The Right Time to Bring In An Owner’s Representative

October 24, 2019

Over the years, the role of an Owner’s Representative has grown in prominence in the commercial real estate industry.

An Owner’s Representative comes on board to manage all the details and intricacies of a project on the owner’s behalf. They are tasked with properly assessing the scope of the project, assembling all the required parties, monitoring the budget and timeline, and ensuring ongoing communication throughout the project’s life cycle.

Overall, two key services an Owner’s Representative aims to provide is:

  1. Looking out for the owner’s best interests and well-being
  2. Reducing costs and ensuring adherence to the schedule

But, while owners now recognize the value of the Owner’s Representative, they often delay in making the hire because they try to take on the responsibilities of the role themselves for as long as possible, pulling their focus away from their business, or because they don’t plan for the hire until it’s too late. One essential tip: bring an Owner’s Representative in on the project as early as possible.

The most critical phase of any project is before construction begins – the planning. When the Owner’s Representative is already on board, they can hire all the appropriate team members and consistently manage them during the pre-construction period, providing them with the information they need to execute their roles. Further, they can provide recommendations for the right vendors and are vastly knowledgeable of new materials and current technologies and will use their past experiences to benefit the owner. More importantly, assembling all of the required vendors during the planning and design stage eliminates coordination issues down the road, which ultimately always lead to cost overruns.

Additionally, they can identify any red flags an owner may not be aware of, potentially minimizing substantial risks, preventing problems, and eliminating surprises. Their experience and guidance will result in the project being more likely to be completed on time and within budget.

While an Owner’s Representative can join the team after a project has started, by bringing them on early, you will benefit from their expertise and ability to mitigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities. Having an Owner’s Representative join your team at the beginning will help keep your project on track, alleviate your workload, and reduce the likelihood of unforeseen construction costs. If you’re interested in learning more about our services and the how an Owner’s Representative can serve you, contact us to learn more.

Testimonials

Corporate Renovation for DPS Group - Conshohocken, PA

Due to the extreme pace our business has been growing, we were in need of new office space sooner than later. However, we didn’t have the bandwidth to manage the process internally. The FGX Group was able to get started immediately with assembling an overall project budget and schedule in order to set proper expectations, particularly important in today’s real estate climate. He was instrumental in design oversight, and assembling the balance of the project team including the general contractor, IT related vendors, the furniture dealer, and all other pertinent firms. We are thrilled to be in our new space and couldn’t be more grateful for having Frank to assist us with the process so we could concentrate on continuing to grow our business.

Ryan McDonough, Senior Vice President – Project Operations, DPS Group

Self Storage Renovation Projects for Home Star Storage - Various Locations

As someone who works in self storage conversions, I work with The FGX Group on all my major projects. Unlike ground-up construction, conversion projects often have unexpected circumstances and last-minute surprises that don't necessarily jump out from the beginning of the project, even with careful planning. Working with The FGX Group, I know our team is ready for the unexpected in each project – whatever that may be. We appreciate working closely with them to bring more well-built storage projects to fruition on-time and on-budget up and down the eastern United States.

Joseph Murphy, Chief Operating Officer, Home Star Storage

Renovations to Children's Dental Management - Philadelphia, PA

Frank Gallagher and The FGX Group were instrumental in assisting me to assemble the project team and formulate a plan to complete our new Orthodontics and Surgery Center suites in Philadelphia. With Frank’s help in managing the contractors, various vendors, and coordination activities with the landlord, it allowed me to concentrate on other responsibilities at CDM. Frank has a knack to bring everyone together to focus on one goal. I would work with him again.

Jim DeFruscio – Children’s Dental Management

Renovation of Medical Office for Pure Dental Brands - Upper Darby, PA

From my perspective, here is what The FGX Group did that helped us achieve a successful build out of our new office location: Their contract spelled out all of the responsibilities that they would own, and they carefully broke down all of the job functions and steps with milestones; they also made it clear what were their vs. our tasks; they outlined the project timeline and costs and lived by them; they were 100% successful as a project manager because they kept us on track and had excellent communication and follow-up skills; they owned a number of key tasks around permitting and working with the local town/city that we could not have known about or handled – and they were done successfully; and they escalated issues when appropriate and prepared us in advance of issues, so that when they came up, we could quickly resolve.

The results were excellent – the office is beautiful, and it has helped us grow our business!

Frank Coliano, Chief Executive Officer, Pure Dental Brands

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Contact

Address

26 Treaty Dr, Wayne, PA 19087

Email

frankgallagher@thefgxgroup.com

Phone

 610.331.6354

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