Commercial General Contractor in Charlotte, NC
Ground-up, tenant improvement and adaptive reuse across the Carolinas. We self-perform concrete and carpentry, we publish our safety and change-order numbers, and we sign liquidated damages.
What We Build
Commercial only. We don't build custom homes, and we'll refer you to someone who does.
Which Delivery Method Costs You Money
Most owners pick a delivery method because it is what their last project used, then discover in month seven that it was the wrong instrument for the job. The three main routes shift risk, price certainty and change-order exposure in very different directions.
We will tell you plainly when design-bid-build is right for your project, even though it is the method that gives us the least room and the thinnest margin. A hard-bid warehouse on a clean site does not need CM-at-risk, and selling you one would be a bad way to start eleven months together.
- ✓Design-bid-build — lowest price on paper, highest change-order exposure
- ✓CM at risk — a GMP and an open book; you see our fee and our contingency
- ✓Design-build — one contract, fastest schedule, least owner control over detail
- ✓Negotiated — we join at concept; best when the program is still moving
We Self-Perform Concrete and Carpentry
Roughly 30% of our contract value is executed by our own crews rather than subcontracted. That is unfashionable and it is the single biggest reason our schedules hold.
The critical path stays in-house
Concrete and framing sit on the critical path of nearly every commercial job. Owning those crews means a weather day or a late release does not cost us a subcontractor's next booking.
We can start the day the permit lands
No waiting for a sub to finish somewhere else. On tenant improvements that difference is often two to three weeks of rent.
Rework is ours to fix, immediately
When our own crew has to open something back up, there is no back-charge negotiation and no three-day gap while fault is argued. It just gets fixed on Tuesday.
You see the real cost of that scope
On an open-book contract, self-performed work is billed at cost plus our stated fee, with the labour rates in the contract. There is no sub markup hidden inside it.
Ours, Published, Before You Ask
Four numbers separate commercial contractors, and none of them appear in a capability brochure. Ask all four of everyone you are considering — the silence is informative.
01EMR 0.71, three-year average
The experience modification rate is your insurer's verdict on our safety record. 1.0 is industry average; below it means fewer claims than expected for our payroll. Anything above 1.0 usually disqualifies a bidder on institutional work — which is exactly why it is worth asking.
02Bonded to $12M single, $40M aggregate
A real ceiling, and we will say so rather than chase a job we cannot bond. If your project exceeds it we will tell you at the first meeting instead of the surety telling you later.
03Change orders at 1.8% of contract value
Last calendar year across fourteen projects, owner-requested and error-driven combined. Industry studies commonly put the figure between 5% and 10%. Ask a bidder for theirs and watch how quickly the conversation moves to something else.
0494% substantial completion on or before date
Across the last five years. The other 6% is three projects, and we will name them and tell you what happened if you ask in a meeting.
Recent Work Across the Carolinas
The Schedule Is the Product
On a commercial project the building is rarely the thing that keeps an owner awake. The lease commencement, the tenant's opening date, the bond covenant or the equipment delivery is. The building is how you get there.
So we run a resource-loaded CPM schedule updated weekly, we identify the long-lead items before the drawings are finished, and we sign liquidated damages. A contractor unwilling to put a number on a late finish is telling you what they think of their own schedule.
- ✓Resource-loaded CPM, updated and issued weekly — not a bar chart
- ✓Long-lead register opened at 50% design development
- ✓Liquidated damages signed as standard, not negotiated out
- ✓Two-week look-ahead published to every trade every Friday
How We Engage
The earlier we join, the more of your money we can save you.
Pre-construction
Budgeting, constructability review and long-lead strategy — often before an architect is appointed. Frequently free on negotiated work.
Buyout & GMP
Trade packages bid and levelled in the open. On CM-at-risk you see every number, our fee and our contingency separately.
Mobilise
Permits, site logistics, safety plan and the first look-ahead. Our own concrete and carpentry crews start the week the permit is issued.
Build
Weekly OAC meetings, weekly schedule update, monthly pencil draw. Nothing about your project should ever be a surprise in a meeting.
Close out
Commissioning, punch, O&M manuals, as-builts and warranties delivered at substantial completion — not ninety days after.
What Our Clients Say
They were not the low bid. They were the only bid that showed us a schedule with float in it and told us which three long-lead items would decide whether we opened in September. We opened in September.
Six change orders over an eleven-month job, four of them owner-requested. On our last project with another GC we had thirty-one and a lawyer.
Their superintendent knew our tenant's lease dates better than our own asset manager did. That is what you are actually buying with a GC.
We asked for their EMR at the RFQ stage. They sent it, the loss runs, and an explanation of the one recordable that moved it. Two of the four bidders never replied to that question at all.
Questions Owners Ask Us
Will you hard bid?
Yes, and we win a reasonable share of them. But if your project has unresolved design, an occupied building or a hard opening date, a hard bid transfers risk to you in the form of change orders. We will say so before we bid it.
What is your fee?
On negotiated and CM-at-risk work, typically 3.5% to 5.5% depending on size, duration and complexity, plus general conditions billed at cost. It is a line in the contract, not a mystery inside the number.
Can you work in an occupied building?
Most of our tenant improvement work is occupied. That means infection control or dust barriers, off-hours noise work, protected egress and a life-safety plan reviewed with your fire marshal before we start.
How do you handle unforeseen conditions in a renovation?
On adaptive reuse we carry a stated design and existing-conditions contingency and we open the book on it. Unspent contingency returns to you at close-out. It is not our profit.
Do you self-perform everything?
No — about 30% of contract value, concentrated in concrete and carpentry because they sit on the critical path. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and specialty trades are subcontracted to a bid list we will share with you.
What happens if you finish late?
We pay liquidated damages at the rate in the contract. We would rather negotiate that number honestly at the front than argue about an excusable delay at the back.
Bring Us In Before the Drawings Are Finished
Preconstruction is where the money is saved. Send a program, a site or a napkin and we'll come back with questions.