An inspection company working for home buyers hopes to give customers the assurance that their new houses are up to spec.

David Lazarowych, Business Edge
Frank de Ruiter (left) and Tim Bokenfohr check new-home quality from the ground up.

From the Ground Up Inc. will monitor a house from checking the plans to reporting after completion, say Tim Bokenfohr and Frank de Ruiter.

De Ruiter, the president of the two-year-old company, says he inspected one place that had been a showhome, and part of the attic had no insulation.

Builders obviously don’t intend that sort of thing, adds Bokenfohr. But construction supervisors have a difficult job and can’t be on every site at all times.

From the Ground Up offers options ranging from full service to an inspection a year after the house is built. The full service is checking plans, twice-weekly inspection during construction, comparison of work to specifications and a certificate that goes with the house to enhance its value.

Customers who call later in the process can have four to 15 inspections at their option. When houses are inspected, the same report goes to both customer and builder within 36 hours.

The company works for the home buyer, not the builder, but sometimes will do service for builders. They sometimes run into a customer who wants quality far beyond the price range — $4 million quality in a $150,000 starter home. In that case, From the Ground Up has to say that it’s industry standard and quite acceptable in a starter house.

But a spokesman for a large house-building company says such inspection services aren’t necessary.

Jim Sirup, chief operating officer for Jayman Master Builder in Calgary, says that purchasers should depend on their builder to do a good job. Patients trust their doctors to do the diagnosis, he says. In the same way, house building can be left to the good hands of the builder.

An inspection service might provide peace of mind to newcomers who don’t know the reputations of builders in the market.

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The downtown office vacancy rate stayed almost flat over the first half of the year, says a report from Colliers International.

Overall vacancies in the core edged to 7.5 per cent from 7.4 per cent, with absorption of 786,000 sq. ft.

Vacancies were up to 11 per cent from 10.8 in Class C space and down to 5.2 per cent from 7.7 per cent in Class B. Neither of those classes had any new supply, but the TransCanada Tower added 901,000 sq. ft. to Class A, helping the vacancy rate go to 7.8 per cent from 6.4 per cent at the end of 2000.

For the rest of the year, Colliers predicts continued healthy energy activity and economic diversification to push absorption to 900,000 sq. ft. and the vacancy rate to seven per cent.

Vacancies in the Beltline are at 6.8 per cent in the Colliers report, up from 4.9 per cent at the end of 2000.

It’s a normal slackening, says Rob McElhoes, senior research analyst for the firm’s Calgary office. The old vacancy rate was the lowest in the Beltline in 15 years.

Suburban vacancies dropped to eight per cent from 8.8 per cent as absorption exceeded construction for the first time since 1997. Most of the absorption was in the northeast. The challenge for the suburban office market is existing space that has been left behind for new construction, says Colliers.

The vacancy rate in the northeast sector is nine per cent, down from 10.4 per cent; 4.7 per cent in the northwest, down from 6.9 per cent; and 7.9 per cent in the south, up from 7.7 per cent.

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A new kind of project could start taking shape close to downtown as early as next spring.

City council last week approved plans for the Campeau lands put forward as a joint venture by WAM Development Group and Opus Building Corp. The Stampede Station project will have retail space, a hotel and offices on a site just across Macleod Trail S.E. from Stampede Park.

Hannes Kovac, marketing manager for Opus, says parts of the concept have yet to be finalized.

The podium will have about 180,000 sq. ft. of retail space and more than 2,100 parking stalls. The developers hadn’t chosen a broker for the office towers and were talking to hotel operators. Steve Martin of CB Richard Ellis Alberta Ltd. is the listing broker for the retail component.

The podium will have four towers atop it, a 250-room hotel, a 400,000-sq.ft. office tower and two 200,000-sq.-ft. office towers.

Martin, associate vice-president for retail at CB Richard Ellis, says there is a lot of pent-up demand for space in Calgary. Store sizes will depend on tenants’ wishes.

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Corporate employees can get a guide through the maze of moving with the launching of Relocare Inc.

AxisPort Inc. (CDNX — XP) has signed a deal with BCE Emergis (TSE — IFM) under which BCE Emergis will provide the Web technology to host Relocare Inc. Corporations can provide the service as a benefit to their employees, says Robert Thorssen, CEO of AxisPort.

An employee who wants to move can get referenced referrals for three top real estate agents, home inspectors and so on working in the area they want to move.

“We don’t care who it is as long as they give great service,” says Thorssen. Relocare will follow up with the customer and do a report card on the service provided. Relocare doesn’t cost the employee or employer money.

“We make it through real estate referral fees,” he says.

Relocare doesn’t take fees from movers or other service providers.

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Murdoch Macleod can be reached at: murdoch@businessedge.ca