TUR ?

TUR Etymology:

Via Middle High German, from Old High German turi, from Proto-Germanic *duri- *durz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer-, *dʰwor- (“doorway, door, gate”), *dhur-. Cognate with Middle Dutch dore (Dutch deur), Old Norse dyrr (Swedish dörr, Danish dør). The Germanic word also existed in different stem-endings: *dora-, *durą (German Tor, Old English dor > English door), *duru- (Old English duru).

"The German is like a willow.
No matter which way you bend him,
he will always take root again."
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Help Wanted: Entrepreneur

Baby boomers are in the uniquely blessed position to be catalysts for a global economic revival through entrepreneurship that builds new business or expands capabilities of existing businesses and can lead the United States in economic growth.[1]  With such an obvious tool at the hands of the United States economic and political leaders, it almost seems they are like deer on the highway paralyzed by headlights, unable to take credible action to solve the current conditions.  Are lower taxes and business incentives for corporations not credible actions?  While these may be positive moves, they are like band aids on a bleeding jugular vein.  Not speaking as an economics expert but simply with some personal observations, it seem to me that we are witnesses to the largest number of baby boomers quietly entering their retirement years with little or no capital with which to become the entrepreneurs that can pull the United States economy out of the economic decline that has crippled not only this country but the global economy.  These baby boomers have gone through the last five years not only loosing their jobs but also dwindling pensions, 401K, and IRA’s and adding insult to injury, with the possibility of loosing their full Social Security benefits.  What then can be done to unleash the creative and innovative strength of America?  In my opinion, a national effort by the Federal Government to open the wealth of this nation to the American Entrepreneur in an innovative and creative way.   A focus by the Treasury Department on a new conduit for venture capital, opening new banking avenues for capital to reach the American Entrepreneur like it never has before.  Provide new monetary venues for the distribution of the capital wealth of the United States government to entrepreneurs similar to home, automobiles, and business lending efforts.  Entrepreneur lending should be structured to facilitate the activities that foster innovation, capitalism, and venture success.  Who would qualify to receive such loans, grants, and capital infusions?  Here is a glimpse of the requirements:

• An American who answers to his own dreams and madness.

• American willing to take on risky endeavors with high potential for success or fail.

• Venturesome American protagonist who has a passion for moving capitalism forward.

• An American doer, one who undertakes a venture with gumption for success.

• American having an eye for market gaps and boldly fill the gap.

• American innovator, capable of conjuring up new products, services or revolutionize existing techniques and procedures that reinvent the way things are made, done, or delivered to the market.

• Real world competitive doer willing to strike a the foundations of existing firms with new commodities and techniques (not lower prices).

Hopefully, this idea will reach the right person(s) willing to move the thought forward.

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[1] Reynolds, Paul D. "Entrepreneurship in the United States", Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-0-387-45667-6

Storage Building Development

Recently, I was asked by a colleague to put together information for pre-design services for a future storage building development project in Miami, Florida.  Fortunately some years ago, I had the unique opportunity to work at a financial institution in their commercial lending division where I was given the primary task of inspecting projects under construction to confirm the institution’s financial risk.  The secondary task proved to be far more interesting and useful to me in the long run as it consisted of evaluating customer lending requests for project development.  To this day, that knowledge and experience has given me considerable insight and understanding of project development.  The experience included the extensive use of spreadsheet software, evaluation and analysis of profit and loss statements, project valuation, project due diligence, and commercial lending criteria for project development.  Having used this experience previously to evaluate existing and new storage buildings, it was a welcome task that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Here I want to share some of the information I gathered, hoping that it will be both helpful and useful as a general guide to storage building development.  The outline of this information is broken down in three parts:  One is the pre-design due diligence list of factors to be considered; two is the project design criteria; and third is the operations and maintenance factors that will serve the on-going needs for this type of development.  In all, there are 50 points to be considered but the list will no doubt shrink or grow as this is applied to a specific project location under specific State and local requirements.  Please feel free to contact me if you should need more information or need assistance with a specific project.

DUE DILIGENCE

1. Project Background / Business plan
2. Market Study
3. Project Feasibility
4. Demographics
5. Site Selection
6. Layout
7. Zoning/Planning (WASA / DERM / MOT)
1. Plat / Site Plan Approval
2. Water/Sewer
3. Concurrency/Traffic
4. Storm water
5. Fire hydrant / building sprinkler system
8. Unit Mix
9. Taxes: property taxes; transfer taxes
10. Environmental / Soils Report
11. Appraisal/Broker's Opinion of Value
12. Physical Needs Assessment Report
13. Junior Liens (notice per any inter-creditor agreement)
14. Insurance Claims
15. Title Certificate or Title Commitment
16. List of Payables and Operating Statements
17. Current Financial Statement
18. Green Building/Operating Systems
19. Project Permits

DESIGN CRITERIA

20. Materials Selection
21. Imaging-Curb Appeal
22. Site Preparation
23. Access
24. Foundation & Floors
25. Driveways & Sidewalks
26. Climate Control Evaluation
27. Utility Hookups
28. ADA Requirements
29. External Lighting
30. Fire Flow
31. Erection /Structural System
32. Roof System
33. Doors & Partitioning
34. Hallways
35. Access Systems
36. Security Systems
37. Gates/Gate Operators & Fencing
38. Signs & Landscaping
39. Lightning Protection

OPERATIONS / MAINTENANCE

40. Manager Office/Apartment
41. Property Accounting System
42. Landscaping Services
43. Security
44. Training
45. Insurance
46. Utilities / Telephone
47. Advertising
48. Waste Management / Disposal
49. Legal (evictions and contracts)
50. Equipment / Labor rental

Owner's Review

As a PM for an Owner, I am constantly pushing and pulling for the budget and schedule trying to balance one with the other but there comes a time for the budget to take the lead and the schedule give up time.  Such is the case for document review or quality control as the A/E when they submit their documents for approval.  This is typically a check point where there is a great opportunity to review the documents prior to bidding and permitting.  If the A/E team has been busy doing their design and documentation, it is imperative that other eyes go over the documentation with a fine tooth comb and review for completeness before these become errors and omissions.  So why should I as a PM for an Owner be concerned about potential errors and omissions, isn’t that the job of the A/E, are they not “covered” for this risk by their professional insurance?  Sure they are, but the process is costly in both time and money both of which are detrimental to fulfilling the prime objective:  Getting the job completed on time and in the budget.  How does the Owner “insure” against this risk?  Select a PM that is qualified by training and experience to conduct a thorough review.  One alternative is to include in the A/E contract the stipulation that the documents will be reviewed by a third party that is qualified by training and experience on behalf of the Owner and the A/E. 

Here are some key points that will make this happen if implemented by the Owner’s team: 

·         Schedule reviews to occur at 100% completion when bidding documents are finalized, just prior to submission for permits and advertising them for bids.  Do not release incomplete documents to bidders for “pricing”; this process is not in the best interest of the Owner.

·         The review should be conducted by “actively practicing” architects, engineers and specification writers who are NOT part of the A/E team or who have not been involved in the production of the documentation.  It has been a construction industry well known fact that the A/E team professionals can look at the same documents 10 times and miss a detail that will be discovered by a new set of eyes.  If the A/E team was selected based on low price proposal, there is probably no fee left to conduct an unbiased peer review.

·         Minimizing change orders begins during the selection process.  Select professionals who are skilled and experienced in the Owner’s facility design because they can apply specialized construction expertise to their internal document review process.  Again, the Owner’s team should avoid ANY yielding to pressure to select the lowest priced A/E; their fees are minimal compared to the total cost of facility development.

·         Have the professional peer review scope include a recommendation document that they use to track progress, verifying that all review recommendations and identified construction document gaps, inconsistencies, and ambiguities are addressed prior to bidding. 

·         Gain the support of the A/E during the selection process to acceptance of the scheduled review by peers.  Educate them before being selected that a third-party review of construction documents is an industry-recommended best practice that leads to a win-win for all concerned.

·         Develop Owner procedures to implement building information modeling (BIM) that will increase the use of current technology tools to reduce change orders by reducing construction document gaps, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that occur during coordination of the building systems.

At the end of the day, this process can become part of the Owner’s procedure to ensure that change orders are minimized from the time the A/E is selected through construction.  Why are Owners NOT doing this?  Ask them and then send them over to me.

BIM for Owners

As a Project Manager (PM) and construction coordinator I have one goal:  Deliver a facility to the user on time and within the budget.  In today’s lump-sum bid market, that goal is best achieved by incorporating Building Information Modeling (BIM) process technology into the task list from pre-design through building commissioning.

As a PM working for the Owner, I help organize the project program, schedule and a budget. The more scientific information I can capture at the beginning of the facility development effort from a BIM process, the more accurate the program, schedules and budgets will be. As a smart and savvy PM, I know that BIM doesn’t start on the Architect/Engineer desktop but rather at the Owner’s conference table where all the end users first sit down to envision and give life to the facility development.  Owners who are regularly engaged in facility development stand to gain the most by having the PM implement and incorporate the BIM process.  It is at the pre-design phase where the most dreaded and frustrating aspects of any facility development efforts shows its ugly head:  Changes.  The extent, depth, and cost for changes is worst when a contractor has the labor, materials, equipment on site fully committed to a time clock that is ticking faster than the work.  If for no other reason, it is crucial that as an Owner’s PM I implement the BIM process from the git-go.

The changes begin to creep in when as a PM I bring in the Design Team.  If the facility information that is provided to the Design Team is incomplete, it then follows that changes will begin to affect the program, schedule, and budget.  To avoid this, the BIM process started by the Owner has to be implemented with the full commitment of the Design Team using best practices providing information at the correct level of detail by using Model Progression Specifications (MPS) that keeps every team member organized.  As the Owner’s PM, I keep the end users informed and integrated into the decision making process using the BIM process, constantly updating and revising the information to document design and program changes that affect the schedule and budget.  The fully integrated BIM process allows the team to visualize and explore the impact of changes and remain cognizant of potential scope creep and its effect on the schedule and budget.  As a PM for the Owner, using this BIM process I become a trustworthy liaison between the design team and the end users and meet the primary goal.  MPS is a language that owners, designers, and builders can use to define every element and task in the building construction process.  It serves as a coordination point for information about the building, what is being modeled, and to what level of detail it is being modeled, estimated, and scheduled.  It provides the efficient framework for the project stakeholders – a written checklist that matures from program level through design level of detail to a high level of detail in terms of 3D geometry, cost, and time.

As the Owner’s PM I am also responsible for selecting the Construction Manager (CM) and/or General Contractor depending on the Owner’s needs and market conditions.  Having successfully completed the pre-design and design phase using the BIM process that meets the primary goal, it is crucial that a CM/GC be selected who will not only use the contract documents but also the established BIM process.  It would be detrimental to the Owner as well as the rest of the team to set aside the BIM process during the pre-construction phase, especially if the bid process is used to arrive at a lump-sum bid price.  If the BIM process was successful in delivering a facility design, it follows that the same foundation must be continued by the CM/GC from pre-construction through project close-out and commissioning.  Request for information (RFI) and change orders (CO) can be significantly minimized if the CM/GC has the capacity and capability to incorporate and integrate the Owner’s BIM process fully (2D, 3D, 4D, and 5D).  The typical 30 day bid process is not the time to begin a BIM process, there is just no time available to produce sufficiently detailed information for the subcontractors, vendors, and service providers to provide a lump-sum bid.  This is one reason why the facility development industry still lags behind manufacturing in being able to deliver a product to the end users that is of consistent quality, cost, and on-time.  With the use of the Owner’s established BIM process, the CM/GC is able to implement lean construction techniques used by manufacturing to deliver the facility that meets the Owner’s goals and objectives.  As the Owner’s PM using the BIM process I can provide leadership that looks forward as a driver of a process rather than constantly looking back at what errors and omissions created the quicksand situation we are currently trying to get out of.  I can report back to my end users and the team a two week forward looking view, a prognostic approach to facility development rather than a review mirror of what happened while the process continues to move forward or is at a stand still.  Similarly, the CM/GC can use location management techniques to avert schedule and budget pitfalls that increase the cost to the Owner.  There will always be changes during the facility development effort, but with an integrated BIM process, the change is managed and coordinated with no surprises to the Owner and predictable cash flow for the entire team.  At the end of the day, the CM/GC reputation is enhanced by the completed facility giving positive word of mouth referrals and repeat business for their work.  Having completed the work on time and on budget, the Owner gains confidence in the PM’s guidance, foresight, and coordination as decisions were made during programming, design, and through construction.

Having reached project closeout successfully, as the PM I urge the Owner to continue the BIM process into operations and maintenance.  This continuation of a successful process offers another opportunity for me as the PM to exceed the Owner’s expectations.  The BIM process capabilities (6D) to report and model the facility for the Owner’s Facility Management team (FM).  The BIM process has the capability to produce information for the FM to navigate through the warranties, specifications, maintenance schedules, space allocations, fire suppression, life safety, vendors, and a host of valuable information only clicks away from the FM team.

Progressive Owners are mandating a BIM process for their facility development efforts and as time permits, they are incorporating their existing facilities into the same BIM process foundation to reduce FM costs for the life of their buildings.  As an Owner’s PM, my efforts are best performed by bringing the Owner up to date on the BIM process technology.