Invariable at some point in the planning process of a new building design, we have to balance budget with size and volume. In other words if your building is going to cost $200 per square foot, and you want to spend one million dollars, you will be able to afford 5,000 square feet of building. Sounds simple, but that one million dollars does not cover everything. Land costs, land improvements, equipment, Architect and Engineering fees, furnishings, and start-up cash are not part of that first million. As you can see, the whole project will cost much more than $200 per square foot. In our experience, Animal Hospitals, Laboratories, large food service facilities, and similar projects can cost over $300 per square foot when you factor in all the total development costs. It’s enough to make you loose sleep at night.

Often times this stark reality results in some soul searching for how much do our clients really want to bite off for this project.  One million dollars is a lot of money, but three million is a whole lot more!  Although this should be a pragmatic exercise in comparing projected revenues and services against staffing, operational costs and likely profit margins, it is usually a very emotional experience.  One that is driven by fear and anxiety more than mathematics and accounting.

We have completed hundreds and hundreds of Veterinary Hospitals, and other Animal Health projects.  In 22 years, every single one of our clients have been successful, wwith the exception of one.  Many of them have not only prospered, but actually exceeded their wildest dreams.  They have achieved numbers so wild they would not have let themselves dream something so unbelievable.  Ahhh… but what about that exception you say??  Yes, there was one Veterinarian who went into a shopping center space and she ultimately folded the practice.  As you can imagine there were many contributing factors to that failure, but it was most likely do to mismanagement rather than overbuilding.  Even considering that case the record currently stands at about 350 to 1.  If you’re an entrepreneur like me, we’ll take those odds everyday.  So remember when that question comes around “Am I building too big?”  The answer is NO!  The words of shoeless Joe Jackson have never been truer. “If you build it, they will come”.  We’ve got 22 years and hundreds of Animal Hospital, Medical, laboratory, Brewing and Distilling and Food Service projects to prove it!  If you have a project like this in your future, give us a call and let us help you make a new reality for you, your employees and your clients.