In most cases research and data needs to be collected in order for project stakeholders to establish certain goals and criteria to help determine how to best move forward with a project in a new or existing space. Berard Martel provides services that can help clients make more informed pre-design/construction decisions. These services include:

Identifying Economic Goals:   Determine the initial cost and operating cost of a facility including construction, energy and maintenance costs and potential rental fees if applicable. As needed, determine a return on investment schedule for scheme variations.

Survey of Space / As-Built Documentation:   Visit the site and gather any available documentation and plans. Occasionally, modifications have been made to a building. To reliably predict the cost of a partial or whole fit-up, the current state of the building systems must be known. This will also provide for BOMA area calculations for lease clarifications.

Determining Functional Goals:   Develop the operational / product flow needs of the client / occupant and how they will productively and efficiently use the space. When appropriate it is best to interview a cross section of facility occupants to obtain accurate data. This will produce a better view of future growth and hidden assets. This data can be used to develop specific programming information (a listing of the necessary spaces with their specific functions and area calculations), important adjacencies and potential floor plan geographies that will work for the space.

Adjacency Studies and Space Allocation:   The above information (Functional Goals) together with the amount of space needed for the elements in the design and their proximity or distance between can aid in establishing the traffic / product flow and efficiency of layout / scheme variations.

Suitability of Space:   Using the data already gathered, test various potential layouts of multiple tenant space options keeping in mind a variety of criteria such as current needs, future growth, operations and lease agreement back-up data.

Land Procurement:   Research and validate local zoning restrictions, utility availability and access, traffic and access patterns, location/ public image impact, and municipality approval timelines.

Existing Facility Assets Inventory:   Gather information on existing facility assets that are targeted for reuse and determine the feasibility of their use in the proposed space. Factors affecting this work include new corporate / product flow hierarchies, environments and corporate philosophy that may be explored and deployed.

Code Compliance Analysis:   Analyze the space for handicap accessibility, fire/life safety, and energy code compliance - for facility improvement, lease information, current jurisdictional mandate etc

Community Facilitation:   In the event that neighbors and / or a jurisdiction is a stakeholder, public engagement and presentations to obtain consensus.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Typical Service Matrix:

Each facility assignment is unique and in most cases, we and the stakeholders would agree that two to four of the available tasks are necessary.

Development / Real Estate Industry Professionals:

We also streamline a service matrix to fit the particular needs of a real estate professional that in turn is providing guidance and service to a third-party / ultimate user, (specialties such as medical, office, hi-tech etc.) design-build contractors and others. Our fast-turnaround, focused and efficient ‘snapshot’ service meets the need for qualifying on-site improvements, relocations, and existing or new construction pro-formas.