The Market in the Rearview Mears: The Anatomy of a Vacant Land Deal

By William Mears 

Every vacant land deal has a story. Some are simple: buyer likes the dirt, seller likes the price, everybody shakes hands. This wasn’t one of those.

The site. An odd-shaped 2.95-acre parcel in the Midlands Office Park, just off I-90, tucked next to a Culver’s and across the street from a Baymont Inn. It sits in the shadow of SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital and Dean Clinic, with SSM Health at Home, BioLife Plasma Services, UW Health Clinic and VCA Veterinary Emergency all nearby. In other words, a medical corridor with interstate access. Good location. Awkward shape.

The problem. Our buyer, First Choice Dental, only wanted one acre. Carving that acre off the front would have left the seller with a long, skinny two-acre remnant — half of it buried behind Culver’s. That’s the kind of leftover piece that sits on the market for years.

The fix. We knew Culver’s had been wanting more parking to handle buses. So we called the owner and negotiated the sale of the acre directly behind the restaurant. Now instead of one buyer and a problem parcel, we had two buyers and a clean one-acre site left for the seller to market.

The hurdles. Solving the shape was just the start:

  • Shared access. A shared drive between Culver’s and First Choice. This turned out to be the easy part.
  • Stormwater. The harder part. Retention took serious engineering and real cooperation between both buyers and the seller.
  • Surveys and CSMs. Surveys had to be completed and certified survey maps prepared — all at the same time.
  • Site plans. The city requires a site plan for both sites before the CSM gets final approval. So two buyers had to have their plans ready before either deal could close.

The result. First Choice Dental opened its doors June 15 — eight months and five days from the start of the deal. Culver’s got its big parking lot, which let it go from a single drive-thru lane to a dual drive-thru. And the seller turned an awkward parcel into two sales and a marketable one-acre pad. And yes- that last acre is still available. Give us a call.

It was a long and complicated process. But as an old boy once told me, “Bill, all the slow rabbits done been shot.” The easy deals are gone. What’s left takes creativity, patience, and people willing to work together to get it done.