Breen Group Inc.
Roles and Services
There are essentially three basic roles for the management of a project. The slide to the right depicts these simplistically. Development Management, Project Management, and Construction Management. The boxes in the slide are arranged one inside of the other to reflect the roll-up responsibilities. The following are brief descriptions for each of the three key roles:
Development Management - The Development Manager ("DM") is most often involved from the very inception of the project, sometimes even pre-acquisition during feasibility analysis and development of the Early Project Assessment (EPA), brand selection, etc. The DM role is the most impactful to the development process as it sets the conceptual parameters (Vision/Scope, Budget, Schedule) of the development from the very beginning and if the role is carried through construction delivery, a single point of accountability is retained for the results. Breen Group Inc. can offer our clients and partners the greatest results and cost savings when providing Development Management services because we have decades of successful experience in doing so and have consistently delivered results that surpass the standards in the industry. Our ability to identify risks during EPA and to plan how to mitigate those risks throughout the project delivery cycle provides significant value. The ability to manage brand partners and keep them from over-reaching (at your cost) provides significant value. The ability to navigate the entitlement process, manage the legal team, manage the design team selection process and contracts, prepare the appropriate construction contracting strategies, all of this expertise brings significant value to you as the Owner.
Project Management - The PM most often becomes activated after the Early Project Assessment, Conceptual Planning and Entitlement periods have completed. The conceptual Scope, Budget, and Schedule for the project have been determined, and most often the selection of the Design Team has been completed. Sometimes this role is simply filled by the DM, and other times this role is performed separately. In any event, PM role is very significant as it about the delivery of the design, meeting the conceptual vision and scope, doing so within the boundaries of the budget/schedule, and with the approval of the Owner and the financial and brand partners. This is usually where the process breakdowns occur and projects veer outside of the project budget and as a result they often creep beyond the design schedule which adds significant pressure to the permit process and targeted construction start date. To prevent this from happening, the PM must have a predetermined plan and use a highly collaborative, disciplined and incremental approach to the delivery of design to ensure it meets all of the project metrics (Vision/Scope, Budget, and Schedule), and manage it throughout in a measurable and accountable way. Breen Group Inc. excels in this role as we have an unwavering focus on Budget, Scope and Schedule, and have an extremely disciplined incremental approach to design delivery, while stimulating the design team to produce world class designs on schedule and within budget.
Construction Management - The CM most often becomes activated after the design is complete and the "what we are going to build and how much is it going to cost" has already been determined. Usually "who is going to build it" has also been determined as the contractor has already been selected. Therefore the CM's role is Construction and FF&E delivery. While still a demanding role, it is the simplest or most straight-forward of the three roles in the project delivery cycle. The role is filled with a daily mix of forward planning, managing today's challenges, and analyzing/settling change orders. Too often the typical CM treats the early days of a construction process with far less significance than the final days. Our approach is different, whether its a 6 month or 3 year construction schedule, we relentlessly treat each day in the construction delivery cycle as important as the day of final inspections. We actively manage the contractor, design team, brand partner, FF&E procurement agent, etc., to be able to maximize the general contractor's ability to construct the project. Our reputation is that "we are tough but fair". We can live with that and we have developed many excellent relationships with architects, interior designers, procurement agencies, and contractors to prove that it works.
Project Close-out
At the end of the Project Delivery cycle, we have never needed to employ formal Mediation, Arbitration, or Litigation to close out a project, big or small, one that we started, or one that we picked up as a rescue project. We favor fair and equitable compromise over litigation, and use our extensive experience and expertise to reach reasonable resolutions for all parties.
In Summary
Breen Group Inc. isn't the typical consulting construction & development services firm that offers a lengthy menu of services and sell them piece by piece to anyone that will buy them. With our experience we are certainly capable of doing that, but it's just not how we focus our business. We simply focus on where we can best fit to maximize your results. We know that won't win every role or every project with this approach, but as a boutique sized firm with significant major project experience, we choose to employ a little more selective approach about who we get involved with and what we get involved in.
Let's talk about your project!