At Jarmel Kizel Architects & Engineers, Inc., we do more than bring your next development project to reality. We stand on development principles honed on forty-eight years of service, to deliver on our unique strategies: to maximize the value of your project.

Here’s how we do just that:

• Land Entitlement Strategy. We study your prospective development locations, helping you avoid legal pitfalls and understand how to identify the highest and best use of a property.
• Yield Strategy. Our principles aim to increase your net income through efficient design strategies.
• Risk Adversity. We scrutinize your projects from inception through construction and recommend preventive or remedial adjustments to your design and budget.
• Brand Impact. It’s not enough that your development projects are profitable in the long term. We also ensure your customers and the community say everything right about them.
• Market Appropriate Design. Does your project have any hidden risks, redundancies, and deficiencies? Are you over or under-designing your project for its market? Our team of architects and engineers will work with you to achieve economic appropriateness for your project’s design. We believe that “Form follows Economics”!

Yield Strategy

We work with developers nationwide to study their income-generating assets and projects, discovering untapped and under-optimized areas of development. We have experts in multiple markets, including multifamily, franchise/retail rollout, industrial / warehouse, corporate interiors, and service-oriented retail.

For example, we encourage the following modifications to multifamily developments to improve their marketability and increase rental income.

• Identify specific amenities that can be feasibly added and income producing (such as lounges, theaters, fitness rooms, game rooms, storage units and more), depending on the development’s target market.
• Design individual units to allow for independent HVAC control and individualized utility metering while, promoting energy efficiency.
• A particular focus on sound attenuation.
• Designing apartment units to have in unit laundry.
• State-of-the-art security systems such as facial recognition and tenant-accessible security cameras.
• Virtual concierge services.

Work with us on your next multifamily development. We’ll uncover proven ways to massively increase its net income for a minimal investment.

Land Entitlement Strategy

One of the biggest traps that developers can unwittingly fall into involves land entitlement. A lack of understanding or familiarity with land use, zoning regulations and entitlement process can result in costly redesign, legal fees and failure to obtain approvals.

We help developers at the early stage of planning and due diligence of their projects, revealing potential zoning and construction pitfalls which can save project pursuit dollars from being wasted.

Here are some of the most common potential problems we help developers avoid:

• Purchasing land for a project that it is not zoned for or does not yet have land entitlements in place. We recommend contracting land subject to approvals.
• Buying an existing building for adaptive reuse and change of use, only to realize the new use is not allowed in the zone.
• Identifying and budgeting potential requirements, government agencies may impose on a project that are unreasonable but unavoidable. For example forcing the introduction of significant landscaping to an already paved parking area.
• We understand the process. Almost every municipality in every state has a local zoning ordinance. Different states have different rules as to who has approval authority over a project and most projects need at least half a dozen government agency approvals. Although the process differs from location to location we know how to navigate and advise you through the path to approvals.
• We ask the right questions, pointed at understanding the process.

We also specialize in developing strategies on how to present your project to planning / zoning boards and elected officials. Our principals have been qualified as expert witnesses on land planning and building design. They have testified 100’s of times in multiple states before land entitlement boards.

Risk Adversity

No two development assets are the same, and each project has different risk factors that may go unnoticed. We work with you to uncover and turn these risks into revenue-generating strong points.

Here are a few ways we can reduce risk and maximize income for your next development project:

• Some types of HVAC systems are disparaged by tenants, because of acoustics or a perceived energy inefficiency. We ensure you are using energy efficient equipment and that you are explaining it correctly to your audience. This makes your buildings more marketable.
• We develop both interior and exterior design appointments that are sustainable and do not become outdated in a few years. We design buildings that are timeless, not trendy.
• We start the geotechnical surveys early to ensure the need and cost for specialized foundation systems such as piers or mat slabs is identified and budgeted early.
• If you’re planning to buy an older building and renovate it through adaptive reuse, we assist with engineering surveys and recommending appropriate environmental consultants. A few extra pursuit dollars can identify hidden problems that can arise during design and renovations.
• If yours is a mixed use retail / multifamily development, we check your retail component design for flexibility in tenanting.
• We check if your project’s finish materials are readily available and replaceable so you don’t get locked into a problematic, proprietary option.

We draw from decades of experience advising real estate developers from all over the country.

Brand Impact

Branding is more than just a name and a logo. Instead, your brand is what people say about your buildings and what makes it stand out amongst its competition. We help make sure your tenants and customers say all the right things.

Here are two examples of developments we helped build lasting, recognizable brands for:

• The REVO Bound Brook—This 6-story apartment building in Bound Brook, NJ, is located on the site of a minor skirmish in the Revolutionary War. It’s just a unique name, but the community loves it, making the locale more attractive to visitors.
• The Thread—This 15-story luxury apartment building is located in Union City, NJ, and is named in honor of the city’s historic designation as “the embroidery capital of the world.”

We also explore your project for opportunities to create your own tenant. For instance, if your apartment buildings are located next to train stations, you might want to develop your own brand of café where your tenants can grab a cup of coffee or breakfast and go. Perhaps a fitness center that makes it convenient to workout before heading out. The possibilities are endless.

With Jarmel Kizel on your team, your development projects will be more than just attractive, they will respond to market demands and be designed with economics in mind. People will remember them, talk about them, and spread the word about them.

Market Appropriate Design

Ultimately, the end-user is the most critical aspect to consider for any development project. Is your project tailored to serve your target market better than anyone else?

Our team of architects and engineers will check your project for risks, redundancies, and deficiencies. Using our decades of collective experience in real estate development, we ensure your project checks all the boxes for your target tenants and customers.

Work With Us

If you’re looking for a design firm with your best interests at heart, look no further than Jarmel Kizel Architects & Engineers, Inc. We have close to fifty years of experience over two generations of family ownership helping real estate developers achieve their goals. Our principles lift value and maximize profit.

Do you have a project in mind?

Let’s talk about it. Give us a call at (973) 994-9669.