👷‍♂️ Mid-sized Mall Renovation

Added March 5th, 2024

There are 2 malls very near to my place in Bogotá, which is located in a reasonably affluent part of the city. One has the most expensive square-meter-rent-price in the country. The other is just ~2 blocks away but has 1/10th the rent price because of how run down it is.

The second one is also extremely well located. It’s at the intersection of 2 main roads, the sunday Ciclovia passes right in front of it and has several restaurants and bars nearby. It simply wasn’t maintained over time and now is an eyesore in an otherwise great zone.

The idea would be to buy this place, renovate it and rent the commercial space out for somewhere around 5 to 8 times the current price, leveling it to the zone average.

I LOVE this idea. The only bad part is that mortgage interest rates have skyrocketed in Colombia (currently around ~13% yearly) so the lease would probably be too expensive at the moment. Maybe there is some other way to finance the project that is less vulnerable to interest rates…