Feasibility Studies for Project Development

We’ve been preparing feasibility studies for clients for many years.   We remember the days when there were few nuances and little in the way of disruptive consumer and product trends afoot.   The Covid-19 Pandemic and civil protesting of 2020 have only heightened some difficult matters for property owners and developers.   And for tenants, customers, residents, and visitors as well.  Times are certainly changing.

Chicken or the Egg?   Changing Consumer Preferences and Disruptive New Products

There’s been a lot going on, and the pace of change has been increasing over the past decade.

Co-Work  communal space emerged.   And the Pandemic roared in 2020.

Millennials may like casino gaming less. Design experts and architects suggest that casinos need to be completely re-designed to attract millennials. They believe that casinos needs to be more “immersive and inclusive,” with open spaces and communal areas, easy to navigate, vibrant and alive, and tell a story that Millennials can relate to.   The Millennials think differently from all previous generations because of their exposure to digital technology since their toddler days.  They may visit casinos but do not spend their money on the casino floor. As financial analyst at Fitch Ratings Inc., Alex Bumazhny, observed, millennials who visit casinos, spend more time and money on food, drink and entertainment than they do on gambling.  Another recent study by the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism at Stockton University in New Jersey, found that Millennials enjoy spending their money on dinner and drinks or dancing and nightclubs, but not on gambling. What was discovered is that if slot machines included an element of skill, and if it allowed playing with family or friends, rather than alone, Millennials would enjoy playing slot machines.

Family entertainment centers meet virtual reality LBE.

What will happen to EB-5 Immigrant Investor programs?  The Employment-Based Fifth (EB-5) preference category was created in 1990 as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 and allows foreign nationals who invest a required amount of money into a U.S. commercial enterprise to benefit the U.S. economy and create at least ten full-time jobs to obtain U.S. permanent residence.1 The EB-5 program’s intent is to stimulate the U.S. economy and promote immigration to the U.S. for individuals who invest in new, restructured, or expanded businesses and help to create or preserve U.S. jobs.

The lodging industry was just coming to terms with Airbnb, and then the Covid-19 Pandemic arrived.  Airbnb was established in 2008.

Glamping and other unique forms of lodging are hugely popular with Millennials.

Preference in housing is changing.   And affordability to homebuyers and the difficulty of finish lot prices remains a daunting challenge for developers.

Consumers continue to desire smaller homes, not only in overall square footage, but also the number of features, such as bedrooms and bathrooms. This four-year downward trend has led to the smallest average home size since 2011 at 2,520 square feet—only 20 square feet above the average in 2007, the pre-recession peak. The percentage of homes incorporating four-plus bedrooms, three-plus full bathrooms and three-plus car garages have also dropped to levels not seen since 2012.

“This points to an industry trying to meet the demands of the entry-level home buyer,” said Rose Quint, NAHB assistant vice president of survey research. “Builders are struggling to meet these demands, however, because of factors such as restrictive zoning regulations and lot prices, with the price of a new lot in 2019 averaging $57,000.”

NAHB also examined preferences among first-time buyers and repeat buyers to help builders determine what features are most likely to resonate in the market in 2020. When asked which they prefer, the majority of both first-time buyers and repeat buyers would rather have a smaller home with high-quality products and services than a bigger home with fewer amenities.

The shopping center industry has always been a difficult one, as consumer preferences are ever-evolving.   On-line shopping (e-commerce) has grown in a huge way as consumers have swarmed to the ease of sit-browse-click online.  Online shopping was invented and pioneered in 1979 by Michael Aldrich in the United Kingdom. He connected a modified domestic television via a telephone line to a real-time multi-user transaction processing computer.  1984 – The first ever shopper buys online at a Tesco store.

1991 – The internet is commercialised and we saw the birth of e-commerce.

1994 – Netscape launches the first commercial browser, which was once the dominant browser in terms of ‘visitors.’ It lost out in the first browser war.

1995 – Amazon started selling books online; currently it sells almost anything. Companies like Dell and Cisco started using the internet for all their transactions. and in the same year eBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar, though it was originally called Auctionweb.

1998 – Paypal is founded.

1999 – the first online-only shop began, ‘Zappos’ although it was later bought by Amazon for $1.2 bn.

Outdoor recreation is booming due to the Pandemic, as are RV sales.