Wednesday, June 23, 2010
6/18/2010 - Ft. WorthSouth, Wells Fargo & Cat City
Another day in Ft. Worth researching or is it due diligence now?
We visited with Mike Brennen at Ft. Worth South and shared with him the site we have and who we were dealing with, James Noryian. Per James, we asked to see the plans from Beck and he offered a rendering of a building but was not able to leave it with us as he was not sure who owned the plans. Apparently, about a year ago a developer by the name of Joe Frank had proposed a project to James that never came to fruition and Mike was not sure if the plans he had were owned by Joe or James hence we did not get them. Not to worry, we contacted James and we will have his plans on Monday. Mike also shared with us the plans by Beck may not pass the neighborhoods approval as they are a bit too modern.
He told us Comerica had bought an old house, demolished it and were going to build their standard bank and the neighborhood vehemently protested it. Comerica had to go back to the community and change their building plans and facade to blend into the existing look and feel of the neighborhood presumably a PR nightmare and no doubtingly a costly mistake. Mike also suggested we talk to Vance ?? owner of Lili's and Cat City Grill (hope it's not a Chinese restaurant). We then proceeded to look for Vance at Lili's and he wasn't there so we went to Cat City and he wasn't there either but we did get a chance to talk to his partner Lance. We talk about the area,if he was happy with his sales, and tried to get him to tell us what he was paying in rent but he wouldn't. He did however tell us that $18 psf was in the range for the rents in the area so that helped. We also patronized his bar with two cold blue moons.
Friday, June 18, 2010
6/17/2010 - Two great meetings
Prior to today, we spent time on the phone getting two great meetings set up and today we had those meetings. First we met with Mark Gunderson (see this link for some of his work) and he spent about two hours with us and probably would have spent more time with us but we had to go meet the owner of the tract of land we chose for our project. Mark was the original architect on the OleanderWest Project www.oleanderwest.com and has practiced in that area for 25 years and knows all the players. He was a wealth of information. He shared his thoughts and thinks the crude drawings we did have merit and would work. We then talked about how we could get him on our team and we apparently peeked his interest and although we did not get a yes because we told him this was a real but class project and we did not provide any financial compensation to retain him. However he did break it down for us in terms of what it would cost if we wanted to get him on the team. Here's the break down:
Basically it is in 5 stages;
1. Schematic Design 15%;
2. Design/Development 20%;
3. Construction documents 40%;
4. Construction/Bid 5% and
5. Construction 20%.
for a total of between 8% -10% of construction costs. He also said that he could work by the hour with a not exceed amount based on the percentages above. We told him Dr. Forgey would help pay for the first 15% to get it started!
Further, Mark was very helpful and told us a few people we needed to reach out to, namely the Historic Preservation officer for the City and Joel Burns, City Council Member. He also knows Mark Bennett and all the peeps at Fort Worth South. He could be very instrumental in getting us through the approval process and a design that works. We liked his way of architecture and his thought process. All in all, we found an architect we feel would be good for the project.
On to the next meeting. James Noryian is the owner of the tract of land we chose and met with him and his attorney at the restaurant next door. They had already ordered dinner so we had dinner and a couple of beers. He even bought, what a treat. We discussed his tract of land and what other stuff he had done. He is a UT-Austin graduate and has been in Real Estate for 30+ years and owns a lot of property around Texas and other parts of the country. He is in his 50's and after talking with him about our project, he liked it but said two stories wouldn't make the numbers work and offered up he has full set of plans from Beck for a 4-story mixed-use project and we were welcome to them for free. Speaking of free, he told about a story of how he acquired the property and it took him 2 years and he had to convince the City that two of the four houses he took off the property he would move 2 to other lots and re-hab them and when he wanted to do the same for the two houses behind his property they said no...he offered that if we could get the City to let us move the two houses behind the property there now, he would give us hos property for free!!! Anyway, we continued to visit and although it was not mentioned this was a class project, and since he offered up his plans that would be significantly more money, I first asked why he didn't do it himself and he said he has been doing this for 30 years and it's not about the money anymore its about his time...if he was younger he probably would but he is leaving for Europe for an extend period of time and he is a hands on kinda guy; it just didn't make sense for him right now and second, I asked if he would consider JV'ing the deal and putting the land in as equity and he said yes, put something together and get back to me. He also offered up everyone knows him b/c of all the stuff he has done in the area and he referred us to Able Sanchez, the banker at Wells Fargo and said he would hep us finance it and that Mark at FW South has all the Beck plans and knows he would do anything to help us get this development done. Needless to say, we are headed over to FW South and Wells Fargo tomorrow. Dr. Forgey, you may have to put up a personal gurantee but we'll give a you a piece of the deal!!
Things are getting interesting for sure. We'll keep you posted.
Basically it is in 5 stages;
1. Schematic Design 15%;
2. Design/Development 20%;
3. Construction documents 40%;
4. Construction/Bid 5% and
5. Construction 20%.
for a total of between 8% -10% of construction costs. He also said that he could work by the hour with a not exceed amount based on the percentages above. We told him Dr. Forgey would help pay for the first 15% to get it started!
Further, Mark was very helpful and told us a few people we needed to reach out to, namely the Historic Preservation officer for the City and Joel Burns, City Council Member. He also knows Mark Bennett and all the peeps at Fort Worth South. He could be very instrumental in getting us through the approval process and a design that works. We liked his way of architecture and his thought process. All in all, we found an architect we feel would be good for the project.
On to the next meeting. James Noryian is the owner of the tract of land we chose and met with him and his attorney at the restaurant next door. They had already ordered dinner so we had dinner and a couple of beers. He even bought, what a treat. We discussed his tract of land and what other stuff he had done. He is a UT-Austin graduate and has been in Real Estate for 30+ years and owns a lot of property around Texas and other parts of the country. He is in his 50's and after talking with him about our project, he liked it but said two stories wouldn't make the numbers work and offered up he has full set of plans from Beck for a 4-story mixed-use project and we were welcome to them for free. Speaking of free, he told about a story of how he acquired the property and it took him 2 years and he had to convince the City that two of the four houses he took off the property he would move 2 to other lots and re-hab them and when he wanted to do the same for the two houses behind his property they said no...he offered that if we could get the City to let us move the two houses behind the property there now, he would give us hos property for free!!! Anyway, we continued to visit and although it was not mentioned this was a class project, and since he offered up his plans that would be significantly more money, I first asked why he didn't do it himself and he said he has been doing this for 30 years and it's not about the money anymore its about his time...if he was younger he probably would but he is leaving for Europe for an extend period of time and he is a hands on kinda guy; it just didn't make sense for him right now and second, I asked if he would consider JV'ing the deal and putting the land in as equity and he said yes, put something together and get back to me. He also offered up everyone knows him b/c of all the stuff he has done in the area and he referred us to Able Sanchez, the banker at Wells Fargo and said he would hep us finance it and that Mark at FW South has all the Beck plans and knows he would do anything to help us get this development done. Needless to say, we are headed over to FW South and Wells Fargo tomorrow. Dr. Forgey, you may have to put up a personal gurantee but we'll give a you a piece of the deal!!
Things are getting interesting for sure. We'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
6/15/2010 - Information Package and Site/Building Layout Drawings
We also got a call back from Wayne Lawrence, former COO of the Warrior Group to discuss the possibility of doing this project in a modular format and LEED certified. He said he would help us bring a manufacturer to the table when discussing the opportunity.
Finally, we sent an email to Mark Gunderson, a Fort Worth Architect who is familiar with Near Southside in hopes we can get him to sign on and help with some renderings. That has pretty much consumed my day.
Cheers,
J2M
6/14/10 - The Research Begins
The day started out with a return phone call from the Caldwell Banker broker (Gary) on the 15,000 sf corner lot on Magnolia East of the site we chose. Gary indicated they wanted $30 psf. This is $8 psf more than our site and frankly, we like our site better. Further, Gary stated the owners were going to develop it themselves as mixed-use Residential/Commercial - Live/Work but were unable to secure financing. We asked him to see if the owners would consider a JV and get back to us. Later in the day, I received an email from him and they are not interested in JV'ing. Oh well.
I then took the time to print and read the 89 pages of the "Near SouthSide Development Standards and Guidelines" and determined a few things. Southside is dedicated to new-urbanism in realizing it's revitalization goals for Near Southside which pretty cool. They adopted the new form-based "MU" mixed-use zoning classification. Form-based standards emphasis is on shaping the form of buildings and public spaces rather than the segregation of different land uses. Among other things, they encourage creativity, architectural diversity and exceptional design while discouraging uniformity. That's flexible. This flexibility is further encouraged to adapt to changing conditions over time. This fits perfectly into Dr. Forgey's project criteria. They should love the glass garage doors.
We also need to be cognizant of the other regulatory documents namely: the historic preservation ordinance, off-street parking and loading and finally, the sign ordinance and downtown sign standards.
The Urban Design Commission (UDC),will issue a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) that cites a projects compliance with the above mentioned principles. The UDC is a 9 member body appointed by the City Council of which six of the nine are practicing professionals. There is also a Development Review Process that will assist in getting your project started in the right direction. They meet with potential developers on Mon and Thurs. We have sent an email to the director (david.schroeder@fortworthgov.org) to seek a time to meet and will await his response. There is also a formal request form to fill out and send in on the City's website.There is a Application For A Certificate of Appropriateness on the site which tells you the required documents you need with the application on the City's Website.
We also confirmed the site we chose is in fact in the TIF and the broker told us the zoning was T5 and according to the The Transect Classification System, we are not T5 - Urban Center Zone, rather T4 - General Urban Zone, so we will get with the broker and confirm. The property is located in the Southwest portion of the Development Zone and the T4 Standards are as such: 20-ft. max front setback; 18-ft min. facade height; 3 stories max if single use; 5 stories max w/ public space or mix of uses; 6 stories max w/public space and mix of uses; parking behind or beside buildings. Our property is located along Magnolia street which is classified as Main collector street - walkable, mixed-use streets of moderate to high density. These are primary destination streets with active ground floor uses and on-street parking, and are comfortable and safe for bicyclists; have less than 8000 vehicles per day and further classified as a minor collector street - usually undivided with 3-4 travel lanes. Magnolia also has a striped bike lane.
There is a lot of information to be found in this document and is advisable to read through it. One other CAUTION of note is: under parking and driveways, #6. Residential Garages - Garages should not front public pedestrian space. Garages shall be accessed from alleys or rear driveway or shall be detached and located at the rear of the site. Also of note, look at the Architectural Standards section and more specifically; D.1 and D.2. - Ground floor transparency for non-residential uses. Be sure and check the "permitted land uses" as well. There is also a Development Review Checklist that could be helpful.
We are alos looking into HUD's - Mortgage Insurance for Rental Housing for Urban Renewal and Concentrated Development Areas: Section 220. It's purpose is: Section 220 insures lenders against loss on mortgage defaults. Section 220 provides good quality rental housing in urban areas that have been targeted for overall revitalization. Section 220 insures mortgages on new or rehabilitated housing located in designated urban renewal areas, and in areas with concentrated programs of code enforcement, and neighborhood development. http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/progdesc/renturbanhsg220.cfm
Finally, for whatever it is worth, I laid in bed from 10pm - until about 11:15pm going over the design of our building in my head and thinking about all the things we could incorporate into it including my patent-pending toilet fartfan-an exhaust fan built into the toilet itself. I like the open concept of the units and if you have a walled but open ceiling in the bathroom, you have to have a way to exhaust the smell so as not to have an unpleasant order lingering throughout the rest of the unit. I will not be able to share the design at this time as the patent is still pending.
That's it for now boys. Same bat time and bat station tomorrow!!
Cheers,
J2M
I then took the time to print and read the 89 pages of the "Near SouthSide Development Standards and Guidelines" and determined a few things. Southside is dedicated to new-urbanism in realizing it's revitalization goals for Near Southside which pretty cool. They adopted the new form-based "MU" mixed-use zoning classification. Form-based standards emphasis is on shaping the form of buildings and public spaces rather than the segregation of different land uses. Among other things, they encourage creativity, architectural diversity and exceptional design while discouraging uniformity. That's flexible. This flexibility is further encouraged to adapt to changing conditions over time. This fits perfectly into Dr. Forgey's project criteria. They should love the glass garage doors.
We also need to be cognizant of the other regulatory documents namely: the historic preservation ordinance, off-street parking and loading and finally, the sign ordinance and downtown sign standards.
The Urban Design Commission (UDC),will issue a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) that cites a projects compliance with the above mentioned principles. The UDC is a 9 member body appointed by the City Council of which six of the nine are practicing professionals. There is also a Development Review Process that will assist in getting your project started in the right direction. They meet with potential developers on Mon and Thurs. We have sent an email to the director (david.schroeder@fortworthgov.org) to seek a time to meet and will await his response. There is also a formal request form to fill out and send in on the City's website.There is a Application For A Certificate of Appropriateness on the site which tells you the required documents you need with the application on the City's Website.
We also confirmed the site we chose is in fact in the TIF and the broker told us the zoning was T5 and according to the The Transect Classification System, we are not T5 - Urban Center Zone, rather T4 - General Urban Zone, so we will get with the broker and confirm. The property is located in the Southwest portion of the Development Zone and the T4 Standards are as such: 20-ft. max front setback; 18-ft min. facade height; 3 stories max if single use; 5 stories max w/ public space or mix of uses; 6 stories max w/public space and mix of uses; parking behind or beside buildings. Our property is located along Magnolia street which is classified as Main collector street - walkable, mixed-use streets of moderate to high density. These are primary destination streets with active ground floor uses and on-street parking, and are comfortable and safe for bicyclists; have less than 8000 vehicles per day and further classified as a minor collector street - usually undivided with 3-4 travel lanes. Magnolia also has a striped bike lane.
There is a lot of information to be found in this document and is advisable to read through it. One other CAUTION of note is: under parking and driveways, #6. Residential Garages - Garages should not front public pedestrian space. Garages shall be accessed from alleys or rear driveway or shall be detached and located at the rear of the site. Also of note, look at the Architectural Standards section and more specifically; D.1 and D.2. - Ground floor transparency for non-residential uses. Be sure and check the "permitted land uses" as well. There is also a Development Review Checklist that could be helpful.
We are alos looking into HUD's - Mortgage Insurance for Rental Housing for Urban Renewal and Concentrated Development Areas: Section 220. It's purpose is: Section 220 insures lenders against loss on mortgage defaults. Section 220 provides good quality rental housing in urban areas that have been targeted for overall revitalization. Section 220 insures mortgages on new or rehabilitated housing located in designated urban renewal areas, and in areas with concentrated programs of code enforcement, and neighborhood development. http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/progdesc/renturbanhsg220.cfm
Finally, for whatever it is worth, I laid in bed from 10pm - until about 11:15pm going over the design of our building in my head and thinking about all the things we could incorporate into it including my patent-pending toilet fartfan-an exhaust fan built into the toilet itself. I like the open concept of the units and if you have a walled but open ceiling in the bathroom, you have to have a way to exhaust the smell so as not to have an unpleasant order lingering throughout the rest of the unit. I will not be able to share the design at this time as the patent is still pending.
That's it for now boys. Same bat time and bat station tomorrow!!
Cheers,
J2M
Monday, June 14, 2010
Look out SouthSide...Here we come!!
Class would have started promptly at 8am, however Dr. Forgey wanted to wait until Jason made it so he didn't have to repeat himself...Well 10 minutes later we started and yes Dr. Forgey had to repeat himself as Jason strolled in about 8:35am.
There are 7 of us in the class broken into 3 teams and one quickly learns, the early bird always gets the worm...thus I was quick to pick my teammate Vishal Makan, AKA, "Metro". We then were told what the game plan was for the Project. We were to select a site in the Near SouthSide District of Fort Worth (also know as the Medical District) to either construct or to do an adaptive re-use on an existing building and convert it to a "flexible" 4-plex residential project. Key word "flexible", in that at some point it may be turned into a commercial or retail space.
So after an illustration of the ideas Dr. Forgey had in mind, we took a field trip to the SouthSide and were shown some of the projects that might be feasible to do. We ultimately ended up at the Paris Coffee Shop for a bite to eat. It's a landmark in SouthSide for breakfast. I ate a waffle for the first time in years and yes it was very good. We then came back to the classroom for a little more discussion about the project, namely the use of glass roll-up doors in both the front and back of the building. We were then able to break into our teams and go forth and wander the neighborhood and find a site. Vishal and I pretty much decided to do new construction so we went looking for vacant land. We both immediately agreed it had to be in a place that had some Vibe to it. Since neither of us were too familiar with the area we identified the boundaries of the TIF district and just drove it. We ultimately found the spot - Magnolia between 7th and Fairmont, just three blocks from Baylor in the heart of the Vibe we were looking for. A quick walk of the property and we believe it is about 21,000 sf and easily dividable in half. We called the broker and it is going for $22 sf. The broker is in town on Wed and will be meeting with us to discuss it further. We have some preliminary ideas on how to go about the design in our heads and are considering talking with the Warrior Group to go modular. We'll be setting up meetings with them to discuss it as well.
We then came back to the class to discuss our projects and for Dr. Forgey to get an idea of whether or not we are headed in the right direction. Metro and I were the first back and we told Dr. Forgey our thoughts and he was good with it.
Finally, we did one last field trip so each of the teams could discuss the project they picked.
Now comes the fun part...making it happen!!
Cheers,
J2M
There are 7 of us in the class broken into 3 teams and one quickly learns, the early bird always gets the worm...thus I was quick to pick my teammate Vishal Makan, AKA, "Metro". We then were told what the game plan was for the Project. We were to select a site in the Near SouthSide District of Fort Worth (also know as the Medical District) to either construct or to do an adaptive re-use on an existing building and convert it to a "flexible" 4-plex residential project. Key word "flexible", in that at some point it may be turned into a commercial or retail space.
We then came back to the class to discuss our projects and for Dr. Forgey to get an idea of whether or not we are headed in the right direction. Metro and I were the first back and we told Dr. Forgey our thoughts and he was good with it.
Finally, we did one last field trip so each of the teams could discuss the project they picked.
Now comes the fun part...making it happen!!
Cheers,
J2M
REAE 5323 - Project Studio
Class has begun. Saturdays will be occupied for the next 5 weeks at the UTA "Santa Fe" Fort Worth Center. This will be fun.
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