A great question, but let's figure out “which side of the table do you want your builder to sit on?” Hiring a Construction Manager means you are hiring someone to lead a team of professionals to completing your project. Unlike a General Contractor, the Construction Management process is fully transparent to the owner. As the property owner’s representative, the Construction Manager oversees the subcontractors, making sure that the work is done correctly, follows the plan, stays on schedule, and will make sure up-charges and feet-dragging stay out of the process.

FIXED-FEE vs MIDDLE-MAN MARK-UPS

The main purpose of construction management is to sharply control and monitor the progress of a project in terms of quality, cost and time. By working with an effective Construction Manager from DSA Construction Management, you can ensure that your project stays on schedule and within your budgetary constraints from start to finish. This helps you avoid any costly delays, while also making the process of building out your construction project as seamless as possible.

• Experienced Personnel Specializing in the Building Field
• Team Planning
• Direct Contracting and Purchasing
• One Fee Predetermined
• No Fee Charge for Change Orders
• Direct Payments for All Costs
• Financial Protection for the Owner
• Complete Insurance Available
• Most Economical Method in Today's Market

Construction Management is a professional service that provides advice and assistance to the planning, design, and construction of a project form inception to completion for the purpose of controlling time, cost and quality. Construction Management is a discipline and management system specifically created to promote the successful execution of capital projects for owners. These projects can be highly complex. Few owners maintain the staff resources necessary to pay close, continuing attention to every detail—yet these details can “make or break” a project.

DSA Construction Management personnel are uniquely qualified through combined education and experience to work with the owner, architect, general contractor, and other stakeholders to determine the best possible sequence of construction operations and develop a detailed schedule and budget, while also establishing plans for project safety and security and helping the owner manage risk.

The owner can most efficiently and economically achieve their building program objectives through the use of an experienced Construction Manager (CM) that occupy an oversight and coordination role for construction projects. Although you may rely on a general contractor to fulfill this role if you are building a small or simple project, for larger and complex projects it quickly becomes necessary to have an entity that is coordinating and overseeing each aspect of the construction project. Effective Construction Managers (CM) at DSA Construction Management accomplish this through extensive expertise and education in all facets of design and construction.

Through their knowledge and experience, our Construction Managers can identify issues before they become big problems and create realistic avenues for moving forward without incurring delays. The DSA Construction Manager (CM), therefore, works as an extension of the owner’s staff and in the owner’s interests with on-time, within budget completion and quality construction as primary objectives.

DSA's Construction Management approach is the most transparent method of construction, and therefore ideal for high-visibility, Publicly-Funded projects. Unlike General Contracting, Design/Build, or Construction Management At-Risk, Construction Management-Owner's Agent allows full disclosure on all aspects of bidding and construction. All bids are reviewed by the owner, and contracts are prepared and negotiated by DSA Construction Management, but signed by owner. As a Fiduciary, the Construction Manager-Owner's Agent, is legally required to act in the Owner's best interest. 

All payments to trades contractors, approved by the architect, owner and site-supervisors, are paid directly from the owner's account. This allows the owner control and knowledge of when and to whom monies go. DSA Construction Management staff has the ability to provide all aspects of Construction Management services including project documentation that meets the requirements for local, state and federally funded projects.

DSA Construction Management will negotiate their fee early in the process. This becomes a Fixed-Fee and we set our fee so there is no conflict-of-interest, or incentive to raise the project cost. Any percentage fee carries with it an inherent advantage to the builder as costs increase or as things are added to the project. Our fee will only increase if there is a change in the scope of work (such as the owner adding square footage to the project) since the original construction project was planned.