Cost-Benefit Analysis - Rapid Bus Transit Alignment Acquisition Cost

In tandem with the consulting engineering firm hired by Montgomery County Maryland to study the costs and benefits associated with various alignments for the proposed development of a rapid bus transit system to serve the northwest sector of the county,  Hentschel was engaged as an advisor to estimate and evaluate the potential costs of property acquisition associated with each alternative alignment under consideration.

Port Expansion Site - Valuation & Acquisition Strategy

Hentschel was retained by the Maryland Port Administration to establish an acquisition price and devise a strategy to acquire 2.0 million square feet of office and industrial space comprising a 129 acre business park adjoining the port's principal intermodal container facility. The task was complicated by  complex title issues as well as a privately owned system of utility services that, although interconnected, were controlled and operated by two different institutional investors who had obtained title to various segments of the property as the result of a foreclosure.  

Strategic Decision Analysis - Non-Profit's  Development Site  

Effect of a Residential Use Encroachment into Industrial Enclave 

In response to a developer’s proposal to change the character of an industrial community by constructing a transit oriented development project of 400 market rate apartments on a site across the street from international spice firm McCormick & Company and TESCO Technologies manufacturing facilities within a suburban business park, Hentschel was engaged by the firms to study the effects of Transit Oriented Development Projects and other incidences of residential encroachment within industrial enclaves across the United States on industrial operations in order to persuade the County government to reject the development proposal. Hentschel devised strategies and recommendations to encourage the County’s adoption of a policy that would prioritize and protect  strategic  employment lands that are critical to the region's economic base from speculative market forces which favor the encroachment of higher yielding residential and commercial uses.

Policy Study - Future of Baltimore's Industrial Waterfront

Local maritime interests and developers were at odds over a local zoning ordinance designed to preserve maritime industrial land from encroachment by residential and commercial uses.  Commissioned by The Abell Foundation to  recommend policies to the City around which the divergent interests could coalesce, Hentschel not only measured the effects of residential encroachment on maritime industrial land, but also examined the effect on the City's tax base and provided strategic guidance concerning how  the City needed to measure and consider the economic effects of land use policy decisions. The report concluded that the City, through exercise of its police power of zoning, was being asked, in part for the benefit of the region, the state, and private port interests to constrain a market that, if left unchecked, might otherwise produce superior tax and economic benefits for the City than the maritime industrial uses that the legislation was designed to protect.                            abell.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CD_BaltWaterfront_0109.pdf 

Strategic Decision Analysis - Site Selection Among Alternatives 

Hentschel was retained by the downtown development authority to evaluate and recommend whether the City should acquire an existing surface parking lot or assemble and demolish seven improved but marginally occupied parcels in the next block, on which to construct a parking garage as an incentive to attract a major corporation to a proposed CBD office building. The assignment included an estimate of acquisition/assembly costs.as well as a recommended  acquisition and negotiating strategy.

Strategic Decision Analysis - Consolidation of CBD Workforce

Hentschel was engaged by the City of Baltimore to evaluate the costs, benefits and financial feasibility of acquiring and rehabilitating a vacant CBD office structure at which to relocate and consolidate the bulk of the municipality’s CBD workforce occupying rental space. In addition to determining an appropriate acquisition price, Hentschel identified and evaluated alternative transaction and capital funding structures and prepared an analysis comparing a continuation of existing conditions at scattered site locations versus a lease or purchase of the structure.

Residential Rental Market Study – Southwoods Townhomes

Lexington Park, Maryland

Hentschel was retained by a HUD direct endorsement lender to perform a market and feasibility study for a proposed 280 unit rental townhouse development project in this southern Maryland community the economic base of which is the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Although the rapid employment and population growth experienced by the Lexington Park community as a result of federal base realignment and closure decisions had subsided, a significant imbalance in housing supply at the proposed price levels was discovered as a result of the research.

Technical Guidance 

U.S. Department of HUD,Washington, D.C.

Hentschel served as a valuation consultant and advisor providing technical guidance to the Office of the Assistant Secretary regarding the procedural implications and valuation ramifications likely to result from the introduction and implementation of a contemplated "mark to market" policy upon maturity of certain multifamily subsidized housing loans, including the elimination of future income based housing subsidies for low income occupants.

Strategic Decision Analysis  - Warehouse Consolidation

Hentschel was engaged by the City of Baltimore to evaluate the organizational, operational and financial benefits that would result from a consolidation of 8 scattered site storage‑distribution warehouses into a single 450,000 sq.ft. centralized facility. The analysis included an identification and evaluation of alternative capital structures to fund acquisition and development, as well as an analytical comparison of buying an existing structure versus new construction, a lease versus purchase analysis, as well as a continuation of existing conditions (status quo).