and* do I see enough of a return on brain damage to run this marathon to the finish?
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Get end-user and operator inputs as soon as you reliably can. But be as ready as possible for iterative design, unforeseen conditions, and lots of conversations about flashing and waterproofing.
- Set investor and partner expectations early. Reaffirm buy-in from team throughout. Demand excellence, but be encouraging and mediate conflict.
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Another Example
Rise Uptown Hotel
400 W. Camelback Rd. Phx, AZ - Uptown Phoenix & Medlock Place
Completed Fall 2020 | Co-Developer & Co-Owner | 79 Key Boutique Hotel with Don Woods, Lylo, Pop Stand, Cartel Coffee, Shaded Pool, and Event Lawn
The Challenges of Adaptive Reuse
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(14) City Variances
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(1) County Variance - Pool
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(4) City Use Permits
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(1) ROW Abandonment
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(1) Replat
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(1) Re-Addressing
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(1) Rezone Overlay - HP
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(1) NPS Part I Eligibility Application
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(1) NPS Part II Tax Credit Application - DENIED
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(3) Self-Cert Blg Permits
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(41) Misc. Permits
So, who's ready to reuse that Somebody Oughta in your neighborhood?
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Some Discussion
Notes to Consider
- Historic tax credits at local, state, or federal
- Adaptive reuse programs at city level
- Use of International Existing Building Code
- Build genuine relationships with neighborhood leaders and city staff/officials
- As R. John Anderson likes to say, "Your project isn't your property. Your project is the neighborhood." Link to appreciation value capture, compounding holistic returns.
- City (re)building is a multi-generational game. Play long term games with long term people. Long term greedy. Get rich slow. "If your life's work can be accomplished in your own lifetime, then you're not thinking big enough."
- Helps to have an edge: GC, Arch, etc. in house
louisville 1952 to 2014 before and after, then show images from pensylvania twitter guy, facts from how buildings learn about 1-2% change over 30 years and demo in germany post-war. the point is: change is constant, buildings are fluid and subject to seige by forces at all times and at all scales, from the afternoon rain to decadal economic swings. transition to brand quotes and graph of spending on bldgs over time vs. once.
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Understanding Adaptive Reuse - CRE101
By Lucas Lindsey
