Development
Finding Sites:
Selecting the right location and negotiating the right deal is critical to having a successful development. Site selection requires in-depth market knowledge and an understanding of traffic patterns, demographics, zoning, engineering, shopping trends, political environment and finance. Drake takes great pride in its ability to negotiate deals with land sellers, tenants, and city officials. Drake has learned to negotiate effectively by having the discipline to conduct detailed due diligence and to incorporate past experiences into the transaction.
Build to Suit Development:
Drake has a tremendous amount of experience in build-to-suit (“BTS”) development for individual retailers. Drake’s BTS program has included fee development, joint ventures, sale lease back and traditional lease transactions. Drake’s success in the client-driven BTS business comes from its willingness to understand each client’s facility, site parameters and development objectives. Drake then builds its systems to cater to the client’s needs.
Building the Drake Way:
Drake takes a very hands-on approach to entitling and constructing its projects. Enormous value can be created or lost depending on how the entitlements are negotiated and how the plans are designed. Drake has developed systems for managing the consultants needed to develop project documents and the processes required to obtain approvals and permits. The majority of cost overages and time delays during construction can be attributed to poorly developed construction documents and poorly negotiated contracts with the architect and general contractor. Drake uses an interactive web-based platform to control its project documents, competitively bids each project and manages the consultants and contractors through the life of a project.
Current & Past Clients Include:
