Adam Torres and Peter Alexander discuss Mega Mix Expo.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Mega Mix Expo coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Peter Alexander, President of Urban Shore Builders, explore the upcoming Megamix expo.
About Urban Shore Builders
Urban Shore Builders, founded and led by Peter Alexander, is a premier construction and remodeling company based in Pt. Richmond, California. With a strong commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction, the company has been transforming homes across Richmond and surrounding communities for years.
Built on a foundation of trust and expertise, Urban Shore Builders holds a California State License (#558061), ensuring the highest standards of safety and professionalism. From small renovations to large-scale construction projects, the team delivers exceptional craftsmanship and attention to detail, turning client visions into reality.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right, so today I have Peter Alexander on the line, and he is with the Altadena Chamber of Commerce and also president of Urban Shore Builders.
Peter, welcome to the show. Welcome. All right, man. So we got a lot to talk about. I understand that you’re going to be participating in the upcoming Megamix Expo. For my listeners that have been tuning in for a long time. You know, we’ve been, promoting this. It’s coming up on March 12th and 13th.
You can learn more information over at Megamix Expo. Get some tickets. I’m going to be out there doing some live podcast episodes and doing a bunch of promo and just really getting out into the community and having some fun. And Peter, so I’m curious on your end Altadena Chamber of Commerce, you’re going to be out there too, right?
With a, with a booth and, let people know what you do? Exactly. I’ll be there promoting. My experience and my ability to help the community in any way I possibly can as a builder and an experienced business person. Amazing. How did you originally get introduced , to the expo or like , even learn about this is my first year, by the way.
And so far I’ve been doing these interviews to kind of get to know some of the, people that are involved and I help out with the promo for Tony and all the expo people. And so far it’s been amazing. I’m just curious, how’d you find out about it? I had been contacted by someone from the Alta Diener Chamber of Commerce to promote the rebuilding process of the fires and I talked to them about it and, and I agreed this would be a good vehicle for me to offer my assistance in the community.
How did you, All right, and it sounds to me like you’re a big community builder, like, especially working with the Chamber of Commerce doing that side of things. How’d you get involved? And maybe tell us a little bit more about the Altadena Chamber of Commerce as well for those that aren’t quite aware of it.
I had made decision in my business to, after I read about the fires that they were going to need assistance in the area of Altadena and the community, and I made a decision that I was going to commit to with my team of workers. To go there and start with the, rebuilding process because it was going to be so momentous to do that and I had reached out to the chamber to offer my assistance there.
In the community. Wow. , that’s cool. That’s quite amazing. And maybe give us a little bit of a background on how you got into like being a builder in general. how long you been in that business and how did you get started? been a builder for over 35 years. I had worked previously in the Los Angeles and.
Area. Some 20 odd years ago as a builder from working in Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills and parts of the San Fernando Valley. And I had spread taking my business north. Into the San Francisco Bay Area and been doing work up in the Bay Area for quite some time and working with engineers.
I have a close associate who I’m almost daily at his office working on Architectural plans, engineering, and towards the building projects we had are winding up on in the Bay Area before we start building in the San Fernando Valley area and all to Dina and the other areas that are affected by the fires.
I had worked extensively in the different businesses of construction for a long time. And it’s a real learning experience having to done having to do that over 30 years and more so building houses with and working with an engineer on the reasons why foundations fail, why a house isn’t built correctly.
Learning the engineering aspects of a house, Learning the architectural way to build a house to make them very strong. California has some of the strictest building codes in the country as a result of the earthquakes that they’ve experienced. So we’re working on a few small projects right now seismic retrofitting.
Because on houses to alleviate the risk of earthquake damage. So we’re strengthening and reinforcing houses to, you know, so they don’t fail when, if an earthquake comes. So there’s a lot to be gained from the years of working with good professional people that are our engineers and how to build. A foundation.
You know, the correct way using steel rebar and and, knowing the importance of drainage around the building and a house, so you have to have sufficient drainage away from your foundation when you put a foundation in to alleviate the risk of water damage to the through excessive water into the soils around the foundation.
So stormwater runoff. Is a real important element of building a house as well as the materials you use on building the house, you fire rated materials. Fire resistant materials vents for building a house. You can use, there’s a new vent technology to prevent the hot air, if there is a fire around, to getting inside the house.
they’ll block the hot air from and thus alleviate the hazard of a house burning from the inside because of the hot air getting into the ventilation system. Of a house, talk a little bit about what like you’re seeing with the I mean, you’re mentioned building , and the fires and everything that’s happened.
And obviously, I think you got to be pretty busy right now. Can you talk a little bit about the rebuilding that’s going on in general and what’s going to be next or just your opinion on it? Well, right now there’s a lot of cleanup being done, some projects are being, done, but there’s a there’s going to be a real time spin up to getting houses going because of the process of architecturals and engineering drawings being done.
That takes time. To do the drawings to go through the permitting process and to make sure that the city is okay with everything that’s presented to them. They have to go through the plans. They have to go through the engineering by their inspectors and by their engineers who go over the engineering to make sure on a house that is designed properly.
That all the engineering is done properly and all the necessary paperwork is done to protect homeowners. Mm-hmm . yeah, it’s gonna be a lot ahead on that one. I’ve just been hearing some of the things. Obviously I’m not a builder, but I’ve just been hearing about some of the things that, are proposed and what that might look like and especially depending on the area, like is it even gonna be able to be rebuilt, maybe some houses.
Can’t or some aren’t going to be able to meet the new standard or just depends like, have you seen any of that? Well, the building department and the new building code gets revised every year to update building standards and somehow some, you know, some people are not going to rebuild. Because of the cost, it’s cost prohibitive.
They’re not going to have the money to do that, which is really sad. I have been speaking to people recently about, Okay, this is the amount of money I’m getting from the insurance company. This is the amount of money I have to spend. Can we get a house built? And what can you do with a budget on X number of dollars?
And so I will look at their budget. And I will look at the size of the, what kind of size of a house, how big a house I can get them built and at a reasonable price. Some people, you know, for me, you know, it’s like, okay, I have a choice to make, you know, I have a team of people that I work with, great workers hard workers.
And keeping them in jobs, keeping them busy, gotta keep them moving, right, man, gotta keep them moving. If everybody’s standing still with no jobs, it does not work. Yeah, so I have a great team of people and they are really good. And when I can go into a community and offer assistance on rebuilding and doing it right, and with the experience I have.
That is really important. And then also to have a good attitude, you know, about, Hey, nobody’s perfect here. We’re all dealing with this disaster. You know, I have to go through my day just like anybody else. And I like to make it . As comfortable as I can. So I need to pay attention, treat people accordingly with the respect they deserve and do a professional job.
And so people are suffering out there. I get it. And I’m here to help them wherever I can offer assistance with questions around the rebuilding process. Because I worked up in Santa Rosa when those fires. Took out a lot of homes as you Oh, really? Might were very well known. And I rebuilt some homes up there and which was, working with the building department and the permitting process in Santa Rosa.
You know, they did a really good job on expediting the plans, getting those plans through a plan check, and then helping with the permitting process where they, A permitting fees on the houses I built were like 5, 000. Now, if you had to build that house in another area that was in a fire. Had burn that those fees could go up to 40, 000, 50, 000 with a good size house.
So the building departments and in these areas are trying to assist by reducing the cost of these permitting fees, which can get very expensive. Peter, this has been, a lot of fun having you on today, man. I look forward to meeting you in person over at Megamix Expo. And thank you for providing some of that information in context to what’s going around around the fires.
I know it’s still preliminary and lots of things going on, but with your thirty five years plus of. Experience in the building industry and building throughout California. I, you’re the go to guy, man. If somebody, wants to learn more or connect with you and your team and have a conversation with either about the Altadena chamber of commerce or about your company and the building side of things with urban shore builders, how do they connect?
Well, I can be reached on my phone or through my website or email very easily. And if you want me to give that to you, I can do that today. Yep, go for it. Yep. Go, go, go for it. My cell cell phone contact number is four two four six two four twenty five ninety five. I have a phone for my Bay area.
Contact is 415 717 9501 and the contact through my email is urbanshorebuilders, plural. At Comcast dot net and there’s a website that you can see our work at urban bill, urban shore builders dot com. Perfect and for everybody listening, just so, you know, we’ll definitely put the, website , in the show notes, you can just click on it and head right on over.
And speaking of the audience, if 1st time with mission matters, and you haven’t done it yet. Hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day bringing you new content new ideas and hopefully New inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again hit that subscribe or follow button And thanks again so much for coming on the show peter.
Appreciate it. Hey, thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure talking to you