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Show Volume I April 24, 1980 Number 16 flfla Space Sale They've got to be dreaming. In this economy of 17 percent interest in-terest on loans, these guys say they are going to sell 24,000 square feet of commercial space in a mini-mall that isn't built. There isn't even a foundation foun-dation to which these dreamers can point and declare: "There she'll stand; want to buy in?" And, what's more, these dreamers expect to pre-sell all 24,000 sq. ft. in 45 days! Well, it happens that these dreamers, better known collectively as Prospector Prospec-tor Development Company and Snow Country Properties, have dreamed up a way to build their mini-mall and avoid high interest rates for themselves and their buyers. The mini-mall, called Prospector Mercantile, is to be built at Prospector Square next to the Grub Steak Restaurant. Current proposals call for a two-story structure retail and restaurant space on the first floor, professional and office space on the second built in Victorian motif. There will be 24,000 square feet of leasable space, but 4,000 of that already is committed. A third floor of office space, may be added in the future. Marketing the mall space are the Prospector Development Co. and on a 30-year amortization plan: the first five years paid at six percent interest, in-terest, the next five at twelve percent, and at the end of the 10 years, a balloon payment will be due for the balance. Mike Sloan of Prospector Development Develop-ment Company, and Ennis Gibbs of Snow Country Properties, representing the two companies marketing the mall space, explained how the building of Prospector Mercantile will be financed. Bankrolling the project with construction construc-tion loans and asking floor-space purchasers pur-chasers to also borrow from lending institutions, in-stitutions, were, of course, out of the question. Neither did the developers want to go with private financing or a chase. Each square foot of the mall sells for $130. The developers figure that enough funds would be generated to pay for construction of the building if all the space were sold and each buyer paid his 29 percent. In essence, every buyer becomes a builder. "The front money from the buyers will go into a special, interest earning bank account until all the space is sold," explained Sloan. "That will protect all the prospective purchasers. We will pick a specific date for all the space to be sold and construction to begin. If construction hasn't started by the date, then a buyer can get his money back with interest. "It's the only offering in town that I know of that has a positive.cash flow," noted Gibbs. Space-buyers will pay off the Prospector Mercantile is just part of a large commercial area described by Prospector Square. If you have driven out to the square lately, you've probably noticed the walkways and parking lots that have been laid out to the west of the Grub Steak Restaurant, up to and including the property where Park City CATV Associates are installing in-stalling the antennae and relay station for the city's cable television system. The Prospector Square commercial area is expected to be the site of some of Park City's fastest commercial development in coming years. Prospector Square originally was developed in the early 1970s by Murray First Thrift President Ed Vet-ter. Vet-ter. At the time the area was just a "lot of sand," as Sloan described it. This was before Park Meadows, Thaynes O" t o - " K"7 - . , p i limited partnership, the latter returning remaining 71 percent of their purchase vOntinuea Oil rage . . too little to each buyer. "Necessity being the mother of invention, in-vention, we brainstormed the idea and decided to pay for construction of the mini-mall by collecting in advance a portion of each space-buyer's cost," said Gibbs. "Of course it's not a normal nor-mal type of sale, most people don't close on property before it's built." This is how the plan works. Each buyer of mini-mall space will pay in advance 29 percent of his total pur- on a 30-year amortization plan: the first five years paid at six percent interest, inter-est, the next five at twelve percent, and at the end of the 10 years, a balloon payment will be due for the balance. Sloan and Gibbs said they already have two contractors in mind. The marketing agents said that a contractor should find the mall project an attractive attrac-tive enough venture to be willing to offer of-fer a firm bid on cost and completion date. MtHIitttiIoj' r -r 1 : "P ffi; Lliin.r I I j m met ta j " ! ftee b I Itatfi yi i t hk i, 1 jr'd -t4t 4 : yyyyM' H -;r" M ' W ''. ' I HARP ! ': RBCfc i;:. JHC i jfef- ' p.rn ftp, ft . nn ;ffi fn ;, nnnn n |
