You may have missed in the recent post about Burnside Rocket that its developer puts financial models and conceptual drawings for all his projects online. Great minds think alike: small urban building expert John Anderson is also "open-sourcing" a project, and emailed the model and drawings.
"This live/work 4-plex is intended to help others explore the development of small rental buildings, given the constraints of today's financing. For now, we are looking to test the prototype and its underlying economics. In the pro forma, you can try out different costs, rents, down payment amounts, operating costs, etc. and see how the changes affect the returns and the debt coverage ratio. I am very interested in feedback and critique.
"The building's footprint is modest. The slab-on-grade construction and simple form reduce construction cost. The accessible unit on the ground floor covers most requirements for accessibility, so no elevator is needed. The exit path is short enough that there is no requirement for a second means of egress from the second floor, so just one stairway under the ICC. This is a small deal that can be done with an investor partner and a standard 20%-down, FHA-insured mortgage.
"I'm hoping others will pick it up, adapt the design to their local sites and circumstances, and get it built. The tool kit for delivering small increments of development needs to be expanded and we figure this is a good starting point." Send feedback to janderson at andersonkim.com or write in the comments.