Father is building a strip mall on a piece of land he's owned. What's the most favorable way to hold title and structure it?
He's owned the land for years and holds title personally. Car wash used to be there but is gone now. He's starting construction on a strip mall with a pizza chain already leasing 1 of 3 spots. Paying cash for construction. 

Tax and liability-wise, what would some options when it comes to a better way to hold this property and to structure the entity to minimize both taxes and liability?

Thanks! 
[{"id": "dajbykx", "text": "The ownership structure for this property relates to everything else in your father's life. Therefore he should probably talk to an attorney to structure this so it fits with the rest of his life well.\n\nThat said, the most likely best structure is LLC.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dajc1i9", "text": "The company I work for focuses on retail real estate.  Legally, we generally set up single-purpose entities (SPEs) such as LLCs to limit our liability.  LLCs also treat cash flows as pass through and aren't subject to double taxation C corps are.  They're also simpler to implement versus an S Corp.\n\nNot sure if others do it any differently, but that's what we do.\n\n", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dajdhq2", "text": "+1 to the LLC. Another reason to consult a lawyer: a good one can structure the LLC and leases such that, once the property is full of tenants, a commercial lender would consider making a non-recourse mortgage loan on the property and your dad can pull out most of his equity up front. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "daji4l1", "text": "LLC for liability reasons mentioned. If he plans to cash out keep environmental in mind with the former car wash.", "replies": [{"id": "dajibud", "text": "Ooh, excellent point. ", "replies": [{"id": "dajiwgd", "text": "Yeah, with the environmental risk, try going to with a smaller local bank who may not want to pull environmental reports on the property for a loan.", "replies": [{"id": "dajsaoa", "text": "Is having a carwash a REC? Would that typically require soul or water testing? I thought gas stations and dry cleaners were the big no nos", "replies": [{"id": "dakm3mh", "text": "Anything that uses chemicals would be worth the low cost of testing IMO. Especially if you are relying on those chemicals to run off a vehicle to a drain and not in a closed system. In my area, I know of two car washes on top of former service stations as well. ", "replies": [], "depth": 5}, {"id": "damj6yq", "text": "I don't think a car wash would generally trigger a phase 2. ", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dam9rjb", "text": "Going to take the contrarian view here...\n\nIf he's paying cash, hes going to have a massive amount of equity in it, all of which would be subject to creditors if you held the shopping center in an LLC. LLC protects you from excess liability in certain circumstances (in the event claims exceed the holdings of the LLC), however, here you father would not have a loan so all of the property would be equity, giving a huge cushion before excess liability would come into play.\n\nCGL Insurance is a good thing to get whether or not you form an LLC, so I actually don't see a ton of value in forming the LLC especially if it costs you a bunch of money (i.e. have to hire an attorney etc), and maintaining good standing for an LLC can be a pain at times, especially if you have only one property.", "replies": [{"id": "dao4rtl", "text": "Very interesting point and I appreciate your input, that makes a lot of sense. Would someone in this situation find it advantageous to hold title personally then? ", "replies": [{"id": "dao51ah", "text": "It just saves some cost and compliance hassles going forward.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]