I’m sure you’re reading this headline and thinking one of the following:

A. Chuck, the construction costs on my project would soar if I don’t hire a local general contracting construction firm.

B. The travel expenses alone for a non-local general contractor would inflate a retail construction bid to the point where the job isn’t economical.

C.  If I don’t hire local construction workers, I’ll be the pariah of the community.

Rest assured, I haven’t lost my mind. Unfortunately, some commercial real estate developers and even shopping center landlords think a local construction management team is the only way to go because a national general contractor is a traveling group of gypsies roving from project to project.

Well, it’s not like that. And the way our commercial construction services are set up, we can actually save our out-of-state clients time and money.

1.   It’s better to work with a national retail construction contractor who is familiar with building your store in other cities verses a local general contractor who’s never built for you before. The national general contractor knows your expectations, how you operate and your brand. There’s no learning curve involved.

2.   By hiring a general commercial contractor with national reach, but no satellite offices, you can actually keep costs down. For example, in the last two years Englewood Construction has worked in 28 states, but we only have one office to support, so we don’t have a high overhead that gets passed along to a client.

3.   Because Englewood Construction’s staff is so experienced and efficient, we only need one construction superintendent on site. Conversely some, lesser-experienced local firms may be logging extra man hours to get up to speed on your brand.

4.   While your general contractor doesn’t need to be local, it’s imperative that the subcontractors are local. Quality, local subcontractors are the lifeblood of any successful commercial construction project. So make sure you ask your construction firm about the subs on your job because using local subs usually means the following:

• The pricing model your GC used is accurate for the region.
• You’ll have an easier time with local jurisdictional construction and permit approvals.
• The construction project should be completed on time, if not earlier, due to the subs’ familiarity with the area, zoning, traffic, etc.
• You’re pumping money back into the community. For more details on this benefit, make sure you read about the newest American Girl store in Denver.

At Englewood Construction, we have a database of more than 20,000 of the best commercial construction subcontractors from all over the country, which means we have the flexibility to follow our clients no matter where their next design build or renovation project is located.

Where is your local general contractor following you?

Let’s continue the discussion at chuck.taylor@englewoodconstruction.com.

Chuck Taylor
Director of Operations
Tel: 847-233-9200 x712

Questions? Comments? You can reach me at chuck.taylor@englewoodconstruction.com

www.EnglewoodConstruction.com