One of our grandsons is active in the Cub Scout program.
His mom, our daughter, has found herself thrust into the role of outdoor activities manager for the den. She asked if I wanted to tag along with our grandson and her on a weekend camping trip to Oso Lake. I haven’t slept on the ground in 20 years, but the weekend sounded fun, so I agreed to go.
My recollection of Oso Lake was during its private bass fishing era. Apparently, it was leased to the Boy Scout program around 2008, and it has been converted to an overnight campground for Scouting of America.
You may be wondering what an overnight Cub Scout campout has to do with commercial real estate. Only these things. Please indulge me as I review a few.
Adaptive reuse and repositioning
My first thought on arriving at the camp wasn’t about tent poles or s’mores, but about adaptive reuse and repositioning.
Here was a property — a former private fishing lake — that had changed its highest and best use. For decades, it was a specialized recreational asset. Today, it’s a bustling youth campground.
In Southern California commercial real estate, this pivot is the name of the game, especially with the shifts we’ve seen in office and retail. Think of an older, vacant office park being converted into much-needed multifamily housing or a sprawling aerospace campus repurposed into a warehouse project.
The physical location remains, but the function and therefore the value driver completely change. Oso Lake proves that even a property with a strong legacy can find a new life and a more vital role in the community by adapting to a new demographic and market need.
Zoning and entitlement
We had specific rules about where we could set up our tent, where the cars had to be parked, and even the type of fire we could build. No rogue campfires allowed — you had to use the designated, permitted fire pit.
In commercial real estate, this translates directly to zoning and entitlements.
You can have the best vision for that old shopping center (say, turning it into a mixed-use development with apartments and ground-floor retail), but if the city’s zoning code only allows retail, your project is dead in the water or faces years of costly, uncertain negotiations.
Just like a Scout leader needs the proper fire permit, a developer needs the proper zoning and approvals to execute a project.
Southern California’s local jurisdictions are all unique, and mastering those specific rules is as critical as mastering the knot-tying merit badge.
Demand and demographics
Who is coming to Oso Lake now?
It’s not the exclusive bass-fishing crowd; it’s families, Cub Scouts and school groups. The Scouting of America program understood the demographics of their users: families looking for structured, safe, accessible outdoor experiences, and positioned the property to meet that specific demand.
This is the very essence of understanding the market in our region. Are you developing an industrial park? Your tenant demand is driven by e-commerce, logistics, and supply chain efficiency. Are you building a new Class A office building? Your tenant is driven by a desire to attract talent with amenity-rich, highly-collaborative spaces.
Just like the Cub Scout program must cater to the needs of young families, your commercial property must cater to the evolving needs of the businesses and people who will occupy it.
The camping trip was a great reminder that success, whether in the woods or in a boardroom, comes down to understanding the fundamentals: adaptability, playing by the rules, and knowing your audience.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go see if my grandson packed out all his trash. That, too, is a lesson in good stewardship, a topic for another column entirely.
Allen C. Buchanan, SIOR, is a principal with Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services in Orange. He can be reached at abuchanan@lee-associates.com or 714.564.7104.