There’s been a lot of focus lately on construction costs due to market volatility. Studies have shown that construction costs only represent about 20% of the lifetime operating costs of a building. Labor costs account for the vast majority of building operating costs and there needs to be much more focus on that. There are modeling programs on the market that can project operating costs based on staffing levels and compare them to various scenarios and floor plans developed by your design team. What’s not often identified are the construction costs of these options. A true win-win can be achieved when a construction manager can be at the table with the design team when these options are being discussed.

For a project to be deemed successful in the long term, an owner must balance the long-term life cycle cost of the project, including all operating costs such as labor and utilities, with the first cost outlay to build the project. A savvy construction manager has the ability to quickly model the costs of the various operating scenarios to help owners with this analysis and make sure the optimum solution is made to achieve their goals