SITE TO DO BUSINESS CASE STUDY
By Nicholas Leider
RECAPTURING THE MAGIC
One CCIM designee helped a client find financing and acquire an Orlando-area hotel for conversion to multifamily housing .
A
year after COVID-19 came to dominate all aspects of life in the U . S ., it ’ s easy to draw a distinction in the world as pre-pandemic and postpandemic . But Ken Pierce , CCIM , CIPS , can trace one major deal directly to those fretful days when schools were closing , events were getting canceled , and toilet paper was flying off the shelves .
Pierce , owner of Orlando-based Pierce Florida Realty , had a client scheduled for a closing on March 13 . The property was an old hotel with Pierce ’ s client aiming to convert it to boutique studio apartments targeted at hospitality and entertainment workers for Disney World and other tourist destinations in the area .
“ Literally , it was in that time frame when everything began shutting down ,” he says . “ We weren ’ t even sure , frankly , whether the bank was going to go ahead and pull the trigger .”
But the deal was completed — thanks in part to the research done by Pierce through Site To Do Business . Detailed demographic information and transportation data allowed Pierce ’ s client to bolster its business plan , which helped with the underwriting of the financing .
Ken Pierce , CCIM , worked with a tapestry map within Site To Do Business to locate the ideal property .
“ The targeted tenants are primarily the resort workers , people from Disney and Universal properties , and those working in surrounding hotels and restaurants ,” Pierce says . “ The data we collected was invaluable because the assumption was that a lot of these people would depend on public transportation to and from work ,” he says . “ We basically dropped a marker in the middle of Kissimmee and did half-mile , one-mile , and two-mile searches .”
Pulling the profiles of the surrounding neighborhoods by income , age , homeownership , and other categories , Pierce quickly narrowed an initial shortlist of 10 properties to one ideal candidate . After the March closing , development on the adaptive reuse project stalled as the coronavirus shut down Florida ’ s economy . But construction resumed in the summer of 2020 , with the first units expecting to be on the market by April 2021 .
“ After the initial shutdown , my client was able to get back to work ,” Pierce says . “ Converting
40 COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2021