New Building FAQ and Factoids
Some key information
New building address: 8205 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton 97008
About the building: the new building is two stories, approximately 33,445 square feet, and built in 1984.
The purchase: We paid $5,050,000 for this building, or $151/square foot. The market average at the time of purchase was $180/square foot.
The funding: We are paying for the purchase, remodel, permitting, and other associated project fees with a public bond. The process was incredibly complicated with many players involved, including the State of Oregon Treasury Department who oversaw and gave final approval to our funding. Much like a home purchase, we now have a 30 year mortgage.
Features of the area: the sidewalk in front connects to the Fanno Creek Trail just a few feet to the northwest and to a Max train stop about 1/2 mile to the southeast. Fanno Creek borders our property on two sides, adding a natural beauty that helps make this feel less like an office building. Highway 217 is very close as are many restaurants, shops, and services.
The folks working on this project are
Architect: Laurie Simpson of Connect Architecture. We are Laurie's fifth charter school project in the region and her experience has helped us navigate the special issues associated with building out a school. Laurie has been helping us vet potential buildings for four years now, giving valuable advice and insight, and often writing off her time. We wouldn't be enjoying a successful project without her continued guidance through everything from permitting questions to choices about finishes and details.
Broker: Josh Bean of Ethos Commercial Advisors. The search for a new building took over four years and no broker stuck it out with us until we were introduced to Josh. Our project was probably the least profitable Josh has ever had when you factor in how many hours he put in exploring properties with us. But he was always dedicated and fantastic to work with, and even attended our most recent school auction where he donated $1000 during the paddle raise.
Financial Advisor: David Robertson with Lewis Young Robertson & Burningham. David poured through every detail of our prior years financial statements and created spreadsheets detailing our projected financials so that we could understand how much loan the school could afford. He then connected us with a couple different funding options and educated the team and the school board on our options. David had the challenging job of managing the bond process and coordinating the many players involved including running the weekly conference call meetings that had 28 invitees.
Contractor: P&C Construction with the leadership team of Dave Dahl, Jared Steagall, and Doran Spenst. This team worked hard with the lender on the budget before closing and were ready to jump in to construction as soon as we closed. They are juggling overlapping projects at the job site, ensuring top quality work, and keeping us on schedule. This team is dedicated to our vision and have been great stewards of our future home.
Owner's Representative: Dan Naughton with SOJ. Dan is looking out for the school's interests in all things related to this project and is managing weekly meetings at the job site, tracking the budget and schedule, and making sure all tasks are being followed through on and completed. Dan is also reporting back to the bond investors on the progress of this project and is coordinating the monthly pay requests. This project wouldn't be progressing as smoothly as it is without Dan's coordination.
Structural Engineer: Wade Younie with DCI Engineers. Like Laurie, we have worked with Wade for several years, calling him in on buildings that we thought had definite potential to get his assessment on seismic retrofitting expense. Seismic retrofitting is very expensive and for some buildings was a financial deal breaker. Wade's expertise has been very important to our building search.
Attorneys: Matthew Lowe and Adam Anderson of Jordan Ramis. Besides already serving as our school attorneys, Matt and Adam provided invaluable guidance and representation throughout the purchase and financing portion of this project. They helped us navigate countless tasks throughout the process and helped us deal with the speed bumps we often encountered.
School Site Search Team: There have been several hard working members of this parent volunteer team over the years. The current team members are: Christa Billings - School Board President, Rob Timmons - School Board Member and Finance Committee, Molly Held, and Becky Schiefelbein. We are fortunate that the varied skill and experience levels of these team members complemented each other very well which meant we could lean on each other to manage the variety of complicated tasks involved in this process.
Interesting Things to Know About the Project:
New Items: We will have some new items at this building and they are all pretty exciting -
Roof: The original roof was failing in several areas and had been patched and overlayed too many times so a brand new roof is being installed.
HVAC: The original units were still in place, two of which were beyond repair and had already been disconnected by the prior owner. They have been removed and
new, high efficiency modern units will be installed as soon as the roof is done. YES, this building will have air conditioning!
Projectors: A/V and communications can be complicated but they will be simplified by the integrated system that is being installed. Each classroom will have a ceiling-
mounted projector (no more carts!) and will be able to be integrated with a central system. This means the projectors will all be new. We aren't sure yet if the budget will
allow for new video-friendly white boards, but they are high on the wish list.
Seismic Stability: This is talked about a lot on the building page already, but it's important to know that schools must meet a higher seismic standard than homes or
office buildings. Considering how much time our kids spend at school this mostly unseen element is reassuring! And the reason this will be mostly unseen rather than
fully unseen as in most buildings is because of the micropiles that are detailed on the home page. Because they are retrofitted and not installed at time of construction
they will protrude above the floor. Check out the micropile photo showing the bent rebar - that will all be covered in concrete to a height of 18" which is perfect height for
a seating bench, and what it will be for the time being, but isn't really necessary. The plans call for display or trophy cabinets to be installed on those 18" slabs, which
didn't make the cut in the current budget but will be kept on the new building 'wish list'. That wish list is long and will be posted on the building page soon.
Solar Panels: The size of our project has triggered a state requirement that we spend 1.5% of our budget on Green Energy Technology. After exploring a couple options it was determined that we would get the greatest bang for our buck by installing photovoltaic solar panels. We will be able to install quite a few panels with our $57,000 budget. This project is still being engineered, but more details will be posted as we progress.
Weekly Meeting: Every Thursday the building team meets in person and over video with the P&C team, the owner's rep, and architect to cover every aspect of the project. The schedule is covered in detail, looking forward 4 weeks, to make sure we are on track, the budget is also covered, issues such as unforeseen problems (nothing big so far!), choices about flooring, outlets, administration layout, etc. are discussed, and much time is spent talking about what is coming up in the weeks to come to make sure there are no surprises.
Income Potential: Now that we own our facility we can look at opportunities to raise revenue in ways that have not been possible before. The team has had this goal in mind during planning and potential revenue sources include rental of the gym, after school hours rentals, summer camp and the possibility of having the auction in our building. The gym floor will be suitable for recreational and competitive league play which will be appealing to local leagues and we will also reach out to local outfits that run summer camps and extracurricular activities.
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