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tell me about buying an abandoned warehouse (or stony/brick building) as a home

post #1 of 24
11/1/10 at 2:25pm
Thread Starter 
i've seen lots of interior design photos set in warehouse settings. is this really possible? if so, how is done? i mean, where and how would i search for this? is this generally much more expensive than a traditional home/townhouse/condo? if it matters, i live in sunny san diego.
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post #2 of 24
11/1/10 at 2:53pm
Those are most likely hard lofts.
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post #3 of 24
11/1/10 at 3:09pm
Look at commercial property sites like Loopnet.com or CoStar...call a local commercial real estate broker as they'll have better knowledge about which buildings are available. Look to the city for records on tax liens etc and that might give you a good list to work from. Some counties have an annual auction/sale of forfeited buildings and you can get a list that way as well
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post #4 of 24
11/1/10 at 5:11pm
If the building isn't zoned for living you may have some problems.

You also would have to buy and convert the whole building. Not a very good idea in the current market IMO but what do I know.
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post #5 of 24
11/1/10 at 5:52pm
my dad did this, after he retired. its been a few years of work, and he is very handy. he took what is essentially a building with commerical space, offices and apartment spaces, and is fixing it floor by floor.
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post #6 of 24
11/1/10 at 6:15pm
The mortgage mess has fouled up this kind of deal: you'd better have a pile of cash or a very friendly personal banker. The secondary market for mixed-use buildings has all but dried up.
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post #7 of 24
11/1/10 at 9:51pm
the two biggest issues i see are 1. hard to get financing for commercial units 2. zoning - most likely to have some sort of commercial zoning, and would be VERY difficult to convert it to residential you're better off just looking for a loft with the look and feel you desire
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post #8 of 24
11/1/10 at 10:33pm
To do this by the book is not that easy. Especially if the structure is old....in laymen's terms it will take a lot of $$$ to be up to code. To do this on a scale such that entire warehouse = only your loft is 100% guaranteed to make no financial sense.
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post #9 of 24
11/1/10 at 11:29pm
my apartment looks like that, well similar, but I live in old city philly. the company I got my place from buys old building (mine was from 1778) and converts them for profit.
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post #10 of 24
11/7/10 at 3:31pm
pfurey, care to share pics?
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post #11 of 24
11/7/10 at 4:15pm
It's also difficult to heat and cool the rooms.
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post #12 of 24
11/7/10 at 4:44pm
What about borrowing / renting some space that is not to code, not for residential use, but for some other reason, say art or professional use. Some areas have a lot of abandoned warehouse space (e.g. rust belt USA), and there are probably properties that can be rented now for cheap -- provided that the owner does not need to rent as a residence. There could be no heat or shower or whatever, making it tough to live there, but this would be a cheap way to spend some time in this kind of space for your art purposes, or for whatever reason you want to spend time in a huge old space. If you just want such a loft to stand around and look at the walls, well, maybe you want to try it out before you buy a building etc. Drive around, learn the names of properties, then call around looking for space to build a temporary sound stage or something. I had friends in Jersey City who rented a floor of warehouse and lived there for years when, technically, they were only renting the space for some fictional or obviously not-profitable business. I forget what exactly was the excuse. They plumbed in their own bathroom and had a don't ask, don't tell relationship with the landlord. But this was 20 years ago.
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post #13 of 24
11/8/10 at 3:51pm
My father owns a few warehouses that are in borderline residential areas.

One of them he uses the majority of the space to house his car collection as well as his work area, hydraulic lift, etc.

But the rest of the building (old 1910's telephone company) is old office space with offices of various sizes/layouts.

He has a small lounge (couches, pool table, bar etc) attached to the main space with his cars, but the rest he rents out to whoever will pay, usually no questions asked. It tends to be local bands needing practice space who just hang out, play a little, drink a bit and smoke a bit of weed.

There are also a couple of people who live there at least a few nights every now and then. The building is not dual zone, but the odds of this being an issue are slim to none in the right neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the right neighborhoods in that sense are usually the wrong neighborhoods in every other sense. Unless you have mega bucks.

There are companies that take spaces like this and do exactly what you are looking for. HRI out of New Orleans immediately comes to mind.

http://www.hriproperties.com/Apartme...bsite_document[id]/15818

I am actually thinking about trying to get into historic renovation work after school, myself.
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post #14 of 24
11/8/10 at 4:03pm
To the OP - you would probably be better off with an old industrial/warehouse type building that has already been converted to residential loft apartments or condos. But is there a big supply of that type of construction in San Diego? Here in Detroit, they are still a pretty new and novel residential format (our industrial buildings were still being used for industry up until the last few decades!). I have been in a few places in Detroit that were truly unimproved industrial warehouses basically taken over by the "artistic" set and were not permitted residential units. One in particular that stands out to me was a place in a warehouse in our Eastern Market area where a few guys lived on one floor of this turn-of-the-century building but would host concerts in their unit each weekend. These weren't your typical rave though but were full-fledge concerts with national touring acts like Girl Talk and Dan Deacon. They were pretty interesting events to put it mildly.
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post #15 of 24
11/9/10 at 4:47am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michigan Planner View Post
To the OP - you would probably be better off with an old industrial/warehouse type building that has already been converted to residential loft apartments or condos. But is there a big supply of that type of construction in San Diego?
no clue. where and how do i start researching this?
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