All Forum Posts by: Chris Blackburn

Any examples of this that you can share?  

Green certification.   NGBS 2020 Bronze Level Certification Support Services and Statement of Energy Design Intent (SEDI) Services.

New construction  

Would love to see what other people have done. We thought we had this covered with the HUD architect review but it looks like our pre-construction lender to HUD- did not know we wanted the green cert for interest and point savings.

We have 2 builds- 1 80% done and the second is on the development path with construction beginning in 4 months.  42 units for 1 and 40 for the other- 3 story walk-up. 

Most projects are 2 years away from moving dirt if you start now.  Those who have put off projects, and are now starting, will still find a lack of labor, longer timelines, inventory shortages or delays, higher costs from last year 10%-20%, more regulation, building/energy code increases, SDC increase costs.  It is a tough gig and not getting any easier.  If was easy, everyone would do it.  I hope rents rates will cover mortgage costs.  I know a number of commercial projects that just do not pencil because rents are not high enough.  The plus side- it gets so hard to build, it creates a huge moat, so a lot less competition.  Good luck, build smart, and treat people well.

The pictures are priceless!  I want my daughters to read this!  Thank you!

It seems every property I run into now requires poking a few holes in the ground.  Always plan on a phase 2 and find a GOOD environmental company that you can work with.   Banks are getting rightfully picky and will require a phase 1 or 2 to show no RECs.  Recognized Environmental Conditions.   Plus it could save you a nightmare in the future.  

We closed on 2 deals last week.  Keizer, OR Verda... 114 unit build overlooking a park.  (Keizer is wonderful to build in)  https://www.loopnet.com/Listin...  Also just closed on this adaptive re-use project today...  https://www.loopnet.com/proper... At $30 a foot plus 2 acres of blacktop- I could not replace it for $6M on a build. We may have a lease to buy on the building then putting self-storage (automated on the 2 acres) will accept about 40,000 sq ft of self-storage. We have offers in on 4 other multi-family/housing projects that look great. 2 of these are big swings and will require more capital than we currently hold and or they may fall to the wayside. If I can continue to keep costs from rising too fast we can provide 5 years of multi-family projects that move to 35-year hud financing with 80% LTV. Just need to fire up my syndication side, (Currently using Appfolio syndication) and I am off to the races. Every dollar we make goes into more projects so it is an exciting ride! We look at 3-5 deals a week- make offers on 2-3 a month. We just started our first project with a 50/50 partner.. They contributed the land- we do everything else. We are only working in our local area (Salem/Metro- Oregon's second-largest metro area). Our current syndication model is a 30%/70% split where we get 30% for securing the land, loan, oversite, liability. The other 70% represents ownership and required cash for the whole project. We end up contributing our development fee (earned last) so typically we will own over 50%. Our track record is solid with the projects- we have a great team and risk our own capital. Investors come first... we eat last. We use a bridge to HUD construction loan process, if everything works right- we have the OPPORTUNITY to return some or all of the contributed capital to the investors. Loans go to a 35 year fixed rate in the low 3% Chris Blackburn Clutch Industries. We currently only work with very simple, 3 story garden walk-up apartments- Super nice- made to appeal to women, stainless appliances, quartz surface but still affordable to build. (I have seen too much destruction from developers doing luxury apartments) I see no lack of demand over the next 10 years. (Oregon is not easy to build in and Salem is very hard to build in:(

We are building in Oregon.  I have 400 doors in the works.  Just closed on a property overlooking a park in Keizer that has plans for 114 doors.  Will be building in the spring.  I have another whopper that could support 250-400 units (some retail will impact this)  Overlooks a City owned, 2 Lake reservoir (check the map on the link) , natural preserve, and has an $80M Ray and Joan Kroc Center (this is amazing) about 800 feet away.  Check out the google earth presentation I made.  At $200K an acre is not a bad deal.  Going into a pre-app with the City of Salem later this month.   https://earth.google.com/earth... In the lower-left side, "CLICK" the Present button. We are still building at a profit and are working to panelize our projects. (First one is in the work 36 units in Keizer). Now I all need is the funds to do these new projects. Let me know if anyone would like to connect and see more details. Our projects are almost ALWAYS 3 story garden walk-ups on flat land. Nothing fancy. We go in with a bridge to HUD model that allows us to get 80% LTV on the take-out over a 35 year term. If interest rates stay low and we get the appraisal right, it returns the investors $ (first) then mine as well and everyone still has their equity. I would love to see how others are doing it differently. Looking forward to meeting up.

We are stubbing in the power for our 3 story walk-up apartments.  As I try to future-proof our projects at the same time trying to limit the huge increase in cost for building, we want to make the best decisions on a long-term basis.   We know electric cars are coming- But how? I think autonomous vehicles will be the future for most, not everyone has a car.  (If you look at the savings of not owning a car- the VAAS/CAAS model vehicle as a service or car as a service) maybe the largest wealth generator in the next 10 years (not counting the government printed $ over the covid period) (please do not get me started) Sorry, I digress, the future is coming and if it is convenient, we will embrace.  I call it, Amazon Drive (Jeff you owe me a lifetime platinum membership)  For $100 a month, an Amazon car will appear at your door within 9 minutes or less. The type of car and service goes up from there.  (This is still in beta and Jeff has not returned my emails about my share of the profits- IE I am only guessing a variant exists of this or is coming soon.)  So If I put too much infrastructure in for this or the units themselves... Is it worth it?   Our analysis (armchair) says that having some percentage of access to chargers will be a HUGE advantage to the older (slower to adopt) tenants.   Maybe 10%-25% of the spaces will want them.  We do want this type of customer and they are almost eliminated from being able to live at 99% of all apartment complexes.  99%!!!! son of a gun, that a lot of people with cars nicer and newer than my pickup truck (11 years old but runs great) who cannot rent at my location.  Plus we are in Oregon, the land of the Prius home of the Green.   (Please don't get me started).  Maybe @Jay Hinrichs fancy Tesla charging problems could be solved if he moved into one of the 400 doors we are building in the next 4 years?  (Great project for you in Stayton Oregon, on the water). (Just teasing Jay- I ways want to link you in since you commented about this topic 2 years ago and I respect your opinion even if you drive one of those fancy electric cards and not a pickup truck;)  )     So-- Enough promotion and internal therapy,    My takeaway... A portion of longer-term tenants will want to stay for a long time (years and have access to chargers, a larger portion will be using autonomous vehicle service where they get charged in a centralized location (another business model- lots of power- mine bitcoin at when not charging).   Given that information and all the confusing comments, are there any developers who have put this on a 10-year view, made changes, or have the cat's meow of chargers that everyone likes and is not a management headache?  Some suggest a fixed fee to charge?  One of our projects will have garages so this may be the best spot?  Our projects are 3 story walk-ups on flat ground.  I can feel there is a right answer but need a little help getting it right.  No   No fancy 5/2 for me.   I am thinking put the appropriate conduit in and maybe just amortize the cost of a specific charger to the tenant with an electricity use fee (hate that much reporting)?  If they leave early- the charger stays?  We have a few options.. Chargepoint https://www.chargenw.com or https://evercharge.net or the Juicebox.  If this is a revenue generator it is more exciting to have to manage.  Maybe this is the modern version of having a pool and the progressive developer/owner just needs to add it into the suite of services to stay competitive.  Please share your perspective?  As a low-risk, middle housing (Garden-style apartments) developer, the balance of amenities vs price vs rent is a balancing act.  Do I build elevators to appeal to our older population? (expensive in a number of ways), or do we go for pure economy and stack them cheap and deep since there seems to be no end in sight of costs or demand.  We are currently building 42 units in Salem (Drive by if you want) 4444 State St.  We have another wonderful 114 unit project in Keizer in the works.  We have another 250-350 unit project (26 acres) with an $80M Kroc activity center, lakes, and a nature preserve that we would love to ink a deal on. Let me know if this is your type of project... https://earth.google.com/earth...   Hit the "Present" Button in the lower left corner(yes- I did that myself and if you clicked here and really read this far- I am impressed!)   Our footprint is in the Willamette Valley (Salem) and I hope to continue to improve the area.  Feel free to connect with me if you have any ideas and suggestions.  I am only as good as my team (Which I have a GREAT ONE) and always look for more ways to add value.  We are working on our first panelized apartment complex in Keizer as well (2x 18 plex units off of Cherry Ave in Keizer)  Connect with me and I will add you to the exciting updates and photos.  We are working with www.Treenada.us, (I am a part-owner and also their first apartment build- let me know if you want more information.  We are sharing the plan since the whole idea is to build the same apartments from the same panels over and over.  We use an EXP so almost no wood.                                                                For reference https://tinyurl.com/49m8vxbm Forbes autonomous vehicles are coming   https://tinyurl.com/wcwuh7fe  Wired (2014)  how vehicles will serve you...    https://tinyurl.com/nyrn5fbw  (5 minutes ago- 
Argo AI can now offer the public rides in CA)    www.treenada.us (Company we are partners with on the modular steel apartment projects) (homes, yes- Self Storage- Coming soon) ADU's (coming soon) All in the Amazing town of Salem Oregon!

Just did my first project with ArcBazar (Architect Bazar)  I provided some site plans a and a link to Pinterest to understand "kind of" what I was looking for.  

The project is for 2 fully developed commercial pads in Albany Oregon in the Opportunity Zone.  These both look over a park and have all the parking, utilities, and sidewalks in.  This space overlooks a big field in a park, has great walking paths, and is close to our major Freeway. (I5).

We are trying to provide a vision for the potential clients.. 

What I got was 12 substantial renderings (one with 55 slides/images)   Please check it out  NOTE there are 12 different COMPLETE submissions!  each with many different renderings!  

https://www.arcbazar.com/submi...

Here is the shared Pinterest Site.   https://pin.it/Hmm9oN1

I have a number of other projects that need a site plan (some pretty big).   I know this does not replace my Architect and design team BUT it does provide a huge variety and potential ideas to projects that would normally only get one rendering.

@Marcus Williams @Greg Soon @Mayer M.   The number of Stock Plans for Apartments is limited and unappealing.  If you are doing a 1-time build, find a good architect and team that has built them.   If you are planning on building multifamily as a business model and are looking to repeat a process then building the same plan, over and over again, can be incredibly helpful, efficient, and cost-effective.   Here are a few situations where it makes sense.  Building on flat land.  Building in the same jurisdiction.  Building with the same team.  

We have one architect team that has built the same apartment building for 30 years (with required code upgrades).   The GC has put this building together 25 times.  I believe he has systemized a number of things and already solved many of the problems.   

The apartments can also almost be broken down into smaller parts for layout configurations.  6 plex, 12 plex, 18 plex, and 24 plex, three-story walk-ups is our model.  (Note- I cannot dismiss the need for an efficient elevator model of these (Silver wave)- but the costs go up significantly)

We are moving into a product that is all steel, panelized, and uses our repetitive design. (I believe we can optimize this even more and am looking for collaboration. Essentially, we will make our plans available after we build (3 months away) and provide all our feedback and experience in the process. One of the distinctions is the team the assembles/frames the project is one of the team members (no learning curve). The first one will be painful but as we build our subs that are comfortable with the process, get their feedback on ways to efficiently improve their process, we can work faster as a team. Our cost per door for the wood frame standard 3 story walk-up is about $150K+/- @ 744 sq ft average $181 a foot. With the increase in material costs not sure if we can beat this number. We have our steel version proforma and hope to not exceed these numbers. Again, we have a business model and plan to build 1000 doors over the next 5 years in the Willamette valley (Salem/Metro, Oregon). We are targeting middle housing, and bring in a product that has nice amenities and is as affordable as we can build. These projects are moving to a 35 year HUD fixed rate so they are long-term holds with us and our soon-to-be investors. We are trying to keep it as simple as possible, with the same team on easy-to-build locations. The demand is there, our biggest challenges are the increasing cost that gets reflected in the rent. We are happy to connect with others that want to take on this challenge as partners in learning how to build better. There is so much demand and a lot of people trying to solve the same problem. The more knowledge we have as a group the better we can mitigate the risk. I am only as good as my team and I am willing to share with others. Let me know if you want to connect.