With over 35 years in the due diligence industry, CREtelligent’s Fraser Hamilton has conducted thousands of environmental and property condition assessments – from 1000 square foot raw land parcels to the Corvette final assembly plant to one of the oldest petroleum refineries in the USA (and everything in between).
But those are formal assessments for clients. There’s more. His family jokingly estimates the number is in the millions. You see, when you assess properties for a living, well sometimes you just can’t close your trained eye, even when offline. Fraser caught himself doing just that recently when he visited a hotel where family was staying that were visiting from out of state. He shares some casual observations.
My Visit to Hotel ‘X’
By Fraser Hamilton
During a recent visit by out-of-town family, I spent a couple of hours in their hotel room visiting them. The property was clearly aging. While the appearance from the street was okay, and it was flying the colors of a major brand, my visitors commented that it was aging. In fact, the night before, they had stayed in another property of the same brand and commented on the differences.
When I walked into the hotel my “PCA” eyes and ears went to work. The back wall of the lobby was a glass wall with the indoor pool beyond. The windows were fogged, and you could smell chlorine in the lobby. If I were doing a Property Condition Assessment (PCA), I probably would have paid close attention to the condition of that glazing.
Going Up?
The elevator was next. It shook just a little when it stopped. The cab finishes were aged, the wall panels did not cover up whatever was underneath them, and the carpet was dirty. The door was noisy when it closed, and you could see where it was scraping the threshold of the elevator. A Property Condition Assessment is going to call for an elevator overhaul!
When it Rains, it Pours
The room had a balcony big enough for a couple of chairs. It allowed for a view of the roof over part of the first floor. The flat roof was holding water, several inches. And the basket over the roof drain was completely covered with debris. Then it rained. The water rose to the top of the overflow and drained that way. Carrying debris along with it! A Property Condition Assessment is going to call for roof cleaning and inspection!
Looking around a little more, it was obvious the exterior was finished with an exterior insulation finishing system (EIFS). EIFS is a system of finishing building facades that includes an approved substrate over the sheathing (or the sheathing might be the substrate), maybe a drainage layer, a layer of rigid insulation and stucco applied over the insulation. The rigid insulation can be layered or have details cut into it for aesthetic appeal. EIFS works pretty well until you have a breach in the stucco.
Water gets in behind that stucco and has no easy way out. In warm, humid environments this is a situation just waiting for mold to grow. The EIFS at the hotel we were at last week, well, its seen better days. Stucco completely missing, layers of insulation falling off. A Property Condition Assessment is going to have a hefty budget for facade repair.
There’s More!
A privacy wall separated the hotel from an adjacent parking lot. The finish on that wall was starting to peel and pop. The PCA would have included a budget for refinishing that wall. Given that this property is in a part of the country that experiences freeze-thaw cycles, it’s almost certain that some repairs to the underlying masonry would be needed.
The asphalt parking lot at the property had not been resealed in some time. No striping was visible anywhere on the lot. The Property Condition Assessment would include costs for this maintenance!
I can tell you that my kids, who were visiting with my parents in that room, are no more concerned about clogged roof drains than most of their contemporaries now! Almost certainly, the impacts of the pandemic have caused deferred maintenance. And I would guess that, outside of the Property Condition Assessment issues, this property is not up to the brand’s standards and could use some obvious improvements.
More on property improvement plans (PIPs) another time!
About CREtelligent.com. Commercial Real Estate Due Diligence. Simplified.
Gold River, CA-based CREtelligent opened its doors in 2015 as eScreenLogic, a Commercial Real Estate (CRE) environmental due diligence firm focused on desktop, RSRA, Phase I, and Phase II site assessments. In late 2020, eScreenLogic rebranded to CREtelligent to better reflect the company’s vision. Since then, the company has grown quickly and today provides the full spectrum of property due diligence services to commercial real estate professionals.
Media Contact: Gary Kulik | g.kulik@cretelligent.com
