Design renderings and massing by team. Financial model by Kofi Bempong.
A ground-up development test fit and financial model for a 90-unit luxury multifamily project on a city-owned site in Boston's North End. The building is intentionally designed to facilitate a residential-to-office conversion in the future, balancing near-term residential demand with long-term commercial upside.
Design renderings and massing by team. Financial model by Kofi Bempong.
The project proposes a "future-proof" building — a 90-unit luxury multifamily asset intentionally designed to facilitate a residential-to-office conversion in the future. The thesis is that while residential demand drives near-term economics and financeability, the long-term highest-and-best use of this North End site may be commercial. The building's structural and spatial design enables that transition without demolition or full reinvestment.
A purely residential building would under-capitalize the site's long-term value in a transit-served, employment-adjacent district. A purely office building would be financially infeasible given today's market. The future-proof approach resolves this tension by capturing residential cash flow now while preserving the option to re-enter the office market at a higher point in the cycle.
The full working model is embedded below. Use the sheet tabs at the bottom to browse all seven worksheets, or download the Excel file to inspect formulas and assumptions directly.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | 56 Fulton Street, North End, Boston |
| Site | City-owned lot, 30,000 SF land area |
| Product | Ground-up luxury multifamily (future-proof office convertible) |
| Buildings | 2 buildings, 4 stories average |
| Total Units | 90 (45 × 1BR, 30 × 2BR/2BA, 15 × 4BR/3BA townhouse) |
| Gross SF | 90,000 SF · FAR 3.0x |
| Hold Period | ~8 years from operating start |
| Source | Amount | % of Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction Debt | $35,377,037 | 75.0% | SOFR + 250 bps, floating, I/O |
| Equity (GP/LP) | $11,792,449 | 25.0% | GP 24.6% / LP 75.4% |
| Total Sources | $47,169,486 | 100% |
| Partner | Equity | IRR | Multiple | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Limited Partner (75.4%) | $9.0M | 22.9% | 3.90x | $26.0M |
| General Partner (24.6%) | $2.9M | 33.5% | 8.56x | $22.1M |
| Total | $11.9M | 26.3% | 5.04x | $48.1M |
The GP's outsized returns reflect a three-tier waterfall: Tier 1 targets a 10% IRR hurdle with 30% promote, Tier 2 targets 12% IRR, and Tier 3 splits remaining cash flow 50/50. A 7% asset management fee is deducted before distributions.
The model spans approximately 120 months of cash flows across seven interconnected worksheets: a central assumptions sheet controlling all deal parameters, a monthly cash flow engine with SOFR-based floating-rate construction loan modeling (with manual forward curve inputs, spread, floor and ceiling rates, and bell-curve draw schedule), a lease-up model with dynamic concession tracking, permanent debt refinancing at stabilization (75% LTV, 6.50% fixed, 30-year amortization), and an 8-year operating hold through disposition.
The partnership waterfall distributes cash flows after a 7% asset management fee through three tiers with IRR-based hurdles and promote mechanics. The Summary sheet includes a two-way sensitivity table testing levered returns across a range of exit cap rates and vacancy assumptions.
This project is distinct from a standard financial model because the design decisions directly informed the financial assumptions. The building's structural grid, floor-to-floor heights, centralized service cores, and flexible MEP distribution were all designed to enable future office conversion without demolition. The ground-floor townhouse units feature individual street access and generous floor heights, allowing conversion to retail or food-and-beverage uses. The financial model was built to test whether these design choices could still produce competitive residential returns — and they do: a 27.7% levered IRR and 280 basis point development spread over the exit cap rate.