Some of the best work we’ve done goes unseen. We created Construction Confidential to educate owners, clients and teams about minor miracles that make a big difference.
Takeaways
- All projects require strong leadership
- Complex build-to-suits require special expertise
- There is only so much that can be done without client commitment
- You get what you pay for (or don’t)
We are always experiencing new things in this business. I was asked to get involved in a manufacturing build-to-suit project by a broker and, in a first for me, I was paid out of his commission. He was a real pro, and he knew the project was in trouble.
My presence wasn’t specifically requested by the client, and I wasn’t under contract. Bottom line: I wasn’t operating in any official capacity. In this way, the circumstances weren’t ideal and my upside potential to perform miracles was limited.
But I always love a challenge.
The striking thing about this project when I got involved was how directionless it was:
- The developer didn’t have a good handle on the permitting process and their contractor was not well controlled.
- The tenant didn’t understand their obligations or even have a design program outlined.
- Meetings were happening where everyone was fretting about getting the tenant into the new facility before their current lease expired, but no one could see the path forward.
- There just wasn’t any structure or plan—no design in progress, no schedule, not even an action item list.
Because I do a lot of recovery work, I often join projects that are already in progress. It is always interesting to learn what the real challenges are—as they are often quite different from what has been stated at the outset. In this case, there was nothing to figure out.
The problem was just a total void where the leadership should have been.
So, this project became a really interesting exercise in deploying soft power. Since I wasn’t in a position from which to practice leadership in the usual way, I didn’t have a budget or a contract or really any leverage.
What I did have: years of experience in figuring out how to move people and projects through difficult circumstances—and of course my wits and my charm.
I just started calling people, asking questions and putting the pieces together where I could.
Design. I found out the tenant had spoken to an architect, but no one was communicating with him. He was just waiting in the wings and had been for months. I got him engaged but he needed to know what he was drawing. Which lead to…
Program. The tenant didn’t have any in-house experts or consultants on board to quantify and specify the systems and equipment they needed (for a full production factory floor!). No program was in place at all (and this was a sophisticated national brand, pretty much a household name).
The architect and I started meeting with the shop foremen who were running the current assembly lines, asking about their work and what they needed. The meetings became progressively more intense and focused. We spent probably 20 hours interviewing those guys. We learned a lot about pneumatic lines and manufacturing efficiencies.
In this way we executed a complete tenant improvement design from program to construction drawings in under three months.
Construction. Meanwhile, the developer was focused on the shell and getting out of the ground. They had enough awareness to be critical of the tenant for not having a design. But they did not have enough awareness to factor that work into their turnkey delivery plans and construction schedule.
They simply would not commit to a schedule or even discuss it during meetings. They were borderline combative.
As a way to bring everyone together, I organized a tour of the existing facility for the entire team. Shockingly, no one had thought of that before. They realized quickly that this wasn’t the typical warehouse, basically a big empty box, that they were used to building.
We had some tough conversations and uncomfortable meetings.
Eventually, I convinced them that we should meet with the key subcontractors to brainstorm the best way to incorporate the tenant’s improvements into their ongoing shell work. Unsurprisingly, we came up with some great ideas.
We patched things up and got our arms around what it would take.
They published a scheduled. It was bad news—not what the tenant wanted to hear. But at least they knew where they stood and could plan accordingly.
There is only so much I can do when I come in so late and things are already so behind.
***
If you’ve made it this far in the story, you are probably expecting a triumphant conclusion.
Sorry to disappoint you.
In a curious twist, the client started making serious demands of me. Things like “please have five creative solutions to save one month on the project by 4 PM today.” What? You aren’t paying me, and you have demurred every time I’ve tried to “make it official” and convert you to an actual client.
It will suffice to say that they had been a bit willfully ignorant about my role to date, and they were a bit confused about cause and effect in the situation.
It was time for one of my “signature” conversations with the broker: honest, direct and productive.
I explained that I didn’t consider his commission to be an open checkbook and that it was time for the client to formally engage me. The client came back to him and said I had done a tremendous service for the project—but they would handle it themselves going forward.
I heard months later that they had occupied in phases over several months and that it had worked out “okay”.
And so, dear reader, this project is not an official part of my portfolio. But yet, is a valuable cautionary tale and a perfect advertisement for leadership in the form of a strong, experienced owner’s representative.
