Capital Projects & Facilities
For founders putting seven figures into a building. We sit on the owner's side of the table from site selection to opening day, so every discipline, every trade and every dollar answers to one plan.
- Engagement
- Owner's Representative
- Span
- Site selection to opening day
- Format
- On-site and remote, anywhere in the United States
- Led by
- Our principal, with engineers, controls programmers and counsel from our network
02.1Commitments
What we commit to
We commit to process and deliverables, in writing. The building, the budget and the schedule stay visible to you every week, from the first site visit to the last punch list.
Before you sign a lease, you will have a site evaluation, an estimate and a schedule built around your use, not the landlord's.
Every discipline, from architecture and structural to MEP, fire and life safety, acoustics and automation, will work from one coordinated set of documents.
Every bid will be leveled line by line before a contractor is chosen, and every change order will reach you with its cost, its schedule impact and our recommendation.
You will see the budget, the schedule and the open issues every week, in writing.
At handover you will receive commissioning records, SOPs and a preventive-maintenance program, so the building runs on opening day and after it.
02.2Situations
You are here if
The most expensive mistakes in a buildout are made early and discovered late. Owners call us at both ends.
- You have found a site and are about to sign a lease nobody has stress-tested.
- Your architect, engineers and contractor each have a plan, and nobody owns the gaps between them.
- Change orders are arriving, and you have no independent way to judge them.
- The city has rejected a submittal, or an inspector wants rules that do not fit your use.
- The budget has moved twice, and the opening date has moved with it.
- The doors are open, the systems keep failing, and nobody wrote down how they work.
02.3Scope
Scope of services
One accountable seat on your side of the table, coordinating the licensed professionals and commercial crews who perform the credentialed work.
Owner's representation
Budget, contractors, design, schedule, quality and payments, held by one point of accountability on your side.
Site selection and lease negotiation
Sites evaluated against your use, utilities and code; lease terms negotiated alongside counsel.
Estimating
Takeoffs; labor, material and equipment estimates; contingencies and a budget built to be defended.
Design coordination
Architecture, structural, MEP, fire and life safety, acoustics, automation and water sanitation, brought into one compatible set.
Permits and variances
City submittals, plan-check responses and variances where the code was not written for your use.
Bid leveling
Bids solicited, compared line by line and negotiated before scopes are signed.
Change orders
Every change priced, scheduled and recommended before you approve it.
Commissioning
Systems tested against design intent, punch lists closed, before the doors open.
Facility systems
Electrical, HVAC, plumbing and controls logic, specified, integrated and validated.
Maintenance programs and SOPs
Preventive maintenance, critical spares and written procedures for every system.
Safety programs
Hazard assessments, training, toolbox meetings and stop-work authority on every site.
02.4Phases
How the engagement runs
Owner's representation runs from the first site visit to opening day. Each phase closes with a written handoff before the next begins.
05 phasesSite selection to opening day
- Phase 1
Site and lease
Use, utilities, code and cost evaluated before you commit; lease terms negotiated with counsel.
- Phase 2
Design coordination
Every discipline brought into one set of documents the city will accept.
- Phase 3
Permits and bids
Submittals, plan check and variances; bids leveled and contracts scoped.
- Phase 4
Construction
Trades scheduled, meetings run, submittals reviewed, work inspected and payments approved against progress.
- Phase 5
Commissioning and opening
Systems tested, punch lists closed, SOPs and maintenance programs in place for opening day.
02.5Proof
The record
Our principal has delivered a facility as owner's representative with his own capital at stake, and founded and ran an electrical contracting and light construction company from 2003 to 2015.
- ~$1.8Mfacility buildout over ~18 months, with our principal as owner's representative and project leadA company co-founded and led by our principal
- ~$2Macross that buildout and a ~3,750 sq ft hydroponic facility conversionOur principal and his companies
- ~400Amain service and ~20 tons of HVAC in the ~3,750 sq ft hydroponic conversionOur principal
- ~15years of project and jobsite safety leadership, 2000 to 2015, without a lost-time injury or workers' compensation claimOur principal
From the record
- No failed inspections reported from 2003 to 2015, at an electrical contracting company founded and led by our principal.
- For a company co-founded and led by our principal: ~40 properties evaluated online and four in person before one site was chosen, and a lease, negotiated with counsel, carrying ~six months of free rent.
- On the same project: architecture, structural, MEP, fire, life safety, acoustics, automation and water sanitation coordinated through one owner's representative, and a health-department variance obtained after inspectors sought spa-style rules.
02.6Questions
Questions, answered
When should an owner's representative be hired?
Before the lease. The most expensive decisions in a buildout are made at site selection, when a building's utilities, code path and layout fix costs that no contractor negotiates away later.
Do you replace the architect or the general contractor?
No. Licensed professionals and commercial crews perform the credentialed work. We sit on your side of the table, coordinate every discipline and hold each one to the plan.
What size of project do you take on?
Seven-figure capital projects and the facilities around them: buildouts, conversions and specialty facilities with demanding electrical, HVAC, water or acoustic requirements.
Do you handle permits and variances?
Yes. We prepare and coordinate city submittals, answer plan check and pursue variances where the code was not written for your use.
Do you stay involved after opening day?
Commissioning, SOPs, preventive-maintenance programs and safety programs are in scope, so the building keeps running after the trades leave.
Where do you work?
We take on-site and remote engagements anywhere in the United States. Owner's representation includes time on site through construction.
Apply
Begin with an application.
We accept a limited number of engagements each quarter. Engagements begin by application, and every application receives a reply within one business day.
Apply for an engagementOr write to us at hello@ruskowconsulting.com