The Secret To A Successful Design-Build Project? It’s The People

While the design-build delivery model is becoming increasingly popular, many owners and developers still don't understand the No. 1 factor that can make or break the success of these projects.

Nick Hasapes, division CEO of ARCO Design/Build, said most people know that design-build provides the client with a single point of contact and responsibility for a project and can result in cost and time savings.

However, details of how it works in practice “mean something different to everyone,” he said.

A common misconception is that design-build means hiring a company to engage with architects and engineers to do construction drawings, price those drawings with subcontractors to establish the budget and then build the project. While that isn't necessarily incorrect, Hasapes said this limited view tends to overlook an important component of the process: the human element.

“For us, design-build is more about the design-builder, the person, than the process alone,” he said. “We teach our associates to be multidisciplined engineers and master builders so that they can be trusted advisers to our customers.”

ARCO has taken this multidisciplined approach for 30-plus years on more than 5,000 design-build projects across the country for its industrial clients. Hasapes credited the company’s long-term success to its design-build associates, who can quickly answer clients’ questions and address concerns without needing to consult with other project stakeholders, saving time and avoiding cost overruns.

“When one of our customers or their tenants asks one of our people a question, nine times out of 10, they can get an answer on the spot as to what it may do to the value of their asset, how it may affect the way the end user can utilize the facility, the cost implications and the impact to the schedule,” he said.  

Hasapes pointed to the recently completed Bronx Logistics Center as an example. Working in partnership with Turnbridge Equities, Dune Real Estate Partners and Sterling Project Development, ARCO oversaw the design-build of the multistory, 585K SF last-mile distribution center and its attached 400K SF truck fleet parking garage. 

One of the largest recent building projects in New York City, the massive logistics center in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx features 48 traditional loading docks and 64 drive-in doors. Warehouse floors have a 32-foot clear height, and 10 elevators support the vertical movement of goods. 

Hasapes said ARCO was involved in the project from nearly the beginning, expeditiously providing the developer with a concept plan, renderings and several options on aesthetics and performance specifications. ARCO acted quickly again when the developer began to evaluate acquiring several adjacent parcels and needed to know what impact these might have on the development.

“We quickly adjusted our concept plans and provided cost certainty with each plan, giving the client the confidence to transact with the adjacent landowners,” Hasapes said. “This also gave their capital partners confidence in the project’s success. I’d like to think that ARCO and our design-build process played a part in enabling that development to happen.”

Another common misconception of design-build is that by assigning so much responsibility to one party, the client risks losing control of the project, he said. For instance, clients might assume that they lose visibility or input on the project.

“That is not the case because design-build customers have the same visibility into the project and can make changes the same as they would in any other delivery method,” Hasapes said. “But with a design-builder, you know for certain what the impact of those changes are when you make them in real time.”

As was the case with the Bronx Logistics Center, working with a design-builder can provide a client with some much-needed certainty in today’s volatile development and construction world, where supply chain disruptions and financing challenges abound, Hasapes said. 

Design-builders can guarantee a project’s scope, cost and schedule at the onset of a project, before money is invested in design documents, he said. This helps minimize potential delays caused by supply chain disruptions and long lead times.

“Design-build is all about reducing risks on real estate developments and transactions,” Hasapes said. “Particularly when the client’s chief point of contact is with a trained, multidisciplined associate, it provides certainty, removes contingencies and gives all the parties in a transaction confidence to move forward at each stage in the process.”

This article was produced in collaboration between ARCO Design/Build and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to [email protected].