All in one place

Multi-use Arkansas apartment complex built around 1.5-acre pond

By Mark Friedman

The centerpiece of a 472-apartment complex in Springdale, Ark., is an acre and a half pond that was created for the project.

The $35 million Brookhaven Apartments also features an 8,000-sq.-ft. day care facility, a skateboard park and a clubhouse with a gym. It also has tennis courts, volleyball courts and a nearly full-sized soccer field.

"We did a fairly extensive marketing study and it showed that the need was there for the apartments," said Joe Edwards, the owner of Brookhaven LLC. "And we went forward with it."

The one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments will be scattered throughout 49 apartment buildings, some of which are four, eight and 12 units.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year or early next year.

In July 2004, Edwards Design & Construction Inc. of Springdale, Ark., began work on the apartments by clearing an open pasture south of downtown Springdale.

Edwards said the engineer told him the complex needed a retention and detention pond.

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"So what we did that in lieu of making a 3- or 4-ft. retention pond," Edwards said. "Then we drilled a well about 2,000 ft. deep and put a pump in it. And we irrigated the entire 40 acres out of the retention pond, as the storm water runoff fills the pond back up every time."

By excavating the pond, which is 25 ft. deep in some areas, Edwards Design & Construction workers were able to use the red dirt with clay and rock mixture from the site for the building pads, said Blain Erskine, Edwards' project manager. He used haul trucks and scrapers for that phase of the project.

"First, we just did rough grading," Erskine said.

Erskine's crew also built the underground utilities and about three-quarters of a mile of 6-in. concrete road winding around the project.

It took about three months of grading, rough cutting of roads and infrastructure work before workers could start on the footing, Erskine said.

"For all the infrastructure and dirt work, we used scrapers, haul trucks, bulldozers and excavators," he said.

Erskine used a concrete pump truck to pump the concrete for the footings, which were 2 ft. wide by 12 in. thick and 3,000 psi.

"Our company does a lot of infrastructure work, so we did all the underground water, all the underground sewer and all the storm drainage," Erskine said.

The plumbing installation was handled by Fayetteville Mechanical Contractors Inc. of Fayetteville, Ark.

Fayetteville Mechanical used a Case backhoe to dig the holes for the pipes, said Steve Warden, the company's vice president.

Warden said the size of the project didn't overwhelm the company. It had as many as 10 workers installing pipes. Overall, the project had about 100 workers.

"(Edwards Design & Construction) did a very good job of scheduling everything," Warden said.

Erskine said the size of the project was challenging, adding that his company usually doesn't build apartment complexes.

"Most of our work has been either infrastructure work or warehouse type work," he said.

Erskine said there has been a lot of construction projects in northwest Arkansas and finding subcontractors was difficult.

"Once we got them all everything seemed to go smoothly," he said.

Inside the building, Warden said he used 2- and 4-in. drainage pipes.

"All the units were served by three-quarter inch copper pipes," he said. "We use soft copper under slab sleeve and hard copper above slab."

Fayetteville Mechanical also used PVC pipes, which are standard for Arkansas, Warden said.

The fourplex units are one story while the eight- and 12-plex units are two stories.

The three-bedroom apartments are 1,200 sq. ft. and the two bedrooms units range in square footage from 890 to 930. The one-bedroom units are 600 sq. ft.

After the footings and plumbing slabs were in place, the wood frames started going up, Erskine said.

Douglas Fir and yellow pine was used for the frames, Erskine said. He said workers used standard 2 by 4s, 2 by 6s, 2 by 8s, 2 by 10s and 2 by 12 boards.

"I used joints and engineered trusses for the roof," he said. "We used cranes to set all the trusses on the second floor for the roof."

A concrete pump truck also was used for the floor slabs and second floor porches, which were 3,500 psi.

The apartments have brick and concrete siding, which makes it relatively maintenance free, he said.

Erskine said he didn't have any problems with buying the supplies.

"We've seen a sheet rock shortage," Erskine said. "We had a warning, so we ordered it far enough in advance. Then we stocked the building as soon as (it was delivered) so that we wouldn't get caught by a price increase or a shortage."

But one problem came with the design of the stairs, Erskine said.

"We had an issue with the city [of Springdale]," Erskine said. "They changed the front of our building on the code because of the way we had our stairs set up.

"It had to do with the egress of the distance that you're allowed to travel before you get onto an exit way," he added. "So we had to add a partial flight of stairs. Instead of (the stairs) going down and coming forward, it's like a Y."

Erskine said he was able to work through it.

"It did cost us substantially," he said. The contract for the stair construction had been around $300,000, but after the change, the costs jumped to $600,000, he said.

Erskine oversaw a lot of the project.

"I estimated the job. I let all subcontracts. I managed the job," he said. "I had a job superintendent for most of the job, but he's gone so I'm doing that too."

"[I] make sure everyone is on the same page and going in the same direction," he said.