With decades of railroad real estate, engineering, and industrial development experience, RailPros’ Real Estate Team assists in managing and monetizing one of the railroad’s largest assets – its property. We manage land acquisition, land sales, property leases, access, and utility permitting, license and lease rent portfolios, appraisals, utility relocations, and protection service coordination. Each real estate or industrial development request is unique and may require specific experience and expertise in:
Engineering design standards
Safety and construction standards
Real estate appraisal methodology
Relocation requirements
Contract negotiation
Proprietary Railroad Real Estate Project Management System
Leveraging our experience in real estate portfolio management, RailPros developed an online, external application portal and an internal project management real estate system for railroads. The portal accepts applications for every type of railroad real estate, including utility occupancy, property lease, land sales, right-of-entry requests, environmental right-of-entry requests, railroad protective insurance reviews, and requests for valuation maps or existing documents.
RailPros’ online application portal also offers a fully integrated, comprehensive solution for managing property and utility lease portfolios; the streamlined process minimizes the time it takes from application submittal to in-field protection and inspection services, and then to maintaining and collecting market rents throughout the lease term.
Real Estate Process
Our process includes these steps:
Review non-environmental and environmental right-of-entry applications
Review public and private road crossing, telecom, and utility applications for compliance with railroad engineering design and installation methodology
Receive property sales and land lease applications and evaluate the merits of each, including all departmental approvals
Determine and negotiate current market rents
Electronically prepare and distribute the lease/license agreements
Review and enforce insurance requirements
Collect and distribute all fees
Invoice, collect, and track rental payments
Maintain records of all correspondence and agreement versions and upload them into railroad repositories
Acquiring railroad right-of-way takes expertise and understanding of rail operations. Adjacent landowners, whether they are business owners, farmers, homeowners, tribes, or the federal government, all want to understand how the rail project will impact their business, their lives, and their property. RailPros can help analyze project and design decisions to determine how best to minimize any negative impacts that may cause delays in land acquisition. As your representatives, we will help to build community support and develop positive relationships with your neighbors.
Our staff will also facilitate all aspects of existing utility identification and design for relocation as needed, including the initial engineering review and coordination with the utility companies for Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) investigation. RailPros utilizes project management tools to provide you with accurate, timely information and transparent reporting on our property acquisition and utility relocation progress. Our dedicated and hands-on staff provides a high level of technical expertise and customer service.
The team consists of former real estate directors of Class I railroads who understand the intricacies involved in coordinating and timing projects under active railroad traffic. Because of this, they are recognized and trusted by our Class I and transit railroad partners. We look forward to helping you to manage and maximize the revenues of your real estate and right-of-way assets.
