Case Study: Rental Apartment Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Challenge

Plantation, Florida is an upper-middle-class suburb west of Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County, Florida. In 2020, Broward County faced the challenge of a severe shortage of new residential production as it became built-out within the past ten to fifteen years. There was not enough single-family home production to meet demand, so higher-density options needed to fill the void.

The other challenge was that the economy was effectively shut down and in a deep economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic while the study was underway, so it was important to think carefully about the best way to proceed with a new development project. The client wanted to make sure that they got a study report that would not be obsolete in two months as health-related and economy-related conditions changed.

Solution

The client retained RCLCO to evaluate the market for rental apartments, and in order to deal with the economic uncertainties, RCLCO updated the forecasts in the study 60 days after the initial report was delivered to take into account all of the latest information and the latest outlook at that time. The consultancy was also geared to help the client think about all of the ancillary income, such as from parking, so as to create a better financial cushion, and to maximize overall returns. The client was pleased with our resourcefulness and completeness in our work.

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