R.W. Thorpe & Associates
Specialty: Environmentally sensitive site planning, small municipality comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances, permit application preparation and expediting, land-use feasibility studies, landscape architecture
Management: Robert W. Thorpe, principal; Lee Michaelis, planning director
Founded: 1976
Headquarters: Seattle
Current projects: Gamble Golf Resort in Okanogan County; Port Ludlow residential development
Robert Thorpe of R.W. Thorpe & Associates joked about an agreement he has with the bank: “I don’t do loans, and they don’t do rezones.”
Call it a sign of the times.
Bill collector?
Thorpe |
When asked about the challenges his urban and regional planning firm faces, Thorpe said that “making sure to stay ahead of collections” ranked right up there. When clients are slow to pay up, it can cause headaches.
A billable hour lost to a nonpaying client not only represents an hour of lost income, it represents time that could have been spent on clients who pay their bills.
Thorpe said the firm tries not to let money “create problems with relationships,” though it will place a lien when clients are 90 days late with a payment.
Before it gets to that point, though, Thorpe said the firm asks clients, “What can you do, and how can we work this out?”
Flat revenues
Being proactive with the business appears to be paying off.
“We thought revenues would be down 10 to 15 percent,” Thorpe said, but they may turn out to equal last year’s, even though the market is unlikely to turn around anytime soon. Staff size at the firm has remained steady over the years, hovering at around 10.
“I run our business very lean,” he said, though he’s recently hired a GIS specialist and a landscape architect.
Secret sauce
Landscape architecture, Thorpe said, is the secret sauce that gives the firm one of its most important market niches.
Much of its work involves assessing the highest and best use of a particular piece of land for zoning, site planning or permitting purposes, and landscape architects offer expertise about property conditions that may go unnoticed by others.
Other major services include master planning and litigation support.
“Over half our work comes from attorneys, based on relationships we’ve built over the years,” Thorpe said. Referrals and classes he teaches have also brought in clients.
The firm has branch offices in Winthrop, Denver and Anchorage, Alaska, but one of the unique things about working in Seattle, Thorpe said, is that people in the industry show regard for each other’s work here.
“There’s an awful lot of respect,” he said. “People speak well of other firms.”