Due Diligence for Retail and Offices on 90th Street

A retail unit or office does not succeed because its project sits on a famous road. It succeeds when the intended activity can operate legally and practically, tenant demand is evidenced, and the all-in cost leaves income after expenses and vacancy.

Start with the target occupier, not the advertised yield

Define the activity and its needs: frontage, height, ventilation, power, loading, lift, parking, and operating hours. Ask three potential operators or tenants about the location and rent. A documented expression of interest is more useful than a verbal guarantee.

Verify use and operation

Confirm the permitted use of the unit and building, licences required by the activity, and contractual rights to frontage, outdoor space, signage, and handover. A clinic, restaurant, and office are not interchangeable; each carries different requirements and fit-out cost.

Measure movement rather than describing it

Observe entrances, pedestrians, vehicles, and parking on a weekday, weekend, and at different hours. Separate traffic that passes the project from visitors who can stop and enter. Request reviewable occupancy and operating data where available.

Calculate net income

Start with a defensible rent, then deduct maintenance, management, marketing, fit-out, rent-free period, vacancy, tax, and brokerage. Stress-test lower rent and a longer delay. A yield quoted on headline price before these items is not a net return.

Test the exit

Review assignment charges, competing supply, and the likely future buyer: investor or owner-occupier. A small unit is not automatically liquid when a project contains many near-identical alternatives.

Build a tenant-demand file independent of the seller

Define three plausible activities and ask real operators about acceptable rent, fit-out, frontage, parking, and operating hours. Record who responded and when, and separate preliminary interest from a binding lease or offer.

Use the lowest defensible rent in the model and include fit-out time, vacancy, and operating expenses. If return disappears under those assumptions, the issue is the unit's economics rather than the quality of the sales presentation.