NWAPR Provides Central Spot for Job Specs

Northwest Arkansas Planning Room serves as a central location for subcontractors to evaluate commercial construction projects.

Developers, architects and engineers contact NWAPR about new construction projects. Then specs and blueprints are available for subcontractors interested in bidding on those projects.

Customers pay an annual subscription fee of $1,095 for use of the planning room. This includes access to the NWAPR’s blueprint library, a weekly bulletin via mail, access to password-protected Web site with constant updates to the printed bulletin and access to a future job list which includes agendas from area planning commissions, as well as discounted copies of blueprints.

Diana Ryan opened NWAPR in August of 2003. She said she has been overwhelmed with NWAPR’s success after just six months.

With the construction boom in Northwest Arkansas, Ryan felt her planning room concept would fill a void in an area that desperately needs a one-stop shop for all construction evaluations and estimates. Ryan only deals in the commercial market but hopes to eventually get into large-scale residential developments.

Ryan opened NWAPR after recovering from breast cancer and deciding to fulfill her dream of owning and operating a business in a field that she knows well. Ryan shares her Lowell-based offices with her daughter, office manager Angela Griffis. Ryan handles the marketing aspect of the business.

“I make sure everybody in the industry knows we’re here and that we’ve got blueprints that they need,” Ryan said.

Griffis tracks potential members and encourages them to visit the offices to see what NWAPR has to offer.

Ryan has been in the real estate and construction business since she was a child, observing her parents’ Bentonville-based real estate firm for 18 years. Ryan has her broker’s real estate license and dealt heavily with construction before opening NWAPR. Ryan has previously worked in Nashville performing masonry estimates for six companies across Tennessee. She observed the successes of planning rooms in larger markets such as Memphis and Tulsa.

Once Ryan gets the blueprints, she updates her project list on the NWAPR Web site that also lists future projects. Ryan also posts late addendums on her site. Within the next three months, blueprint viewing will be available online as well. NWAPR members will be able to order copies of the entire blueprint or select pages that accommodate their field. Once ordered, Ryan will have the prints ready for next-day pickup.

Subcontractors can come in to the planning room as they please and evaluate all the projects available for bidding in one of seven drafting cubicles and have photocopies made of prints that cover their specialty.

Once the subcontractors have formed their bid estimates they independently submit them to the builder or managing company.

Being located in Lowell adds convenience to NWAPR. Ryan said no one is too far from her 2,300-SF planning room.

Ryan said people in the industry have been helpful in spreading the word about her new business. She has formed trust relationships with architects and engineers who promise her blueprints and plans for upcoming projects.

Currently, Ryan has eight blueprints on site but that number is constantly changing. With spring around the corner, Ryan said the number of projects and plans has almost doubled.

Ryan would not disclose current membership, but she hopes to have between 200-250 members within the next year.

Ryan and her parents financed the business and declined to disclose startup costs.