Design-Build Firms Add Value to the Location Decision Process
Date Posted: October 15, 2019
Posted In: Ideas,
From AreaDevelopment: Design-build firms manage both the design and building components for construction projects of all kinds. And yet companies routinely turn to design-build firms only after one of the most critical phases of a major construction project is already complete — site selection.
As a result, design-build firms sometimes arrive onto a project only to discover the existence of preventable challenges that they could have helped resolve earlier and at much less of a cost to their clients, says Mark Da Gama Rose, virtual design and construction director for Clayco, a full-service, turnkey real estate, architecture, engineering, design-build, and construction firm with clients across North America.
“The key thing is that you can’t get time back – once it’s gone, it’s gone,” Da Gama Rose notes. “There’s a lot of important work we can do at the beginning of a project that can save valuable time and money later on.”
Da Gama Rose says design-builders are more equipped than ever to help shepherd site selectors and location consultants through the site selection process and ensure every key detail is considered when deciding upon a location for a new facility. Aided by an abundance of advanced technological tools, design-build firms can serve as essential partners to new construction projects from the outset, providing critical input to the site selection decision and putting the elements in place to properly prepare sites for an efficient construction process.
Alex DeMartini, a project executive for Clayco, says a design-build firm can serve as a central source of truth during site selection and ease pressure on companies, giving them confidence that they are making a fully informed and optimum site choice.
“It’s just a better way of site selection,” DeMartini explains. “It leads to better facilities and a better value for companies.”
A Strong Partner From the Start
DeMartini says those looking to open new sites sometimes treat the process of siting and constructing a building as though they are purchasing a car. However, he says, the process requires a more customized approach from the beginning.
“We like to tell people that the earlier we can do the constructability analysis the better,” DeMartini says. “Sometimes we get a customer who comes to us and says they’ve already picked their site, and then we have to be the bearer of bad news that their site has construction issues or permitting issues or utility issues that weren’t exposed before. Whereas if we’d been involved earlier, and we had two or three sites to compare for them, then we could have raised those issues and helped them take a different view of their potential sites and get ahead of any issues.”
The involvement of a design-build firm early in the process can reduce risks for those with building projects and give them increased cost certainty and a clear schedule, DeMartini says.