STUDY
A CLOSER LOOK: RIDER LEV
CASE
THE TIMING WAS LESS THEN AUSPICIOUS
when Streamline Tower LLC broke ground
on a 21-story condominium project in Las
Vegas, Nevada, USA. The housing market
was collapsing and the impending credit
crunch meant it would be tough for
prospective buyers to secure financing.
It was clearly time to retool.
But the shift in scope came with a hefty
price tag. Combined with delays due to bad
weather and installation changes, the change
put the project 83 days behind schedule.
As on any project, time is money. In the
case of the US$116 million Streamline
Tower, the delays would have translated to
extra interest payments on loans.
To get the project back on track,
Streamline Tower’s owners brought in
Rider Levett Bucknall, an international
property and construction consultancy.
One of the first steps Rider Levett
Bucknall took when it came on board in
August 2006 was to sit down for a frank talk
about the schedule with the project’s general
contractors, Martin-Harris Construction.
The two companies “spent quite a bit of
time going to and fro” working together to
nail down a revised timeline, says Andrew
Field, the senior project manager on the
project, and now an associate at Rider
Levett Bucknall.
In the end, the two sides agreed to compress the schedule to achieve the original
contract deadline of 8 January 2008. The
move added US$2 million to the budget,
Andrew Field,
Rider Levett Bucknall
Economic
retool—and
