1 Development Ground Leases and Joint Ventures a Guide For Owners
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If you own genuine estate in an up-and-coming location or own residential or commercial property that might be redeveloped into a "higher and much better usage", then you have actually come to the right location! This post will help you sum up and hopefully demystify these two techniques of improving a piece of property while participating handsomely in the benefit.

The Development Ground Lease

The Development Ground Lease is a contract, usually ranging from 49 years to 150 years, where the owner transfers all the advantages and burdens of ownership (expensive legalese for future earnings and costs!) to a designer in exchange for a regular monthly or quarterly ground lease payment that will vary from 5%-6% of the reasonable market price of the residential or commercial property. It permits the owner to enjoy a great return on the value of its residential or commercial property without having to sell it and doesn't need the owner itself to handle the significant risk and complication of building a brand-new structure and finding tenants to inhabit the new building, skills which numerous property owners merely do not have or desire to discover. You might have also heard that ground lease rents are "triple net" which implies that the owner incurs no expenses of operating of the residential or commercial property (aside from income tax on the received rent) and gets to keep the full "net" return of the negotiated lease payments. All real! Put another method, during the regard to the ground lease, the developer/ground lease tenant, handles all duty genuine estate taxes, construction costs, borrowing costs, repair work and upkeep, and all operating expenses of the dirt and the brand-new building to be constructed on it. Sounds quite excellent right. There's more!

This ground lease structure also allows the owner to enjoy a reasonable return on the existing value of its residential or commercial property WITHOUT having to sell it, WITHOUT paying capital gains tax and, under present law, WITH a tax basis step-up (which decreases the quantity of gain the owner would eventually pay tax on) when the owner dies and ownership of the residential or commercial property is transferred to its beneficiaries. All you provide up is control of the residential or commercial property for the regard to the lease and a higher participation in the earnings derived from the brand-new building, but without many of the danger that chooses structure and operating a brand-new structure. More on threats later.

To make the offer sweeter, most ground leases are structured with routine boosts in the ground rent to protect against inflation and also have fair market price ground rent "resets" every 20 or two years, so that the owner gets to delight in that 5%-6% return on the future, ideally increased worth of the residential or commercial property.

Another favorable characteristic of an advancement ground lease is that as soon as the new structure has actually been developed and leased up, the property manager's ownership of the residential or commercial property including the rental stream from the ground lease is a sellable and financeable interest in realty. At the very same time, the designer's rental stream from operating the residential or commercial property is also sellable and financeable, and if the lease is drafted effectively, either can be sold or funded without risk to the other party's interest in their residential or commercial property. That is, the owner can borrow cash versus the value of the ground leas paid by the designer without affecting the designer's ability to fund the structure, and vice versa.

So, what are the downsides, you might ask. Well initially, the owner quits all control and all possible revenues to be stemmed from building and running a brand-new structure for in between 49 and 150 years in exchange for the security of minimal ground lease. Second, there is threat. It is predominantly front-loaded in the lease term, however the threat is real. The minute you move your residential or commercial property to the developer and the old structure gets destroyed, the residential or commercial property no longer is leasable and will not be creating any earnings. That will last for 2-3 years until the brand-new structure is developed and totally tenanted. If the developer fails to build the structure or stops halfway, the owner can get the residential or commercial property back by cancelling the lease, but with a partly built building on it that creates no income and worse, will cost millions to complete and lease up. That's why you need to make absolutely sure that whoever you rent the residential or commercial property to is a skilled and skilled home builder who has the financial wherewithal to both pay the ground lease and complete the construction of the building. Complicated legal and business services to supply protection against these risks are beyond the scope of this post, however they exist and need that you find the best organization advisors and legal counsel.

The Development Joint Venture

Not satisfied with a boring, coupon-clipping, long-term ground lease with restricted involvement and limited benefit? Do you want to take advantage of your ownership of an undeveloped or underdeveloped piece of residential or commercial property into an exciting, brand-new, larger and better financial investment? Then possibly an advancement joint venture is for you. In a development joint venture, the owner contributes ownership of the residential or commercial property to a restricted liability business whose owners (members) are the owner and the developer. The owner trades its ownership of the land in exchange for a portion ownership in the joint venture, which percentage is identified by dividing the fair market price of the land by the total task expense of the brand-new building. So, for example, if the value of the land is $ 3million and it will cost $21 million to develop the brand-new building and lease it up, the owner will be credited with a 12.5% ($3mm divided by $24mm) interest in the entity that owns the new structure and will take part in 12.5% of the operating profits, any refinancing proceeds, and the profit on sale.

There is no income tax or state and regional transfer tax on the contribution of the residential or commercial property to the joint venture and in the meantime, a basis step up to fair market worth is still readily available to the owner of the 12.5% joint venture interest upon death. Putting the joint endeavor together raises various concerns that must be negotiated and fixed. For example: 1) if more cash is needed to end up the structure than was originally budgeted, who is to come up with the extra funds? 2) does the owner get its $3mm dollars returned first (a top priority circulation) or do all dollars come out 12.5%:87.5% (professional rata)? 3) does the owner get an ensured return on its $3mm investment (a choice payment)? 4) who gets to control the everyday business choices? or major decisions like when to re-finance or sell the brand-new structure? 5) can either of the members transfer their interests when wanted? or 6) if we construct condominiums, can the members take their profit out by getting ownership of particular homes or retail areas rather of cash? There is a lot to unpack in putting a strong and fair joint endeavor agreement together.
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And after that there is a danger analysis to be done here too. In the advancement joint venture, the now-former residential or commercial property owner no longer owns or manages the dirt. The owner has actually gotten a 12.5% MINORITY interest in the operation, albeit a bigger job than previously. The threat of a failure of the project doesn't simply lead to the termination of the ground lease, it might lead to a foreclosure and possibly total loss of the residential or commercial property. And then there is the possibility that the marketplace for the new building isn't as strong as originally forecasted and the new building does not produce the level of rental earnings that was expected. Conversely, the structure gets built on time, on or under budget, into a robust leasing market and it's a crowning achievement where the value of the 12.5% joint endeavor interest far surpasses 100% of the worth of the undeveloped parcel. The taking of these dangers can be significantly decreased by choosing the exact same competent, experience and financially strong developer partner and if the expected benefits are big enough, a well-prepared residential or commercial property owner would be more than warranted to handle those threats.

What's an Owner to Do?

My first piece of recommendations to anybody considering the redevelopment of their residential or commercial property is to surround themselves with skilled experts. Brokers who comprehend advancement, accounting professionals and other monetary advisors, development experts who will deal with behalf of an owner and of course, good skilled legal counsel. My second piece of guidance is to utilize those professionals to identify the economic, market and legal dynamics of the possible deal. The dollars and the offer potential will drive the decision to establish or not, and the structure. My third piece of guidance to my customers is to be true to themselves and attempt to come to a sincere realization about the level of danger they will want to take, their ability to find the right designer partner and after that trust that developer to control this process for both celebration's mutual economic advantage. More easily stated than done, I can ensure you.

Final Thought

Both of these structures work and have for years. They are especially popular now since the cost of land and the expense of building and construction materials are so costly. The magic is that these advancement ground leases, and joint ventures offer a cheaper method for a designer to manage and redevelop a piece of residential or commercial property. More economical in that the ground lease a developer pays the owner, or the revenue the designer shares with a joint endeavor partner is either less, less risky or both, than if the developer had purchased the land outright, which's an excellent thing. These are advanced transactions that require sophisticated professionals working on your behalf to keep you safe from the risks intrinsic in any redevelopment of property and guide you to the increased value in your residential or commercial property that you seek.
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