REAL ESTATE
characteristics . But you have to wait for the market to catch up to tear it down .”
Ellis has been in this business for 25 years . He knew the space was not going to lease easily the first time he walked inside . Rabin went through engineering and architectural analysis and ultimately decided tearing down the older structure to rebuild was for the best , Ellis says .
“ For most of these facilities that are manufacturing facilities , you run into the same problem ,” he says . “ The building was built to support manufacturing processes because that ’ s what it was built for . It has really specific improvements that are so unique that they ’ re incredibly challenging to reuse .”
If a developer can make it work , the upside could be big . Bruce Monighan , urban design manager for the City of Sacramento , has been a longtime advocate for adaptive reuse of warehouse space . The local architect says these kinds of buildings are perfect to have new life for different purposes , as they have very little restrictive structure in them .
Think of houses from the 1930s , where every room had a specific purpose : dining room , foyer , laundry room , kitchen , etc . In contrast , Monighan sees warehouses more like the homes of the 70s , with open living spaces that could be customized as needed .
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Adaptive strategies
The surrounding areas also reap the benefits of adaptive reuse , Monighan says . He points to R Street and how its old brick and concrete warehouses have been transformed to give the corridor a cool , edgy vibe . North 16th Street and Richards Boulevard are following suit , areas that had once been industrial and commercial hubs reemerging into hotspots for new activity .
“ In real estate , it ’ s all about location , location , location ,” Monighan says , “ but sometimes you have to think about locations as what ’ s coming over the next five years .”
This doesn ’ t discount the massive financial challenges . Most older buildings require seismic upgrades to be safe enough to withstand earthquakes . These retrofits can be costly . In California , redevelopment funds were reallocated in the state ’ s plan to shore up its 2011-2012 budget under Gov . Jerry Brown . That makes it harder for developers to create a profitable budget for reuse projects .
“ You drive around now , there ’ s a lot of mid-century real estate — strip malls , old industrial buildings — where the local economy doesn ’ t fix it up ,” Ellis says . “ You just see real estate deteriorating and going away .”
Redevelopment funds bridged the gap to show investors a potential return . For some warehouses , the facility is big enough to rent and create income , but smaller sites don ’ t have that luxury and investors don ’ t have time .
“ I ’ ve seen so many times projects not happen purely because when you
44 comstocksmag . com | August 2022