Whenever you see something seemingly silly and inefficient/wasteful ask yourself what is preventing the more efficient solution. The answer is almost always that someone is paying more to deal with government in a slightly different way that reduces risk to them
1ac parking lot = easy and definite, just buy land, simple permits, etc.
.25ac parking garage = difficult permits with many more places for various parties to whimsically drag their dick all over it at great expense to you, etc.
Investing in a commercial structure carries massive financial risk because there are all sorts of steps along the way where the government has reserved the right to balloon your cost so 1mil of land, 2.5mil of structure and $100k of bullshit could potentially be 1mil,5mil,500k once everyone is done screwing you.
The parking lot on $4mil of land and $100k of construction and $100k of bullshit can only balloon to $4mil, 200k, 200k in the worst case.
Now, I pulled those numbers out of my ass but it's the basic workflow that underpins most of the "stupid" things we see being built.
1ac parking lot = easy and definite, just buy land, simple permits, etc.
.25ac parking garage = difficult permits with many more places for various parties to whimsically drag their dick all over it at great expense to you, etc.
Investing in a commercial structure carries massive financial risk because there are all sorts of steps along the way where the government has reserved the right to balloon your cost so 1mil of land, 2.5mil of structure and $100k of bullshit could potentially be 1mil,5mil,500k once everyone is done screwing you.
The parking lot on $4mil of land and $100k of construction and $100k of bullshit can only balloon to $4mil, 200k, 200k in the worst case.
Now, I pulled those numbers out of my ass but it's the basic workflow that underpins most of the "stupid" things we see being built.