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The relationship between developers, designers and general contractors can be a complicated one. While miscommunications, delays and missed deadlines are not uncommon on construction sites, they can become daily staples when these three key stakeholders are not in sync.
These issues are not merely frustrating, they are also expensive. One survey from software company PlanGrid and management consulting firm FMI Corp. estimates that poor communication represents a potential cost to the U.S. construction industry of $17B a year.
One way to avoid these costly misunderstandings? Keep the developer, designer and GC all under one roof.
“Most developers have to go out and hire a general contractor and a designer for each project they work on, with no way to be totally confident in the team they’re getting,” LGE Design Build and Creation Equity Project Executive Taylor Mitcham said. “With us, all those stakeholders are under one umbrella, working together on each project and to keep communication clear and quality consistent.”
LGE Design Build is a design and general contracting firm with headquarters in Phoenix and Dallas and a wide presence throughout the rest of Texas, with plans to expand to other markets. Creation Equity is an investment and development company specializing in industrial, retail and hospitality. Together, they are working on a slate of new projects around Texas that have been able to move forward despite the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to the seamless communication their partnership allows.
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Mitcham said a typical project will start with his team at Creation deciding they want to invest in a specific market. Mitcham and his team will then do their due diligence and search for sites that seem prime for development in that market. They analyze that site internally with the help of the LGE Design Build team, which can take the dimensions of the property, lay out a site plan and come up with a budget.
This way, before the property is even purchased, the developer, designer and GC are all on the same page with the same vision.
The largest project the two companies are currently collaborating on is a massive industrial complex off Dallas-Fort Worth’s Interstate 820. 820 Exchange comprises four buildings totaling approximately 1M SF. The project broke ground in late 2019, and despite the pandemic, it is still on track to be completed by Q2 2021. According to Mitcham, the project couldn’t arrive at a better time.
“Thanks to the rise of e-commerce, demand for these types of facilities has never been higher, and we want to be a part of that,” Mitcham said. ”In the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone, there is demand for almost 45M SF of industrial space, and developers have only produced 30M to 35M SF, so 820 Exchange should be a welcome, needed addition to this market.”
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Mitcham said that 820 Exchange is extremely well located but that area has historically been looked at as more of a retail/commercial corridor. Now, due to the slowdown in retail demand and increase in demand for logistics, Creation saw this as a perfect opportunity for a logistics project.
To make this happen, the land needed a rezoning from the city of Haltom City. Creation relied on the LGE Design team to get the property rezoned by producing high-end drawings representing the top-quality product Creation was hoping to build, which appeased the municipality and the community. Creation and LGE also worked with the city to keep some of the original land uses such as retail and office within this multiuse project.
“So overall, Creation, Creation’s partners and the LGE Design Build team were able to work together under one roof to complete a beautiful logistics project in a historically commercial corridor while maintaining the city’s need for original land use plans and appearance,” Mitcham said. “Without having the developer, designer and general contractor all in house, this process may have taken far longer or may not have been approved at all.”
He said that both companies have worked to meet all Covid-19 guidelines during the construction process, and despite these new challenges, the project was able to stay on track thanks to the streamlined communication between LGE and Creation teams.
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“Any sort of roadblock we encounter during the construction process is discussed immediately with the design team and a new plan is put in place to address it,” Mitcham said. “It keeps things moving in the face of even the toughest challenges.”
Another project the companies have been working on in the past year is a new Bottled Blonde and Backyard bar and restaurant in Fort Worth. The project kicked off in December and is expected to be finished by this coming September.
Creation has a diverse range of DFW projects in its pipeline, including a massive mixed-use development in North Dallas and nearly 2M SF of additional industrial/logistics projects, many of which break ground in 2021.
“Along with Texas, we’re already active in Arizona, Illinois and California, and we have a development pipeline of nearly $1B in projects,” Mitcham said. “We’re looking forward to what’s ahead.”
This article was produced in collaboration between LGE 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 studio@bisnow.com.
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