Vacant Property Maintenance Planning

Vacant property maintenance is time consuming and tedious. Having an extra property on your hands, especially one located remotely, provides challenges to maintaining your investment. Coordination, repair and proper reporting takes up precious time that you could use to grow your business. At Commercial Asset Preservation (CAP), we’ll inspect and maintain your property so that you can focus on running your business or division.  In this blog, we’ll discuss the key questions you should consider before determining a maintenance plan for your vacant property/properties.

Each of our clients has different property security needs.  These needs are based upon the geographic location of the property, the neighborhood in which it resides, the type of building or facility and the property’s overall condition.

Location, Location, Location

Your once prosperous locations has seen drastic change. That is probably one of the reason you needed to shutter the doors. What can you expect with your property? Properties in neighborhoods with high crime rates may need the following:

• Graffiti or dumping checks
• Break-in checks
• Routine property inspection checks (based upon your needs)
• Posting of “no trespassing signs”
• Fencing installation and maintenance
• Security lighting

Cold Climate

For those properties more exposed to climate change, we recomend regular site checks. This is specifically important during the winter months, when pipes are likely to burst or freeze/thaw impacts the roof. A routine inspection can identify a problem early, saving thousands of dollars of damage. We can work with you to determine the amount of property checks needed.

Utility Management

Many times when properties become vacant, it is easy for clients to let utilities go. We can help you by managing payments. Simply put the utilities in our name. We process the bills and provide accountability and reporting. . The gas is operating and the lights are always on, providing your property with security and protection from elements and other intrusions..

Around-The-Clock Customer Service

At Commercial Asset Preservation, we pride ourselves in our great customer service program. We inspect your property, provide written and visual proof of work completed and detail the problems that need to be addressed. There is someone available around the clock to answer our emergency hotline. Should you have an emergency, around a holiday or even in the middle of the  night, you can get rest assured we’re here to help.  Safety forces can reach us, and receive entry assistance before the need to force entry into your building.

For more information on vacant property maintenance, contact Nancy Carrillo at 407-883-1139 or nancyc@commercialpreservation.com.

Reprinted from www.kcur.org

It was a tearful, dramatic day five years ago, when the school board of Kansas City Public Schools decided to close 21 buildings in order to adjust to a shrinking student population. That was in addition to nine previously closed schools, leaving the district with 30 surplus buildings.

Kansas City is not the only district doing this around the country … Detroit, Philadelphia and Chicago all closed large numbers of school buildings in recent years. But in the wake of the school closures, Kansas City developed what was considered a pioneering program, asking communities to be part of the process of determining what would happen to the empty buildings.

Read the full article at http://kcur.org/post/shuttered-schools-still-part-kansas-citys-landscape

Reprinted from www.southlandcommercial.com

One of the most important things to have, when representing a buyer in the purchase of real estate, is a commercial property inspection. This should be done by a qualified property inspector. Having this type of inspection ensures that the buyer has “looked under the hood” and knows exactly what they are getting. What can appear to be a good purchase can sometimes quickly turn into a money pit with multiple unseen issues that the buyer would be inheriting.

A list of the items to be checked during a commercial property inspection:

• Structural Issues
• Mold (WDO Inspection)
• HVAC
• Roof
• Environmental Contamination
• Plumbing
• Electrical
• Hazardous Materials (lead paint, asbestos)
• Proper Insulation
• Fire/Life Safety Issues
• ADA compliance issues
• Foundation issues

Read the full article at southlandcommercial.com

Reprinted from www.timesunion.com

Guilderland

The town cracked down on vacant properties Tuesday night by unanimously adopting an ordinance that requires owners of vacant structures to register them, keep them neat and put up a $5,000 bond that the town can tap into if the property needs to be cleaned up.

“These properties don’t generally become public health issues, but they become unsightly and rundown,” said Town Supervisor Ken Runion.

To read the entire article, click here

Reprinted from Detroit Free Press

Detroit’s fight to reduce blight has begun to focus more on vacant, dilapidated business properties marring the city’s landscape, with city lawyers quietly taking dozens of property owners to court in recent months to get them to either fix up or demolish their buildings.

A team of six lawyers in Detroit’s Law Department has brought more than 50 lawsuits in Wayne County Circuit Court against commercial property owners in the last nine months, many targeting blighted buildings that help tarnish neighborhoods.

Targeted so far have been the owners of properties ranging from a large, dilapidated apartment complex on the city’s west side, to a downtown high-rise and even a two-family duplex near Indian Village, one of the Detroit’s more stable neighborhoods.

To read the entire article, click here