Our services

As owner’s representative, we serve as an extension of the owner’s staff. Northstar provides guidance through the lifecycle of your project, protecting the owner’s interests at all times.

Northstar provides owners with the value-added resources they will need to make their project a success. For an owner whose team may not have the required depth of resources to look after each component of a project, Northstart literally serves as an extension of their staff.

As the project’s “eyes and ears,” we can provide on-site representation to make sure that construction proceeds in accordance with contract documents, on time and within budget. Working as your advocate, Northstar enables clients to focus on their core business without distraction.

Owner’s Representative services include:

-Analyzing constructability

-Advising the owner on project delivery systems and forms of contracts

-Serving as a single point of contact between contractors and designers

-Representing the owner at key meetings

-Monitoring the project schedule and budget

-Auditing quality assurance/quality control procedures

-Assisting in evaluating contractor payment requests

-Providing monthly reporting

-Facilitating issue resolution

In today’s construction environment, projects have become so large that a higher level of construction management is often required: Program Management.

Northstar provides a range of services throughout a program, from early feasibility studies to move-in and start-up of operations. Northstar will oversee the award of contracts, develop budgets and schedules and manage the necessary reporting and communications. Services are tailored to meet each owner’s individual needs.

Working side-by-side with the owner and the design team, Northstar develops integrated plans for logistics, management of budgets and schedules to coordinate the worksite for the most efficient use of resources.

Program Management services include:

-Providing a single point of management throughout the entire design and construction process

-Assisting with selection of design, engineering, testing and inspection professionals

-Maximizing front-end planning to expedite the construction process

-Managing programming, planning, design and construction

-Serving as an extension of our clients’ existing staff

-Suggesting a variety of delivery systems for design and construction

-Establishing and managing budget and schedule

-Providing value engineering input and cost analysis

-Establishing and maintaining quality control standards

-Providing periodic reports reviewing the status of each project

-Providing traditional project management services

Northstar is known for its innovative implementation of project management techniques and controls that move a project forward on time and within budget. We also understand the importance of keeping all project participants informed with up-to-date progress reports to gauge a project’s status.

Successful project management is driven by proactive decision-making during the early stages of planning and design. 

We develop overall, integrated plans for logistics, management of budgets, expenditures and schedules to coordinate the worksite for the most efficient use of resources. We utilize our skills to achieve outstanding results providing key project management services.

Project Management services include:

-Pre-Construction/Design Phase

-Scope definition and management

-Establishment and maintenance of communications procedures

-Budget oversight

-Master schedule oversight

-Architect/engineer selection advisory

-Specialty consultant selection advisory

-Cost estimating and value analysis

-Identifying phasing alternatives and establishing milestones

-Constructability and bid-ability reviews

-General conditions and contract requirements advisory

-Assistance with testing/inspection sub-contractors

-Bid phase management

-Construction Phase

-Schedule monitoring

-Cost control oversight

-Professional on-site management

-Leadership of job coordination meetings

-Regular inspection and quality assurance enforcement

-Documentation and file maintenance

-Change order management

-Contract closeout supervision

-Commissioning oversight

Not every project goes as expected. For a variety of reasons, projects stall or veer off schedule, costs escalate, unforeseen conditions bring into question whether a project can even be completed, communication ceases and work grinds to a halt. Northstar professionals will get projects moving again so that the contract can be successfully closed out before litigation becomes necessary.

Whether a project is being delivered under a traditional contract, design-build, CM at-risk, unit price or other arrangement, Northstar can quickly identify the root cause of the issues stifling a troubled project. Northstar provides the leadership necessary to solve complicated problems. We are not afraid to deliver bad news; we are not afraid of putting our reputations behind the decisions we make; and most of all, we are responsive and sensitive to the intricacies of troubled projects.  To get a troubled project successfully restarted, back on track, or completed, Northstar provides the following Project Rescue and Completion services:

-Snapshot audits of project progress and procedures

-Evaluation of a project’s costs to complete

-Preparation of completion and rescue CPM schedules

-Evaluation and negotiation of unresolved change orders

-Audits of approved and/or paid change orders

-Continuous progress monitoring and reporting

-Contract administration and close-out

-Final payment determination and negotiation

-Investigation of post-occupancy defects

Among the five common project discriminators – time, cost, quality, performance and scope – most clients concentrate their efforts on determining and controlling project costs.

Northstar recognizes the importance of having accurate cost estimates before a shovel even goes in the ground. Accurate estimates are needed for budgeting, to verify or modify design decisions at the various stages of the project development and to analyze the accuracy and fairness of contractor bids.

Northstar prepares estimates at the various stages of project development. Our estimates will utilize the latest prevailing wage data with our own material and labor productivity costs database. Our cost estimating and management expertise encompasses a wide variety of services.

Cost Estimating and Management services include:

-Conceptual estimates

-Pre-bid estimates

-Project/program budgets

-Life cycle costs

-Value analysis

-Value engineering cost estimates

-Developing schedules of values

-Assessing progress payments

-Estimating and checking change orders

Northstar provides Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling services, an essential requirement for effective project management. Our services include the preparation, analysis and updating of baseline schedules based on actual project progress. These services allow our clients to effectively plan and organize the work, measure progress, quantify impacts and adjust to changes with maximum efficiency.

Scheduling services include:

-Master program schedules

-Design phase schedules

-Construction phase schedules

-Recovery schedules

-Periodic updating of schedules

-Progress completion verification (percent complete)

-Review and analysis of schedules prepared by others