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.
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