Owner's Representative
Most owners build infrequently. The design firms, contractors, and agencies they deal with do this every day. An owner's representative closes that experience gap.
We act as your construction organization: managing consultants, enforcing contracts, controlling budget, and making sure that when a decision gets made in a room, someone in that room works for you.
Your construction department, without the headcount
An owner's representative is broader than a construction manager. The construction manager's focus starts when construction does. An owner's representative is engaged from concept through occupancy and is accountable for the whole outcome: the budget, the schedule, the design team, the contractor, the agencies, the lender, and the handover.
We take this role for developers building outside their usual product type, institutions and corporations without permanent construction staff, family offices and investors funding a project they do not want to manage, and public entities whose internal capacity is already committed.
What we take off your desk
- Selecting and contracting the design team, then managing their scope, fee, and deliverables
- Establishing the project budget and holding every subsequent decision against it
- Running the entitlement and permit process with the agencies that have jurisdiction
- Structuring procurement, running the bid, and recommending award
- Managing the contractor through construction, including changes and schedule
- Coordinating lender requirements, draw packages, and inspection reporting
- Managing furniture, fixtures, equipment, and move in where applicable
- Driving closeout, warranty, commissioning, and occupancy
Why independence matters here
An architect managing construction has an interest in how their drawings are characterized. A contractor managing the budget has an interest in how changes are priced. Neither is dishonest, but neither is neutral. We hold no design fee and no construction contract on your project, so when we tell you a change is the designer's error or the contractor's means and methods, that opinion has nothing attached to it.
Decision support, not decision avoidance
Our job is not to make your decisions. It is to bring you the decisions that actually require an owner, with the cost, schedule, and risk consequence of each option laid out clearly, in time for the decision to still be free. Everything else we handle.
The owner should be spending their attention on the three decisions that matter, not the three hundred that do not.
Owner's rep scope
- Project charter, budget, and schedule establishment
- Design team selection and contract negotiation
- Design review and value management
- Entitlement and permit process management
- Independent cost estimating at each design stage
- Procurement strategy and bid management
- Contract negotiation and award recommendation
- Construction oversight and change control
- Lender draw package coordination
- Consultant and vendor coordination
- Commissioning and turnover management
- Occupancy, warranty, and closeout
What you receive
Every engagement is scoped in writing before it begins, so you know exactly what is being produced and when.
Project execution plan
The governing document for the project: budget, schedule, delivery method, roles, decision authority, reporting cadence, and risk register.
Independent budget
An owner side budget maintained separately from the design team and contractor numbers, updated at each milestone with variance explained.
Consultant management
Scope, fee, and deliverable tracking for every consultant on the project, with invoice review against actual progress.
Decision log
A running record of every owner decision, the options presented, the cost and schedule consequence, and the date it was made.
Monthly owner report
A single report covering all fronts: design progress, entitlement status, budget position, schedule, risks, and pending decisions.
Turnover package
Complete project record including as builts, warranties, O and M manuals, permits, certificates, and final accounting.
Questions owners ask about this service
How is an owner's representative different from a construction manager?
Scope and timing. A construction manager is generally engaged for the construction phase and focuses on cost, schedule, and quality of the physical work. An owner's representative is engaged earlier, often at concept, and is accountable for the entire project including design team management, entitlement, financing coordination, procurement, and occupancy.
Can you serve as owner's rep on a project where we already have a general contractor?
Yes. We are frequently brought in after a contractor is on board, when the owner realizes they have no one representing their interests in the weekly meeting. We can assume the role at any stage.
Will you interfere with our architect?
No. We manage the architect's scope, fee, and schedule, and we review their documents for cost and buildability. We do not direct design. In our experience good design teams welcome having a single decisive owner side counterpart rather than a committee.
Do you represent owners on public agency projects?
Yes. We provide owner's representative and construction management services to cities, districts, and public authorities, working within public contracting code and agency procurement rules.
What size project justifies an owner's representative?
Any project where the owner does not have the internal time or the specific expertise to manage it, and where the consequence of getting it wrong is material. That threshold is different for every organization. We will tell you honestly if we think you can manage it yourself.
Talk to us about Owner's Representative
Send us the project details and we will tell you what a defensible scope of work looks like and what it would cost. Initial consultations carry no fee.
Send us the project
Tell us the site, the scope, and the deadline. Initial consultations carry no fee and no obligation.