Building apartments or condos in Central Indiana? 11 terms that keep you credible

(2 minute read)

If you’re building apartments, condos or modular near Indianapolis, you need to know the terms that come up in every meeting. If not, the wrong acronym hurts your credibility before the meeting ends. But if you do, you sound like you belong at the table.

1. IRC or IBC. Residential Code for a duplex or triplex, Building Code for large multifamily. Know which one your builder is pricing. In Indy, I currently see IRC at about $90/sqft and IBC at about $115/sqft.

2. Commissioning. With modular, the boxes get joined on site. Electric and plumbing are box-to-box connections, not only placing an order. Your module builder or your own subs can do it.

3. Floor section. In modular, floor, box, and module mean the same thing.

4. KCMA cabinets. The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association standard: solid wood front, plywood box, dovetail drawers, soft close.

5. Vert-I-Pak. A brand of packaged, all-in-one heating and cooling unit. It sits in a closet or an exterior wall. Tenants see a grille, not a noisy wall unit.

6. Podium construction. A concrete or masonry base, often parking or retail, with 4 or 5 stories of wood frame on top. Taller than pure wood frame, without full high-rise code. Think Proscenium in Carmel.

7. Breezeway walk-up. No elevator. Units open to exterior walkways and stairs. Cheaper, and I’m hearing elevators from Asia are delayed. But I don’t see many luxury rentals without one.

8. The meter-base bottleneck. The meter base is the utility’s connection point for the electric meter. It is the current national bottleneck for Certificate of Occupancy, and the builder doesn’t control it.

Plan for it now, or get crushed by it later.

9. Fire sheathing. Fire-rated wall or roof sheathing at unit separations. It limits what a modular builder can prefab.

10. Sealed plans. Drawings stamped by a licensed architect or engineer and submitted to the State of Indiana. (If you read this far, you already know this one.)

11. LIHTC. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Investors fund rental housing and get a dollar-for-dollar cut in their federal tax bill. The 9% credit is a once-a-year IHCDA contest. The 4% credit pairs with bonds on rolling rounds. Recent example: Trinity Flats, 169 units.

You don’t need a house picked out or a plan. If you’re wondering what may or may not be possible for you, email me at nlamkin@c21scheetz.com and let’s talk it through.

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