With the cost of development at an all time high, and with property values falling precipitously, some commercial construction companies are steering their clients away from ground-up construction.
"This is a good time for business owners to look at existing buildings that could be repurposed," said Bryan Halbert, vice president of Schlecht Construction, Inc., which has completed several major reuse projects.
For example, Schlecht helped Journey Community Church metamorphose the former Columbia Bar and Grill in Camas into a church this year. While the project posed several challenges, Halbert said construction costs on the existing property were 30 to 40 percent cheaper then building a brand new church.
According to Halbert, when considering buying an existing structure, it is important to know exactly what you're getting into. For the Journey Community Church project, Halbert said his firm spent months testing materials, cutting holes in walls and floors and having experts look at the roofs and mechanical systems to discover the true expense of renovating the building.
"You can lose control of the budget in a blink of an eye," said Ron Frederiksen, president of RSV Building Solutions, which, like Schlecht, has plenty of experience remodeling older buildings. "It takes a lot of discipline."
Two years ago, RSV helped City Bible Church convert the old Mountain View ice skating rink on Vancouver's Mill Plain Boulevard to a worship space – a project both challenging and unique, according to Frederiksen.
In particular, RSV needed to keep the smaller ice rink operational while at the same time removing the chillers and substructure from the larger rink to build the church's auditorium, stage, mezzanine and meeting rooms.
Halbert advised that before buying a building for a reuse project, the contractor and client should consider three aspects of the project: governmental (change of use and zoning), structural (making sure the building is sound and suitable) and location (for example, adequate parking).
Seismic issues in particular, said Halbert, are a major component of evaluating a building. Some buildings cannot be brought up to code, especially if they do not have reinforced concrete walls.
Sometimes builders have to look at several buildings before they find just the right one. For example, when RSV helped nonprofit homeless advocates Share scout for a new location, the first two buildings they evaluated had fatal flaws, according to Frederiksen.
Eventually, RSV helped Share purchase the former Timber Lanes bowling alley on Andresen Road, shortly after determining that the building was the right size, in the right area of town and had high-ceilinged space to accommodate warehousing for Share's backpack program. In addition, the property is large enough that Share plans to sell part of it to another nonprofit, potentially creating what Fredericksen called "critical mass and synergy."
The main "surprises" that contractors find when renovating a building are asbestos, mold, mildew and dry rot, according to Halbert. Knowing this, he said, contractors should budget for such contingencies – perhaps as much as 7 percent, compared to about 5 percent for ground-up projects.
This is especially true when working with historic buildings, such as the former McKay & Sposito building in downtown Vancouver on 17th Street, which RSV renovated in 2008 for GWI Software. Built in 1946, the structure originally housed a furniture store. According to Frederiksen, the building had asbestos and mold, as well as a completely outdated HVAC system.
Schlecht experienced similar headaches during the renovation of the century-old Columbia Arts Center building on W. Evergreen Blvd. for New Heights Church.
But the extra work was worth it, Halbert said. "It was an exciting project for me," he said. "We wanted to preserve the historic value and workmanship, but modernize it."
Halbert praised the building's "fantastic" stained glass windows, saying his firm went to considerable trouble to restore much of the interior woodwork.
For wedding planner Dee Metro, who bought the former Ridgefield Community Church in 2003, transforming the 19th-century structure into a wedding chapel and catering facility took lots of hard work and patience to bring the building up to code.
"[It was] challenging but fun to bring a piece of history back to life," said Metro, now the owner of the renamed and refurbished Belltower Cathedral.
Perhaps it is a sense of excitement and discovery that makes Metro, Frederiksen and Halbert so fond of renovation projects, despite all of the often-costly surprises that come with such work.
"I'm a second-generation contractor," Frederiksen said. "I've remodeled buildings that my father built… I love doing it, I love what you find."
