Northern CA — Developing an empty parcel, any advice on finding tenants, esp credit worthy ones?
I own an empty plot of land, and I want to develop it. No outside investors. Pooling together money from family(know the dangers of this). Hoping to develop it into a retail space, which it’s properly zoned for.

I’m looking for tenants, especially credit worthy ones, so that I can use that as leverage for a bank loan to actually build out the site.

The Site has very high traffic counts (over 110K AADT according to CalTrans data), close to our local community college, and also close to a residential community of over 10K single family homes with avg incomes of $67K. So, I feel like the Site is pretty attractive in terms of location. 

I’ve tried reaching out to companies like Walgreens, T-Mobile, and Starbucks and it doesn’t look promising. I also don’t want to hire a commercial broker b/c I feel like the overall sentiment has been that they don’t like projects such as these b/c the lack of a building that’s already built makes the project riskier and could be a waste of time. Some brokers have flat out refused to help us with finding tenants. Alas, it’s something that I’m very fine with as I don’t want to pay the 6% of the value of the signed deal. And I’m also motivated and am willing to reach out to companies myself. Of course, if there’s an interested tenant, I will definitely hire lawyers at that point. 

With all this said, any advice on finding tenants? Where should I look? Any advice in general?
[{"id": "higrmof", "text": "Just an idea, maybe start with marketing the property as an upcoming development with a render from the architect. That way companies you\u2019re trying to attract can see it, or else how would they know about your site without a broker telling them? The companies you named usually have a real estate department within their company. Sometimes the brokers you don\u2019t want to hire know the people that are site selectors in those companies. Food for thought! Good luck my friend!", "replies": [{"id": "hih2mfy", "text": "I\u2019ve been contacting the real estate managers of those companies\u2026 usually involves guessing their emails. Hahaha. Have put together a package with the essential info. And firing it off. So far, all no\u2019s. Tho, email has been ping pinged several times at Starbucks to different folks. I don\u2019t have renders yet tho. My question has been more so of\u2026 are there other avenues of looking for tenants that I\u2019m not considering.", "replies": [{"id": "hihqx0h", "text": "I would say look for a bigger anchor store tenant like a Walmart, target, etc. \n\nThe bigger \u201canchor\u201d stores are probably more used to full development project of retail plazas and would likely have a better idea. You could say your only interested in selling a portion as well and keeping the rest to develop the associated Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, etc. \n\nAnd as someone else said, renderings of the future development are always helpful.\n\nGood luck!", "replies": [{"id": "hizfkmh", "text": "How exactly should I ask an architect for renderings?\n\nEvery time I ask, the conversation usually just spirals to how many tenants, size of units, etc. Just info I don't have right now.", "replies": [{"id": "hj1yayw", "text": "Well it doesn\u2019t need to be 100%. Usually bigger CoTo pirate entities are used to providing examples and drawings.\n\nIf it\u2019s a good portion of land and you\u2019re willing to ground lease / sell parts of the land then they will be willing to put in more work and do initial renderings etc.\n\nIf you have enough land (never mentioned specific average or sqft) you can section it off and do different deals. \n\nThe main attraction or \u201canchor\u201d store is who you should target. Any larger retailers that may benefit from your location. Maybe check out Walmart, target, or big grocers near you. I\u2019m not familiar with the area so I can\u2019t really advise on an anchor store. \n\nEven if you just have a friend who can use AutoCAD to parcel out the land for retail plaza / out parcels example would be a retail store and some tenants on the main plaza / strip and 1 or a couple out parcels for fast food or other popular stores in your area. \n\nHope it\u2019s helpful. Not really from the area and without specifics or knowledge on legal or prominent retailers in your area it\u2019s hard to be much more help", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "hioehht", "text": "You need a product to sell.  You don't have a product.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "higsklq", "text": "How large is the property (dimensionally) \n\nIs it full access? Traffic light?\n\nYou don\u2019t need to develop it. You can ground lease it where is/as-is. That being said, you\u2019re going to end up paying the Tenant\u2019s broker (every retailer has a broker these days). \n\nI urge you to engage a commercial RE broker as it\u2019s clear you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing.", "replies": [{"id": "hih3c0f", "text": "Not sure of dimensions. But it\u2019s 50K sqft. Parallelogram shape. In an intersection but not signalized sadly. Interested in land lease but intimidated by the duration. Definitely not opposed.", "replies": [{"id": "hii3rhx", "text": "Ok Walgreens can\u2019t fit on 1.148 acres. Property is too small. (Maybe they can fit their new drive thru proto on it)\n\nI\u2019m a broker out of East Coast (no interest in leasing this property). If you message me the address I can see what tenants are viable here.", "replies": [{"id": "hizfp6a", "text": "PM'ed! Thank you! I've reached out to a good deal of brokers... I really have. Like I said in my post, most have rejected the project b/c they deem it to be a waste of time. =(", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hih07zj", "text": "How many square feet can you build on it?", "replies": [{"id": "hih25zz", "text": "20K sqft building. \nThe entire lot is a little over 50K sqft so planning about 30K sqft for parking.", "replies": [{"id": "hii2dsw", "text": "Well that\u2019s good, you should be able to get a nice tenant mix. I have been a broker for 20 years and now I am doing my first ground up development as well. If you can swing it there is a major retail expo in Las Vegas coming up in December for the ICSC. You can meet hundreds of real estate managers from the nations top retailers in person. I\u2019m sure you will work hard to figure it out. Don\u2019t let anybody here till you otherwise.", "replies": [{"id": "hii3f5n", "text": "A lot of them are not going this year. \n\nThey are still on the sign up sheet but aren\u2019t going. Just FYI. \n\nThis is referring to several Fortune 500 comps I rep.", "replies": [{"id": "hiicvl4", "text": "This is true - with ICSC happening in May again, most aren\u2019t going in December", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}, {"id": "hizgf4t", "text": "I've heard about ICSC! Just a little bummed that I cannot join as an individual, since I'd love to leverage their member list. Best of luck to you as well! This is really challenging, but I'm learning lots along the way.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "hiidnvi", "text": "50k is pretty tiny for a parcel, that may be part of your challenge as that\u2019s pretty much an outparcel size (larger outparcel size). Have you had the site laid out by a civil engineer?  My guess is your building area is going to be significantly small than 20k unless this site is an urban area.  At 20k of retail, that\u2019s 80ish parking stalls.  The stalls themselves are going to be around 180 sf which is about 15k sf before any drive aisles or landscaping area.  Just taking a quick guess knowing the size of the land, you are probably looking at a building under 10k, potentially even less based on the property size. Having this laid out to see what you could realistically fit may help your cause and interest in the land.", "replies": [{"id": "hizgc62", "text": "I have not had this laid out by an engineer yet. The entire project has just been catch 22's everywhere. Engineers wanna know the business of tenants (different businesses have different parking requirements) and unit size... Info we just don't have rn. B/c of this, I'm trying to tackle it from the angle of getting tenants first, which will also be good for bank loans. Do you have any recommendations on engaging an engineer? What should I be asking for at this stage? Appreciate your analysis!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "hioevy0", "text": "You can get about 7 - 14K sf on that site. Landscaping will take up between 5 - 10K sf, which leaves you about 90 parking stalls including accessible stalls mandated by the ADA.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hiigmf6", "text": "You really need outside help. Do you have an ALTA survey? Do you know what Table A items you want? \n\nNext get a site plan by civil, I wouldn\u2019t spend money on an architect for renderings. Just get an idea of coverage, building height, drive through etc. \n\nWhat city? Any where near Redding???", "replies": [{"id": "hizglss", "text": "PM'ed.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hik102e", "text": "You can find them by advertising your selves.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hikpzq1", "text": "Market the property on Loopnet with an architectural rendering for a start.\n\nNot sure the size of the site but you can offer 80% of proforma rents in order to entice an anchor tenant and make it up the delta on the smaller tenants coming in later.\n\nOffer some rent abatement and TIs as well as an incentive and try to get the tenant to pay the commission to their leasing broker.", "replies": [{"id": "hizglbl", "text": "Thanks for the suggestion... Will def try offering the first, anchor tenant cheaper rents to entice them.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hioeepv", "text": "*\"...they don\u2019t like projects such as these b/c the lack of a building that\u2019s*   \n*already built makes the project riskier and could be a waste of time.\"*\n\nThat is correct.  You don't have a product to sell.\n\nWhen you have an actual product to sell, they'll be highly useful to you.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hiqaz9z", "text": "Here's a 5th Idea: Pool your money, build a small strip of 5 or 6 units. Occupy one of those units and open a Subway Restaurant (cheapest franchise). Go from there.", "replies": [{"id": "hizgjod", "text": "we'd have to pool A LOT of money. lol", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]