Garden-style wood-frame: $130-$180/sq ft
Two-to-three story wood-frame buildings with surface parking. The most cost-efficient multifamily format and the most common in Upstate suburban markets. Site work is straightforward, vertical construction is fast, and per-unit cost stays in the range that supports market-rate rent.
Limit: jurisdictions with height or density restrictions push you toward this format whether you wanted it or not. It's the dominant Upstate format because the zoning supports it.
Podium / 5-over-1: $180-$240/sq ft
Five floors of wood-frame over a concrete or steel podium with structured parking. Significantly denser than garden-style — gets you more units per acre, which urban infill markets demand. The podium is where the cost premium lives: structured parking is roughly twice surface-parking cost-per-stall.
Best for downtown Greenville infill and Charlotte / Atlanta / Asheville urban sites. The pro forma needs to support the per-foot premium with rent density.
Mid-rise / high-rise concrete: $250-$400+/sq ft
Concrete or steel structure throughout. Rare in Upstate SC, common in Charlotte and Atlanta. Required for buildings over 5-7 stories depending on jurisdiction. Cost premium is real and only pencils where land cost demands the density.
Mixed-use ground-floor commercial
Adds 10-25 percent to your shell-and-core cost depending on commercial scope. Restaurant shells with grease-trap rough-in cost more than retail shells. The trade-off is the activated street-level use that makes upper-floor residential more valuable.
Bottom line
The right format isn't the densest — it's the one your pro forma supports at the rent your market actually pays. Pre-construction modeling against the capital stack is where good multifamily projects pencil. NASCLA Unlimited Building GC accepted via NASCLA reciprocity for portfolio operators.
