Structural design proposal for repetitive building apartment complex

[drod900]

Hello everyone-

I'm a structural PE who typically deals with residential design, but am working hard to move into the commercial realm. After a lot of hard work, I've been given an opportunity to provide a proposal for a new apartment complex. The proposal will be for the structural design and will include the framing/foundation as well as any necessary meetings/RFIs. There will be five possible building types spread across 15 apartment buildings in the complex - meaning each building will be built more than once. Additionally there will be ancillary structures (clubhouse, garages, mail kiosk, etc.). I'm trying to win this project, but am having a hard time with determining the amounts I should include in my bid.
Here are my thoughts on options to determine my quote:
1) Based on square footage of each building (if I choose this one, whats a reasonable SF rate?)
2) Based on square footage of the initial design of each building type, then for each of the repeating building types charge 75% of the initial design fee (i.e. if building type 1 is built 5 times, the 1 building will be the full square footage rate and the other four will be 75% of that amount)
3) Based on a percentage of the total project construction cost - somewhere in the 3-4% neighborhood

If I choose one of these options, should an additional hourly fee be included for the meetings/RFIs/revisions?

Help me win this job!! Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer me!

 

[IceNine]

In my neck of the woods (SE USA), you'd be lucky to get 0.5 - 0.75% construction cost for a wood framed apartment building.

 

[JAE]

This has been discussed here before. Check these out:

thread507-2505

thread784-347090

thread784-200019

thread507-39860

One idea is:
1. Develop a fee for the main, first unit.
2. For subsequent units determine a reduced fee based on:

a. Time to prepare each plan set for each building – which will require a new title block, printing, stamping, etc.
b. Time for a review of the site conditions associated with each particular building (soil parameters topographic wind, site grading, etc….basically anything unique to the new site)
c. Time for altering the original design based on new code requirements if there is a large enough time gap between the original and the subsequent building.
d. Fee to account for the added risk.​

You can probably determine the times involved above in a through c.

For the risk item d it is a bit more difficult.

One approach is to look at your professional liability insurance. Usually the premiums are based on a percent of your billings each year (i.e. assume perhaps 2% of the gross billings). You could see what the fee would be for the additional units if each were separate buildings unique to themselves and then apply a 2% factor to those estimated fee values to get a direct cost of insurance for the risk of that subsequent building. Then add any factor you feel appropriate to account for the per-building risk. Maybe you jack up that 2% cost by a factor of 2 or 4. Then add this “risk fee” to the time fees above (items a-c) to get a total fee per additional unit.


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