Irwin Park
13
DAYS TO THREE FULLY-LEVELED HARD BIDS WITHOUT THE NEED FOR SITEWALKS
99%
ACCURATE ARCHITECTURALLY VIABLE SHOP DRAWINGS OF FOUR DISTINCT FLOOR PLANS
$75K+
SAVED IN RENOVATION COSTS
ColRich is a real estate, construction, and investment firm focused on value-add, residential real estate. ColRich aims to provide quality, design-forward housing to the working middle class at a reasonable price point, with a multifamily portfolio of over 18,000 units located in strategic West Coast markets. They employ a long-term hold strategy and primarily targets older properties with desirable floor plans suitable for renovation in highly livable secondary markets.
Danny Gabriel is CEO of ColRich and joined the company in 2003. Michael Roos serves as Senior Director of ColRich and has been with the company since 2009. Kelly Hiltscher serves as Director of Sales & Marketing at ColRich and joined in 2008.
In June 2022, ColRich acquired Irwin Park, a 177-unit garden-style complex from The Jacobson Company for $51.9 million, or $293,220 per unit. Located in Kent, WA, and spanning over 7.8 acres, the complex consists of one- and two-bedroom units and features a fitness center, dog park, outdoor pool, and clubhouse. Constructed in 1980, 135 units at Irwin Park were scheduled to receive renovations, with four different scopes planned, including alternate scopes for upper floor units.
A timely and well-executed unit renovation plan would enable ColRich to reposition Irwin Park as an affordable workforce housing alternative to a newer Class “A” product. For Kelly Hiltscher, a departure from the previous ownership’s aesthetic was paramount to executing ColRich’s vision of design-forward housing at an affordable price. “Having an in-house design team enables us to be our own customer. This allows us to deliver a tenant experience that is design forward and durable so we can really get the life out of our improvement and focus on building lasting communities,” she highlighted.
Like many of its peers, ColRich historically relied on a third-party property management firm to solicit a new bid each time the package or scope changed. While their on-site property teams passionately support residents across the communities they manage, timely delivery of new bids for Irwin Park proved challenging. Eight weeks into the process, ColRich received a single bid from their property management firm. “We’ve noticed that COVID has exacerbated labor shortages. Property management teams are struggling to find General Contractors to take on renovation work,” noted Michael Roos. For Hiltscher, the biggest pain point for renovations has been tackling global supply chain issues at scale. “Chasing property teams for reselects in order to keep the scope as similar as possible when SKUs go out of stock can be very time-consuming; it delays unit turns and creates less consistency in the delivered product.”
While the industry standard of eight-to-twelve-week timelines for hard bids is widely accepted, a changing market highlighted the need to find a scalable solution that allowed ColRich to remain competitive and drive value. Roos shared, “Resident expectations have changed over time. While our in-house team partners with on-site property management to drive design and construction execution, we knew that some of the challenges presented by COVID would require a think-outside-the-box solution to deliver what we’re promising to our communities.”
Gabriel and Roos had a keen sense of what ColRich needed. They were in search of a push-button easy solution that offered bid transparency and enabled quality execution at scale.
While waiting on a bid from their third-party property manager, Roos decided to run a parallel process with Tailorbird and evaluate the merits of the claims of increased speed, transparency, and operational excellence. One of the key factors that motivated their implementation was Tailorbird’s ability to quickly obtain transparent bids from multiple suppliers and contractors. Following kickoff, ColRich supplied Tailorbird with the property address, rent roll, unit mix, and design pull sheets.
In 13 days, Tailorbird’s product provided ColRich with a smart RFP package which included 99% accurate architecturally viable shop drawings of four distinct floor plans and three fully-leveled hard turnkey bids from trusted contractors, all without the need for sitewalks.
Following ColRich’s project kickoff, Tailorbird’s software tied out the property’s unit mix to the rent roll documentation prior to soliciting supplier and contractor bids. A major discrepancy was detected in the unit mix provided by ColRich’s property manager that did not account for upper floor plan variations. Tailorbird automatically updated the takeoffs to reflect the scope change prior to RFP solicitation. Roos quickly realized the benefits of having a specialized product that could manage bid solicitation. “Kickoff was easy, and frankly, I was skeptical at first. We were impressed by how quickly the technology found the discrepancy, incorporated the change in scope, and got us bids in a competitive market experiencing labor shortages,” he highlighted.
Prior to contractor bid solicitation, Tailorbird solicited bids from three suppliers. All contractors bid on the winning supplier’s materials cost. Tailorbird’s proprietary bid analytics demonstrated a potential cost savings of $560 per unit when compared with their property management firm’s single bid – a total of over $75,600 in savings in renovation cost.
The winning contractor committed to a sitewalk with ColRich’s Regional Construction Manager to confirm the 99.1% accurate digital measurements. Following the sitewalk, all results were exported into a construction contract between the contractor and ColRich’s property management firm, reducing the contract timeline by two weeks.
Armed with unprecedented transparency, Hiltscher sensed deep potential in the deployment of Tailorbird’s solution. “The solicitation of supplier bids gave us freedom and detail we’ve never been offered by any other partner. We want to be leaders in design. We can’t blindly follow a supplier who might be three steps behind where the market demand is. This was one of the most exciting parts of the Tailorbird experience for me.”
As Senior Director at ColRich, Roos has a duty to optimize the renovation process while remaining committed to the company-wide mission of building lasting communities. Looking beyond the speed-to-market renovations of Irwin Park, he noted “the transparency and ability to source general contractors offers new relief for on-site property managers challenged by supply chain constraints and staffing demands. The speed and expertise Tailorbird’s product offers is helping us take our long-term hold strategy to a whole new level and deliver on our values.”
ColRich is a real estate, construction, and investment firm focused on value-add, residential real estate. ColRich aims to provide quality, design-forward housing to the working middle class at a reasonable price point, with a multifamily portfolio of over 18,000 units located in strategic West Coast markets. They employ a long-term hold strategy and primarily targets older properties with desirable floor plans suitable for renovation in highly livable secondary markets.
Danny Gabriel is CEO of ColRich and joined the company in 2003. Michael Roos serves as Senior Director of ColRich and has been with the company since 2009. Kelly Hiltscher serves as Director of Sales & Marketing at ColRich and joined in 2008.
In June 2022, ColRich acquired Irwin Park, a 177-unit garden-style complex from The Jacobson Company for $51.9 million, or $293,220 per unit. Located in Kent, WA, and spanning over 7.8 acres, the complex consists of one- and two-bedroom units and features a fitness center, dog park, outdoor pool, and clubhouse. Constructed in 1980, 135 units at Irwin Park were scheduled to receive renovations, with four different scopes planned, including alternate scopes for upper floor units.
A timely and well-executed unit renovation plan would enable ColRich to reposition Irwin Park as an affordable workforce housing alternative to a newer Class “A” product. For Kelly Hiltscher, a departure from the previous ownership’s aesthetic was paramount to executing ColRich’s vision of design-forward housing at an affordable price. “Having an in-house design team enables us to be our own customer. This allows us to deliver a tenant experience that is design forward and durable so we can really get the life out of our improvement and focus on building lasting communities,” she highlighted.
Like many of its peers, ColRich historically relied on a third-party property management firm to solicit a new bid each time the package or scope changed. While their on-site property teams passionately support residents across the communities they manage, timely delivery of new bids for Irwin Park proved challenging. Eight weeks into the process, ColRich received a single bid from their property management firm. “We’ve noticed that COVID has exacerbated labor shortages. Property management teams are struggling to find General Contractors to take on renovation work,” noted Michael Roos. For Hiltscher, the biggest pain point for renovations has been tackling global supply chain issues at scale. “Chasing property teams for reselects in order to keep the scope as similar as possible when SKUs go out of stock can be very time-consuming; it delays unit turns and creates less consistency in the delivered product.”
While the industry standard of eight-to-twelve-week timelines for hard bids is widely accepted, a changing market highlighted the need to find a scalable solution that allowed ColRich to remain competitive and drive value. Roos shared, “Resident expectations have changed over time. While our in-house team partners with on-site property management to drive design and construction execution, we knew that some of the challenges presented by COVID would require a think-outside-the-box solution to deliver what we’re promising to our communities.”
Gabriel and Roos had a keen sense of what ColRich needed. They were in search of a push-button easy solution that offered bid transparency and enabled quality execution at scale.
While waiting on a bid from their third-party property manager, Roos decided to run a parallel process with Tailorbird and evaluate the merits of the claims of increased speed, transparency, and operational excellence. One of the key factors that motivated their implementation was Tailorbird’s ability to quickly obtain transparent bids from multiple suppliers and contractors. Following kickoff, ColRich supplied Tailorbird with the property address, rent roll, unit mix, and design pull sheets.
In 13 days, Tailorbird’s product provided ColRich with a smart RFP package which included 99% accurate architecturally viable shop drawings of four distinct floor plans and three fully-leveled hard turnkey bids from trusted contractors, all without the need for sitewalks.
Following ColRich’s project kickoff, Tailorbird’s software tied out the property’s unit mix to the rent roll documentation prior to soliciting supplier and contractor bids. A major discrepancy was detected in the unit mix provided by ColRich’s property manager that did not account for upper floor plan variations. Tailorbird automatically updated the takeoffs to reflect the scope change prior to RFP solicitation. Roos quickly realized the benefits of having a specialized product that could manage bid solicitation. “Kickoff was easy, and frankly, I was skeptical at first. We were impressed by how quickly the technology found the discrepancy, incorporated the change in scope, and got us bids in a competitive market experiencing labor shortages,” he highlighted.
Prior to contractor bid solicitation, Tailorbird solicited bids from three suppliers. All contractors bid on the winning supplier’s materials cost. Tailorbird’s proprietary bid analytics demonstrated a potential cost savings of $560 per unit when compared with their property management firm’s single bid – a total of over $75,600 in savings in renovation cost.
The winning contractor committed to a sitewalk with ColRich’s Regional Construction Manager to confirm the 99.1% accurate digital measurements. Following the sitewalk, all results were exported into a construction contract between the contractor and ColRich’s property management firm, reducing the contract timeline by two weeks.
Armed with unprecedented transparency, Hiltscher sensed deep potential in the deployment of Tailorbird’s solution. “The solicitation of supplier bids gave us freedom and detail we’ve never been offered by any other partner. We want to be leaders in design. We can’t blindly follow a supplier who might be three steps behind where the market demand is. This was one of the most exciting parts of the Tailorbird experience for me.”
As Senior Director at ColRich, Roos has a duty to optimize the renovation process while remaining committed to the company-wide mission of building lasting communities. Looking beyond the speed-to-market renovations of Irwin Park, he noted “the transparency and ability to source general contractors offers new relief for on-site property managers challenged by supply chain constraints and staffing demands. The speed and expertise Tailorbird’s product offers is helping us take our long-term hold strategy to a whole new level and deliver on our values.”
Key Benefits
“The world has changed, our organization has changed, and Tailorbird’s product addresses our need for speed in the bidding and contract processes. The speed and accuracy helps drive quality execution of renovations.” —Michael Roos, Senior Director, ColRich
“Watching Tailorbird’s technology deliver such a detailed product in record time was amazing.” —Kelly Hiltscher, Director of Sales & Marketing, ColRich
“By opening the bidding process on the supplier and contractor side, we have access to exciting new data. It creates more opportunities to be thoughtful about our mission of building lasting communities.” —Kelly Hiltscher
Key Benefits
“Watching Tailorbird’s technology deliver such a detailed product in record time was amazing.” —Kelly Hiltscher, Director of Sales & Marketing, ColRich
“The world has changed, our organization has changed, and Tailorbird’s product addresses our need for speed in the bidding and contract processes. The speed and accuracy helps drive quality execution of renovations.” —Michael Roos, Senior Director, ColRich
“By opening the bidding process on the supplier and contractor side, we have access to exciting new data. It creates more opportunities to be thoughtful about our mission of building lasting communities.” —Kelly Hiltscher
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