High-Profile: April 2026 | Page 41

April 2026 41

By Sean Sanger

Coastal communities across Massachusetts are confronting accelerating rates of sea level rise, storm surge flooding, and ecological disruption. As industry leaders, we understand that traditional infrastructure alone cannot meet the scale of change. At Gibson Park in Revere, Mass., Copley Wolff, McAllister Marine Engineering, LEC Environmental Consultants, Inc., and the City of Revere are advancing a resilient landscape framework that leverages natural systems, data driven modeling, and adaptive recreational planning to strengthen long term coastal performance.

A resilient waterfront begins with a clear understanding of future water conditions. Flood elevation benchmarks serve as critical design drivers for any shoreline-adjacent site. These figures form the basis for grading strategies, structural placement, and program elevation.

At Gibson Park, nature-based coastal defense is central to the design vision. Living shoreline typologies— salt marsh terraces, soft edge transitions, and coastal thickets— function as dynamic buffers that dissipate wave energy, reduce erosion, and elevate habitat value along the Saugus and Pine River inlet. These systems outperform hard infrastructure over time by evolving with changing tidal regimes and supporting sediment accretion. Their ability to improve water quality and stabilize banks positions them as essential tools in the next generation of coastal engineering.

Resilient planting design is infrastructure. Deep rooted species, layered canopies, and seasonal diversity provide redundancy, ecological function, and long-term performance under stress, as well as habitat and food sources for native fauna and pollinators.

These ecological systems are integrated with an equally critical programmatic layer: high-performing recreation. At the soon-to-be-constructed Gibson Park, a natural grass multipurpose field, accessible paths, and strategically placed tree canopy will work in concert with hydrological systems to manage stormwater, reduce surface compaction, and improve thermal comfort. Maintaining existing mature trees and expanded stormwater-responsive open space will strengthen site resilience while enhancing the user experience.

Resilience is also fundamentally social. For coastal neighborhoods, this means designing landscapes that operate

By David Stewart

Purchasing commercial real estate assets is no small undertaking. The return on these properties will impact dozens of stakeholders, and sometimes all it takes is one overlooked issue to turn an asset into a liability.

The best way buyers can avoid this risk is by conducting proper due diligence before closing the deal. A key step in this process is to order an acquisition level Property Condition Assessment( PCA), which provides buyers with an in-depth analysis of a property’ s systems and components condition.

A lower level PCA will offer buyers basic information about the condition of the property, but educated buyers who want peace of mind will order a more thorough assessment.

Acquisition level reports are more in-depth and show details that can mean the difference between making a smart investment and losing millions after acquisition. These reports are much more comprehensive and are conducted by senior-level assessors; architects and engineers with 15 or more years of experience.

These assessors approach each property with a granular, focused process, and nothing gets a free pass. Any deficiencies or deferred maintenance are included in the“ Immediate Repairs” section of the report, and those items identified give stakeholders a complete understanding of the condition of the asset they are going to purchase. Depending on the risk tolerance or risk strategy of our clients, the acquisition level PCA can be augmented with additional specialty assessments, such as roof, facade, structural, MEP, fire and life safety systems, ADA, and elevators( and more), as these components are often higher risk for significant deferred maintenance or Replacement Reserves.

An example of the benefits of deeper assessments is a client who came to us for a lower level report on an older, 7-story commercial building with a subterranean parking garage. Through a review of the offering memorandum, we learned that the current owners had been completing $ 700,000 of deferred maintenance on the garage each year, which was a red flag that more expensive work may still need to be done. We convinced the clients to complete a more in-depth acquisition

PCA in action

level PCA, which discovered that there was $ 4.5 million of work that remained to be done on the garage alone.

If the client had not completed the higher level report, they would have been hit with a $ 4 million expenditure they weren’ t anticipating. In the end, the client made the decision not to acquire the property based on the report conducted, saving them millions. While they were disappointed, they were also pleased as they knew they had dodged a bullet.

Another example is that a client shared with us with a completed lower level PCA for a high-profile property, asking whether it was sufficient. We advised them that they should engage our team for the full suite of enhanced reporting mentioned above that Walker has to offer.

We mobilized a team of 36 assessors, compared to the two who had conducted the initial report. Our report discovered more than $ 1.5 billion in work needed to

Gibson Park

as safe public spaces during sunny days and as protective infrastructure during storm events.

As coastal conditions become increasingly volatile, landscape architects, engineers, and municipal leaders must advance integrated systems that blend ecological performance with community benefit. The challenge ahead is not simply to protect our waterfronts, but to transform them. Resilient design offers that opportunity, and Gibson Park will be an example of how landscape architects can influence and lead the way.

Sean Sanger is principal at Copley Wolff Design Group.

keep the property up to date, substantially more than the previous report indicated. In the end, while this client went through with the sale, it had a better understanding of the value, and the challenges presented by the property.

Facilities Condition Assessments and Capital Needs Assessments, completed for owned assets, institutions, or municipalities, utilize the same PCA process, and can be further tailored to meet specific goals of the client, such as integration into existing maintenance systems or databases, or a specific focus.

While some CRE buyers believe that they do not have the budget for a comprehensive, acquisition level property report in their due diligence budget, it’ s clear that they are worth it. The findings identified during due diligence for a typical transaction, and the ability to retrade or negotiate on sales price because of that reporting, is absolutely worth the cost of the report( s). With acquisition level reporting, clients are empowered to go back to the sellers to negotiate based on our findings.

Before deciding what level of property assessment to go with, stakeholders should ask themselves if they have a budget for $ 1.5 billion, or even $ 1 million, of surprise repairs. The answer is likely, no.

David Stewart is senior PCA consultant at Walker Consultants.

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