There are several unique and distinctive methods for providing construction solutions. As a business owner you have the luxury of selecting the most beneficial and appropriate delivery system for your type of project.
Medical and Dental practice owners you’ve taken a big hit same as most other industries due to the Covid-19 shut down. You’re still fresh to reopening and making the extended measures to provide infection control and start treating patients safely again. Your building facility can be made more effective in protecting staff and patients better, including tools for surface cleaning, aerosol infection control and social distancing.
Preliminary plans, such as those provided in a Phase I of the Design-Build process, are the most efficient and economical means to determine the budget for your construction project.
While there has been a shift in the numbers1, there are still many business owners out there who are skeptical of the Design-Build method of construction. They are more familiar with the traditional Design-Bid/Build method where they hire an architect, then have general contractors competitively bid the project, and the contractor with the best price/value builds the project.
For most business owners, the short-term benefits of leasing their building are attractive, but we’re guessing that most owners would favor owning their building and having control of their business use at a fixed cost. For doctors who own their own practice and will likely stay in their location for 7 or more years1, owning their building can be a great investment for their future while allowing them to have a fixed expense until the building is paid off. As a contractor who specializes in both construction and leaseback services, we can educate doctors on how to leverage programs, accounting processes, and legal structures to make it more lucrative to own your medical office.
The basic difference of D-B over general construction is the relationship between the architect and builder. In this project delivery, they are on the same team. A doctor only needs to work with one entity to design and then build his or her office. Also in this scenario, the doctor is protected from any discrepancies from the architect’s drawings to contractor’s construction application. With D-B, the contractor and architect are consulting on budget, application, and material quality throughout design, so when construction starts there are very little interruptions or change orders. Should there be a discrepancy, the Design-Builder will work it out without involving the owner unnecessarily. This protection is valued by doctors who oftentimes aren’t as familiar with construction, nor have the time to deal with these issues on site. All of these reasons are exactly why D-B was created as an alternative to general construction.
As an update to this blog originally posted a few years ago, we have new information to add from the June 2018 Design-Build Utilization Report funded by Design-Build Institute of America. Findings in this report determined that popularity continues to grow for this delivery method. The results showed, "Design-Build Construction spending in the assessed segments is anticipated to increase 18% from 2018 - 2021", and will likely represent 44% of construction spending by 2021. Researchers determined that the education of building owners on Design-Build benefits is gaining traction, and more owners are experiencing enjoying the benefits first hand. Additionally, FMI Corporation, a management consulting and investment company, had released a report in March 2019 titled 2019 AGC/FMI Risk Management Survey, whereby they found that "38% of contractors were <planning> to increase their in-house design capabilities last year and 43% this year". So there will be more collaboration, less risk, and more competition among design and construction moving forward.
Original blog article:
According to the May 2013, “Design-Build Project Delivery Market Share and Market Size Report” by Reed Construction Data and RS Means Intelligence, Design-Build construction delivery method has taken an additional 9% of the construction market since 2005 and General Construction has lost 10% of the market share in that same time.
Dentists sometimes put off improvements to their building space due to the anticipated disruption of their business. Determining how to remodel their office or relocate to a new space when a practice can’t survive without an active patient load can feel like a big risk. However, I’m here to tell you that it's possible to remodel, renovate or relocate a dental office with minimal impact to your practice when you use a professional contractor.
We have had all kinds of business owners from varying professions ask us about using a pre-engineered metal building when they’re fact finding about new construction for their business. We tell them a general rule of thumb to consider is that metal buildings are best for businesses that want an industrial look, or have a big enough budget to dress up a pre-engineered building with brick or EIFS (for example) to mask the industrial façade.
Adding a new, complementary service to your existing business structure can help increase your revenue during your regular business hours. This is especially helpful for businesses that feel they have reached a maturity or decline stage.
Remember the good old days—a few decades or so ago—when a doctor could practice for 30 – 40 years and then sell his or her practice to another doctor when they were ready to retire, or better yet, have a son or daughter to take over the practice. Jump forward to present time and it’s not as easy to find someone to take over a medical or dental practice. The reality is there are far fewer doctors graduating than there are practices out there and doctors should start succession planning well before they’re ready to retire.
