We met with a potential client earlier this week who is looking to purchase a large single family home on about 20 acres of land in east central Indiana. (The picture here is not of the actual house, but it sure does look grand). The home was custom built in 1993 by a wealthy business owner in the area. The vision of the potential new owner is to convert the home, with its large indoor pool, tennis court, massive garage and beautiful outdoor gardens into an event space for weddings and corporate retreats. The plan is to advertise on “Airbnb” and “VRBO” to rent it out and cash flow the property. The plan sounds great on paper as the size of the property and amenities lends itself to this type of use. I can only imagine the amazing backdrop this would provide for one of those magical summer outdoor weddings.
The reason they called us was to talk about the code related items that they will face in converting this single family home to commercial use. There are several things that need to be done in order to properly convert the structure such as fire protection systems, ADA accessibility and the liability insurance costs associated with having large events at the site. We are not insurance experts, but we know that insuring a business like this will come with a significant price tag.
PDMi has the knowledge and expertise to work through the state and local building codes to help our potential client identify all of the items they will need to address with this project. Some may be costly and others rather affordable, but in the end they will have a fairly long list of changes in order to convert this single family home to a commercial space.
If you think your next project might have some building code issues, give us a call as we’d love to share our wealth of knowledge and help you through the process.