Over the two days in Dallas, we heard a lot of really interesting stories and perspectives from construction managers, designers, and owners. Here are a few of our takeaways:
Jeffrey Johnson (left) and Paul Kirchhoff at the Advancing Preconstruction Conference.
- The market is pushing back on accepting extended payment terms. Construction Managers are counseling their owner clients to pay well, in order to help get scarce trades on-board, and to help keep material/product deliveries on-track
- Nobody is committing to holding proposed prices for 90 days… even a week or two is often tough to get.
- Schedule demands are clashing with material availability, creating a perfect storm. It’s driving an openness to creativity on how to get a project built (for instance, substitutions on materials and products – even when they drive wholesale re-designs).
- All these dynamics are making owners more open to engaging teams early, with creative preconstruction agreements such as Design-Assist. It’s seen as a way to secure some degree of certainty on project cost and schedule in this volatile environment.
