Care is necessary to qualify potential partners without parking development experience. The developer does not have to manage the deck, but the management company must be identified and included in negotiations from the onset. In the commercial development market of the late nineties, investors expect and get a 12 percent return on solid and safe projects. Many partners may not have done business with colleges and schools before. Some illustration of financial stability might be required.
Many developers are accustomed to purchasing and hence owning the land that they develop.
Obviously, this is not an option for educational institutions. The alternative is a long-term lease of ten or twenty years. The costs to the developer and the project for the lease is a dollar per year. The budget for the deck is set and published. Now the institution must negotiate or take bids for the return on investment for the deal and the operating costs for the life of the project.