Highest and Best Use Strategy for Regional Headquarters

Columbia, Missouri

A Fortune 100 insurance company hired Development Strategies to conduct a highest and best use study and strategy for its 300-plus acre regional HQ property in Central Missouri – property for which the value has increased significantly as development has enveloped it. The Company had two requirements: that the current HQ building remain; and that any adjacent development be high in quality and permanent.

We concluded the best approach was to create mixed-use community that centered on a relatively dense, walkable residential community which emphasized public space and preservation of natural creek beds.

• Site Analysis: focused the property’s unique assets, including accessibility and major infrastructure improvements, as well as the image and marketability generated by the regional HQ.
• Demographic and Employment Projections: revealed significant future growth in the retail, office, and residential sectors; the site being well-suited to capture some of this growth.
• Market Survey and Analysis: surrounding commercial properties revealed competitive opportunities, since the quality of development was generally substandard, and limited vacant land existed for new commercial development. Similarly, our survey of residential properties revealed a glut of homogeneous, suburban subdivisions and apartment complexes, which offered little or no product differentiation.