Designer at heart, builder by trade
OTHER WINNERS
In spite of the vow Lance Barkman made as a youth, he is doing what his father did — building houses. And he is doing it well enough that his company, Landmark HomesBC, just won two silver Tommies for excellence in single-family construction $1-$1.5 million, and excellence in architectural/design and construction.
“I’m pretty honoured we made top five in a few categories in our first year in the Tommies.”
Barkman and his father, David, built a spec house and when it sold two days after going on the market, he was advised to enter it in the Tommies.
“I was told a small builder like myself who wants to focus on the higher end should have the credentials of the Tommies, to say we have the quality and the design and this is proof that we can do it.”
His father owned a lumber company in Landmark, Man., the geographical centre of Canada, and also built houses, condos and Ready To Move (RTM) houses across the Prairies, and in Fargo, North Dakota.
In 2007, they came West hoping for a bright future in building and development in the Okanagan.
“We definitely saw this as the land of milk and honey, a place where people would eventually end up when they want to retire. But 2008 was probably the worst year to build in Kelowna,” Barkman said. “We made it through that, learned a lot and developed a small company focusing on higher-end homes.
“I’m more of a designer than a hard-nosed businessman who likes to do high volume. I’m trying to do a few homes and do them very well.”
When Barkman was 18, his father paid him to learn a computer design program so he could eventually design homes for the Fargo market.
At that time, Barkman said most houses selling on the Prairies were cookie-cutter, cost-effective houses and anything over $200,000 was high end.
“Then, we got to the age where people were watching home-building and home-designer shows and I said ‘Hey, dad, how about we build a couple of homes for ourselves and we put little extra design in?’ That’s where I found my niche, in the creativity of putting that little extra design and thought into it.”
The Okanagan also appealed to the Barkmans because they saw it as a market receptive to more creativity than the Prairies and Fargo.
“But some of the homes we saw when we came here were way beyond my skill-design level. It really opened my mind; it was almost overwhelming, seeing the level of houses that were built here.”
To help adjust to the new Okanagan reality, Barkman and his father, who is back working on the Prairies, did a West Kelowna subdivision called Aurora Heights
“For the most part, we sold all our lots to an Alberta company right before the real recession hit and built some homes for them as well. We ended up not really losing our shirts.”
In addition to the high-end houses he will continue to design, Barkman is considering an Okanagan twist on the Prairie Ready To Move houses.
The Barkmans built complete houses in their yard and a moving company (owned by the father of Florida Panthers goalie James Reimer) trucked them over farm roads to a lot where the foundation and services had already been put in.
“We’d always have a have a few RTMs on our yard — some would be pre-ordered, but people would come and buy them on site.”
With the new RU-7 zoning, he’s considering building pre-fab carriage houses in sections and using a crane to hoist them onto the property.
“With prefab, you’d have lot less construction on your property.”
But in the meantime, he’s focusing on designing high-end houses and looking forward to the new year when winners of the Gold Tommies will be announced at the annual gala.
“I don’t have high expectations of winning just because of a few homes in the categories, and a few things I didn’t know. But it’s a good learning experience and I’m happy to be a part of the group.”
I’m pretty honoured we made top five in a few categories in our first year in the Tommies.