Agency CM Firms Redefine Services And Try to Change Their Image
Over the past decade, the trend has been for owners to shift greater amounts of risk in the construction process. This has worked to the advantage of firms providing design-build and construction management at-risk. But this trend has cut into the use of agency CM as a discreet project delivery system. Still, firms providing agency CM service have managed to use their management skills to take advantage of new opportunities and market niches.
On project delivery, "the CM market today is rotating markedly to CM at-risk," says Gui Ponce de Leon, CEO of PMA Consultants. This has led agency CM firms like PMA to move toward broader services, from financing through occupancy. "We can provide management of financing, permitting, easements and site selection," Ponce de Leon says. "We can do everything a developer does without the premium developers charge. We call it the no-load developer model."