Southern California’s affordable pipeline faces high per-unit costs and funding gaps, making delivery strategy as decisive as capital stack. Early Contractor Engagement (ECE) brings trade intelligence into programming and schematic design, improving constructability, sequencing, and market alignment outcomes repeatedly linked to lower risk and better value.
We’ll demystify cost optimization (design and means-and-methods choices that deliver the required performance at the lowest total cost e.g., structural systems, unit stacking, Systems, and procurement timing) versus cost avoidance (eliminating scope, complexity, or conditions that create downstream premiums e.g., right-of-way conflicts, over-customization, or excessive alternates). We’ll also decode GMP agreements what developers should expect on allowances, contingencies, buyout transparency, shared-savings, audit rights, and thresholds for owner-requested scope changes so the GMP functions as a cost cap and a collaboration framework.
Finally, we’ll make the case for a GC partner who does not self-perform GC trades: clearer price tension, unbiased trade selection, and flexible packaging in volatile markets—advantages that help stretch scarce subsidy dollars in SoCal’s high-cost context. We’ll ground these practices in current regional realities, where California multifamily costs materially outpace peer states and San Diego affordable projects can exceed $800k per unit without disciplined delivery.
Attendees will leave with a tangible playbook that includes:
- Strategies for integrating the GC early to influence design and logistics.
- Methods for identifying cost optimization vs. cost avoidance opportunities.
- Key questions to ask before signing a GMP to protect developer interests.
- Evaluation criteria for selecting a GC partner who adds value beyond low bid.
- Lessons learned from recent SoCal affordable multifamily projects that delivered within budget despite inflationary pressures.
