What to check on a commercial site before you go under contract

We have stood on a lot that looked perfect from the road and found the reason it was cheap two feet down. The seller was not hiding it; nobody had asked. Site selection is the one decision on a commercial project that construction cannot fix later, because the foundation, the permit path, the utility bill and the opening date all sit on top of whatever the dirt turns out to be. Here is the walk we do with an owner before the earnest money goes hard.

What the ground is hiding

Order a geotechnical report before you fall in love with the parcel. Texas soils move. Expansive clay, a shallow water table or fill from an earlier building can each push a foundation from a simple slab into piers and grade beams, and that change lands in the budget before a single wall is framed. Ask what the property was before. A former fueling station, a dry cleaner or a light industrial yard can carry contamination, and a Phase I environmental assessment costs far less than the remediation it would have warned you about. Finally, look at where water goes when it rains hard. Flood zone status changes the construction requirements, the detention design and the insurance for as long as you own the building.

What the city will let you do

Zoning is a yes-or-no question with a long tail. Confirm the parcel allows your use as of right. A rezoning or a variance is possible, but it adds months and it can fail, and a lease with an opening date attached does not wait for a planning commission. While you are at it, check the parking ratio your use requires under that jurisdiction's code, then draw the setbacks, landscape buffers and drive aisles on the survey and see whether the count still fits. A site short on required parking forces a redesign or a variance late, when neither is cheap. Our pre-construction work includes this overlay for exactly that reason; the owner who prices the job is the one reading the code with you.

What has to reach the property line

Water, sanitary sewer, three-phase power and gas if the use needs it: find out what is actually at the line, not what is somewhere down the road. A utility extension can be one of the largest line items on a site and one of the slowest, because it usually involves another agency's schedule. Capacity matters as much as presence. A restaurant, a car wash or a medical building can outrun the service a residential-scale line can deliver.

How the finished business will use the lot

Stand at the curb at the hours you will be open and watch. Can a customer turn in easily from both directions. Can a delivery truck make the turn and back to a dock without blocking the front door. Can a guest see the sign from the light. Then draw the building footprint with room left over for construction staging, material laydown and crane or lift access during the build itself. A parcel that fits the finished building with nothing to spare is a parcel where the job costs more to build because there is nowhere to put anything.

A site that fails one check is not always the wrong site

It is a site with a different budget and a different schedule, and the time to learn that is before you are under contract, not after. Owners who move fast on price, size and location alone are the ones who find the utility extension or the soil report a month after closing. We would rather walk the lot with you first.

If you are looking at a parcel, send over the survey, the address and what you plan to open there. A principal of the company will walk it with you, in person, and tell you plainly what it will take to open on that ground.