Building stack at a glance
24 residential keys · 32 office desks · 3 commercial tenants · 1 rooftop terrace
Constraints & givens
- Site
- Industrial mixed-use zone, near Zhongshan, Guangdong · 2 m gap to neighbors east + west
- Shell
- Existing 5-story 15 × 30 m frame · 3 roll-ups on south frontage L1 · roof flat
- Cores (fixed)
- Western stair (egress west) · industrial elevator (door faces west) · eastern stair (egress east) — all in middle band y=13–18 m
- Sewer
- Existing exit on west wall · all wet walls drop to L1 ceiling and run west
- Daylight
- Windows on N, S, and through 2 m east/west gaps · all habitable rooms get a window wall
L1 — Commercial · mixed bays (recommended)
3 vertical bays (5 × 22 m each), one tenant per roll-up, party walls between, shared back-of-house corridor along the cores. Café (W) · convenience (mid) · service hub (E).
Restaurant and pure-grocery alternatives: see /kent4 for plans + comparison.
L2 — Hybrid residence (8 units · 4 Airbnb + 4 monthly)
8 squarish units (36–49 m², aspect 1.0–1.25 : 1) in a 4 × 2 grid around the central spine. 4 corner units run on Airbnb (premium ADR justified by double-aspect daylight); 4 mid units run on monthly leases for stable cash flow.
Full unit interior layouts (bath, kitchenette, bedroom, living) → /kent3 · pro forma → /kent2.
L3 — Office (32 desks · 2 meeting · break + reception)
Open-plan north + south halves wrapped around the cores. 4 desk pods of 4 in each half (32 desks total). 1 small meeting (6) + 1 large meeting (12, video conf) + 2 phone booths in the core band. Reception + break at the south frontage near elevator landing.
Targets a single mid-sized employer (engineering, software, design, trading) or sub-let to 2–3 smaller tenants. WCs stack vertically on the central spine wet wall, aligned with L2 / L4 / L5 above.
L4 — Long-stay residence (8 monthly units)
Same shell as L2, but all 8 units operate on monthly leases — no nightly turnover. Targets the double-worker / small-family tenant cohort. Lower NOI than L2's hybrid model but zero operational overhead, predictable cash flow, and immune to short-term rental regulation risk.
Annual rent roll: ¥180,000. NOI after 15% opex: ¥153,000. Acts as the building's "boring cash flow" floor — pays the building's baseline expenses regardless of how L2/L5 short-stay performs.
L5 — Boutique rooftop floor (8 premium short-stay + terrace)
Premium short-stay floor: all 8 units on Airbnb / boutique branding, higher fit-out spec, dedicated reception lobby at the south spine end. Roof terrace (450 m² shared amenity above L5) accessed via the W and E stair roof hatches — sunset bar, lounge seating, planters.
ADR ¥250–380/night by unit. Reception lobby on L5 means guests bypass L2/L4 residential traffic — different elevator behavior (express to L5 for boutique guests). Roof terrace doubles as a marketing differentiator vs. comparable Zhongshan listings.
Building pro forma — full stack
| floor | use | fit-out (¥) | annual gross (¥) | NOI (¥) | cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L5 | Boutique short-stay (8) + terrace | 2,400,000 | 440,000 | 286,000 | 11.9% |
| L4 | Long-stay residence (8 monthly) | 1,750,000 | 180,000 | 153,000 | 8.7% |
| L3 | Office (32 desks) | 1,400,000 | 165,000 | 132,000 | 9.4% |
| L2 | Hybrid residence (4 Airbnb + 4 monthly) | 1,983,000 | 270,750 | 194,000 | 9.8% |
| L1 | Commercial (3 mixed bays) | 1,000,000 | 250,000 | 225,000 | 22.5% |
| BUILDING TOTAL | ¥8,533,000 | ¥1,305,750 | ¥990,000 | 11.6% |
| headline | value |
|---|---|
| Total fit-out | ¥8.53M ≈ US $1.18M |
| Annual gross revenue | ¥1.31M ≈ US $181k |
| Annual NOI | ¥990,000 ≈ US $137k |
| Building cap rate | 11.6% |
| Simple payback | 8.6 years |
| 10-yr cumulative NOI (3% growth) | ¥11.4M |
| Avg NOI per m² (2,250 m²) | ¥440 / m² / yr |
Why L5 boutique > L5 mirror-of-L2: the rooftop terrace + reception lobby + premium fit-out lifts ADR ~50% over L2 corner units. NOI per m² jumps from ¥430 (L2) to ¥636 (L5) — the highest yield in the stack after L1. The extra ¥420k fit-out vs. L2 mirror pays back in ~4.5 years from the ADR lift alone.
NOI diversification by floor type
| category | floors | NOI / yr | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short-stay residential | L5 + half of L2 | ¥383,000 | 39% |
| Long-stay residential | L4 + half of L2 | ¥250,000 | 25% |
| Commercial | L1 | ¥225,000 | 23% |
| Office | L3 | ¥132,000 | 13% |
Risk read: 39% of NOI comes from short-stay rental, the most volatile / regulation-exposed line. If short-stay collapses entirely (民宿 ban), the building still throws ¥607k NOI (cap 7.1%, payback 14 yr) — every floor still cash-positive. The other 61% of NOI is on long-term contracts ≥ 6 months, so the building has a strong defensive baseline.
Phased build sequence
| phase | floors | capital | NOI added | cumulative cap rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (yr 0) | L1 + L2 | ¥2.98M | ¥419k | 14.1% |
| 2 (yr 1) | + L4 | +¥1.75M | +¥153k | 12.1% |
| 3 (yr 2) | + L5 | +¥2.40M | +¥286k | 12.1% |
| 4 (yr 3) | + L3 | +¥1.40M | +¥132k | 11.6% |
Why this order: commit the highest-yield floors first (L1 22.5% cap, L2 9.8%) to bootstrap cash flow with minimum capital. Re-invest year-1 cash to fund L4 long-stay (defensive base). Year-2 funds L5 boutique (the marketing-driven floor that benefits from L2/L4 already operating below it). L3 office last, because it's the most cyclical and benefits from a fully-occupied building's ground-floor amenities.
Open questions
- Verify shell ceiling heights — restaurant kitchen needs 3.0 m clear at L1, office VRF needs 0.4 m plenum at L3, residential 2.7 m at L2/L4/L5.
- Confirm structural roof load for terrace + bar + planters above L5 (~150 kg/m² imposed plus wet planter zones).
- Industrial elevator capacity and door size — does the freight cab fit hotel housekeeping carts? If not, may need a separate passenger elevator (significant capex hit).
- Building service capacity: total connected load with restaurant + laundromat + 24 residential + office + boutique L5 likely ≥ 200 kVA. Verify incoming feed.
- Roof terrace egress: 2 stair hatches give the required 2-exit, but check CN code travel distance from farthest terrace corner to nearest hatch.
- Single elevator for 24 residents + 32 office workers + boutique guests — possible bottleneck at morning peak. Add a second cab? (Big cost, would need a new shaft.)
Sister pages
- /kent — original 6-unit L2 study (deprecated)
- /kent2 — L2 8-unit hybrid (with full residential pro forma)
- /kent3 — unit interior layouts (bath, kitchen, bedroom, living for 4 unit types)
- /kent4 — L1 commercial options + L3 office + first building pro forma
- /kent5 — full building design (this page)
- /kent6 — L1 full-floor parking