Urban Empire Homes is looking for an independent designer/architect to draw our plans.
Here is who we are, what we need and how we work:
We are a unique company because we are a high-volume infill builder. We do 50 to 100 units per year, all within the city of Spokane, as well as other cities. We find and create lots in older, already existing established neighborhoods. We also build for customers as a fee builder, anywhere from Medical Lake, east to CDA and North to North Spokane area.
Designer or architect must be familiar with the City of Spokane Residential and multifamily codes and have submitted and had plans approved through the city of Spokane.
We build attached townhomes on their own lot, per the new city of Spokane code, some single family, and a lot of duplexes, and especially duplexes on tiny lots. We have the CAD files for many of our plans so that will make it easier since most of our plans are the same or modifications of the same, and some are from scratch. We also design/build for customers.
We use BFS for our trusses.
All plans have been engineered, but some of them can have been prescriptive,
We pay approximately $600 to $800 for engineering on average per plan.
We move quickly because of interest costs as well as needing to get projects done and finished before the market can change.
Most of our lots that we own are the result of us splitting them off of a parent parcel.
We always need to make sure to have the plan done and ready to submit for permits by the time the lot split is done.
BLA's take us 1-2 weeks unless there is a house or garage to demo. In those cases, it takes us 30-45 days to complete a BLA so those are the time frames we need plans done in, if possible, so they are ready.
With short plats, those are taking us about 3-4 months, so, as long as we have the plan done and ready to submit within about 2 months on our short plat projects, that is fine.
The city does require some info up front to submit with the short plat applications as far as what we are planning on building. Even on BLA's, they are now requesting that we let them know what our plans are.
Here are a few more things about us that we need in order to keep our business moving.
We have a very specific way we work because everyday costs us interest:
When we begin a plan, we start out by submitting our designer a floor plan or a CAD file, or PDF of a plan that we want to do. We need that back within a day or two in order to keep it moving forward. Then, between our realtor and I, we go back and forth with the designer several times on the floor plan changes until we get the floor plan to our liking. From there, we give you input on the elevation that we want, whether it is an elevation or CAD file we already have used, or a picture of what we are thinking. Once we have the front elevation done and approved, we move on to the sides and back. Once that is all done, we get the detail onto the plan, like the type of siding, etc. From there, we get a bid set that we use to start getting some bids. During this time when we obtain the bid set, our designer sends out to BFS for the truss drawings and calcs. Once they are back, those get input and sent to the engineer for engineering, which is talking about 5 business days. When the engineering is back, it takes our current designer about 1-2 days to get us the plans, ready to submit to the city or whatever jurisdiction it is in. Once we are ready to submit, which is either right away, or when the lot split is done and recorded, our designer submits it on the portal, or to the planner if it was a lot split, and emails us the link to pay the intake fees. Then the designer manages the plan check comments that come out of the city, and modifies the plan as required, but they get our input if it is something that changes something dramatically. Once the plan is done and ready to pick up, we consider it done, other than any issues or questions that we may have on site during construction. Additionally, we do need a written list of changes to the plan that occurred from the time
Here is some additional information some of which may be repetitive, on how we operate, and if for some reason this does not work, please let us know what does so we can see if we can make it work:
1. One third down of the cost upon receipt of rough plan before engineering and truss calcs. The 2nd 1/3rd
when it gets submitted to this city, and then one third last payment, when it's approved to pick up for permits.
2. We have to expedite the process. So, when we give the initial input on what we want, we really need to get back the floor plan updates within a day or two and then back and forth, until we come up with the final plan every day or two until it's done. Our guy worked by himself out of his house. So of course, he was very, very fast and that is something we really need.
3. Because almost all of our lots are owned by us because we purchased a parent parcel, and split the lots, when we split lots, we need to have the plans done and ready to submit by the time the lot split is done. As an example, we have a BLA in process, which usually takes 1-2 weeks unless there is a house or a garage to demo, in which case they take 30-45 days. So, in this first case we have 4 single family plans that we need done, all about the same floor plan, but with different elevations. This is up on 27th on South hill 2 blocks from Hutton School. Because we have a house to demo, we would need two of the plans done and ready to submit by December 20th or so. The other two will be the result of short plat, which will take us 4 months, so we need those plans in about 2 months or so, just so they are ready to submit once we record that split.
4. We have been paying about $3,000 per plan, up to 3000 SF or so. If it is above 3000 SF, it goes up to $3500 up to 4,000 SF, and then $500 for each additional 1000 SF. thereafter. However, 90% of our plans are anywhere from 800 SF up to 3000 SF, per unit and we rarely add in a basement. We are open to adding some fees if there is a unique situation, so these numbers can be used as a basis for an average project of these sizes. Also, if a project has multiple lots, and if, as an example, we need 4 single family homes designed, if we use the same or similar floor plan (modified from one to another), then we usually pay about half for the additional plans. We are open to discussion of fees. We realize some companies have overhead they need to cover so fees could be more, whereas others don't, so if we can get what we need on the other parameters, we are more apt to be willing to pay a tad more. Engineering cost us about $800 per plan, but we would like to see if our plans can be done prescriptively.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE EMAIL OR TEXT. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE
