An independent Downtown Parcels Highest & Best Use Study evaluating a three-parcel downtown highest and best use analysis in Mountain Home, Idaho.
MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho — Wert-Berater, Inc., an independent feasibility study consulting firm serving lenders and government agencies since 1998, has completed a Downtown Parcels Highest & Best Use Study in Mountain Home, Elmore County, Idaho.
Wert-Berater served as independent feasibility consultant to the ownership and its advisors. Party names are withheld consistent with the confidential nature of underwriting and capital-advisory work; figures represent the project as evaluated at the study date.
Highest and best use study of three parcels in downtown Mountain Home held under common ownership — two fronting N Main Street and one fronting N 2nd East — determining, parcel by parcel, the uses that are legally permissible, physically possible, financially feasible, and maximally productive, both individually and for the ownership viewed as a coordinated but not unified holding. The report explicitly rejects the convenient assumption that proximate parcels on a sketch constitute a seamless development tract.
The analytical framework treated the public alley system as a real boundary, which reorganized the entire conclusion: the western parcels form the Main Street–oriented retail component while the N 2nd East parcel stands alone with its own use determination, each evaluated on frontage role, parcel geometry, likely tenancy, downtown rent creation, and traffic pattern including the one-way access logic. Scenario testing included a build-ready commercial pad for long-term ground lease against build-to-suit alternatives, compared on land residual, financeability, and equity return under the user’s requested financing assumptions.
Screening feasibility tables priced every concept per parcel — total project costs from $1,300,000 to $3,100,000 for vertical programs, sized against a 1.30x DSCR maximum loan, equity required, value at an 8% capitalization rate, and land residual — under the ownership’s requested financing assumptions of prime plus a margin. 470 N Main Street, at 14,985 square feet the largest parcel and the strongest long-term vertical opportunity, was concluded as the primary future redevelopment parcel while failing the immediate financial feasibility test for speculative development. The city’s development-incentive ordinance, requiring minimum qualifying investment of not less than $500,000, was factored as a threshold condition rather than a direct abatement.
The hardest part of small-market downtown HBU work is resisting overstatement: a ground-lease benchmark can flatter a parcel’s value while leaving the residual only marginally positive, and the study said so plainly, concluding where the ownership would leave value on the table through fragmented disposition versus coordinated development. The conclusion strengthens downtown identity goals while remaining anchored to what actual market conditions and actual parcel geometry support.
Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent feasibility study consulting firm founded in 1998, providing lender- and agency-facing feasibility studies, highest-and-best-use analyses, and capital-advisory support. The firm has completed 4,000+ engagements across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating over $41.2 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. In every engagement, fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the applicable agency.
Media contact: Donald Safranek, MSc, President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — +1 310-857-2443 ext. 800. Press inquiries only; client, lender, and property identities remain confidential.
Downtown and multi-parcel assignments of this type sit within our highest and best use consultant practice.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. 4,000+ engagements completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $41.2 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and agency in every engagement.
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Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $41.2 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.
Legal disclosure. Wert-Berater, Inc. offices are mailing addresses only. Following the COVID-19 pandemic the firm has elected to work remotely; its office locations receive mail and are not staffed for visitors or in-person meetings. Headquarters mailing address: 1968 South Coast Hwy, Ste 2382, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.
Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent provider of feasibility studies and other related services. The firm does not provide financing or equity investment advice, and does not arrange, broker, or place debt or equity capital of any kind.
All appraisal assignments are performed by Bruce E. Jones, MAI, ASA-GC, BCA, CMEA, a member of the Appraisal Institute since 2006, a staff member of Wert-Berater, Inc. and owner of Special Purpose Realty Valuation.