Recently, I attended a symposium with a panel discussion on Senior Living Construction.  One of the developers mentioned that they had seen senior living construction prices escalate 20% in 2 years.  While there is no question that prices have increased, our perspective is that for equivalent facilities, they have increased 3%-4% per year not 20% in 2 years.

Why the difference in opinion?  The answer to us seems to be in the design.  Architects Engineers are busy and rushed, and there is less attention to utilizing the most economical designs.  Interior finishes have increased dramatically, increasing costs.  There has been an escalation in amenities as well, at a higher cost.  And finally, for some reason, we are seeing more competitive bidding of projects, which always increases the cost due to the lack of a team working together to hit a budget.

Recently, a client said to us “Your processes are backward to what our historical process has been.  You design to a budget rather than budgeting a design.”  This was after he talked to us about switching contractors (to us) because the budget couldn’t be controlled utilizing their historical process.

Our process works, and even in an era of escalating pricing, is able to control costs.

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