Are Old Buildings Worth Saving? A Conversation with John Duggan

John Duggan, Chief Operating Officer of The Concord Group, shares valuable considerations for educational institutions pondering between renovating older buildings and constructing new ones with Sarah Holtan, PhD in this episode. He stresses the importance of evaluating the building's present condition, comparing renovation costs to new construction expenses, and factoring in emotional attachments. John provides a rule of thumb: If modernizing an old building exceeds 50% of the cost of constructing a new, building a new facility becomes a viable option. He also highlights the Return on Investment (ROI) of new construction, citing benefits like increased revenue from faculty and student attractions, energy efficiency, and reduced maintenance costs. Tune in to discover the significance of strategic planning, particularly for renovation projects, where unforeseen expenses due to code upgrades can arise. Learn about the pivotal elements such as age, environmental considerations, and sustainability for renovation initiatives. Listen to John's crucial advice for college leaders in making informed decisions about their infrastructure, stressing the importance of thorough asset assessment and timely maintenance efforts. Episode Highlights:07:03 - Old buildings can be energy hogs. They can be difficult to operate. Some of their systems might be old, and it might not be cost-productive to update the systems. With being, mechanical, electrical systems and even their external envelope of maybe they've just got single pane windows. So, from that standpoint, that should be factored into the ROI as well. 21:55 - There's a lot more developers out there that really have this niche and passion about not building new, but taking historic buildings or old buildings and change them into something new. We just had the one downtown with the Journal Sentinel Building that just got an adaptive reuse into apartments.23:32 - You do that initial due diligence before you start tearing walls down, so you can put realistic budgets and schedules together so you can give the client a pretty good idea about what this cost is going to be before it's too late. Contact Sarah Holtan, PhDLinkedInWebsite John DugganLinkedInWebsite