Purchase property, gut and renovate, while meeting a critical deadline
NEED
Save-A- Lot Food Stores has more than 1,300 stores nationwide. In this case, management needed to roll out five stores in the Chicago area by the end of the fiscal year, and within a specified budget. They called in May and asked us to acquire an abandoned building at 63rd and Calumet in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood for a February opening.
Q2 PROCESS
Q2 was brought in as preferred developer. Our process was focused and disciplined. The best location was a vacant and dilapidated building. We had the property under contract within weeks of the client’s request. During due diligence, we learned the site was down-zoned and required rezoning. We also learned an environmental issue required a vapor barrier under the finished floor. Working with the Alderman, we rezoned the property and secured building permits in September. At the same time, we completed the lease, acquired the property, developed an innovative solution to the vapor barrier and awarded the construction contract. That same month, we started construction, which – in addition to completely gutting and rehabbing the building – required a new parking lot, the vapor barrier and storm drainage including underground detention.
RESULTS
Working 24/7, we turned the building over to Save-A-Lot in January and met the February opening. We accomplished this without requiring any changes to the originally negotiated lease terms.
