At GARANCO, Inc., our Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) approach is built around early collaboration, proactive cost management, and continuous leadership throughout the entire project lifecycle. By engaging the construction team during design, GARANCO provides real-time budgeting, constructability analysis, scheduling input, and coordination that help Owners make informed decisions while reducing risk and improving project outcomes.
A key advantage of GARANCO’s CMAR delivery method is continuity of leadership and accountability from preconstruction through final construction completion. The same Project Management team involved during planning, budgeting, design coordination, and procurement remains engaged throughout construction execution. This continuity ensures project knowledge, budget priorities, schedule expectations, and design intent are carried seamlessly from concept into the field.
Unlike traditional delivery methods where projects are often transferred between estimating, preconstruction, and operations teams, GARANCO maintains a consistent leadership structure throughout the project. This eliminates common communication gaps and “lost in translation” issues while creating a single, accountable team focused on delivering the project successfully from start to finish.
The first step in the CMAR process is understanding the Owner’s vision, operational goals, budget expectations, schedule requirements, and project constraints. During this phase, GARANCO works closely with the Owner and design team to establish project objectives and evaluate the overall feasibility of the project.
By involving construction leadership early in the process, GARANCO helps establish the best path forward while identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, manage costs, and reduce schedule impacts before significant design expenditures occur.
As the design team advances the project into schematic design, GARANCO remains actively engaged in coordinating budgeting, scheduling, and constructability reviews. The phase typically results in a 50% design set establishing the overall framework of the project.
Constructability reviews are also performed during this phase to identify potential conflicts, long-lead items, coordination challenges, or opportunities for value optimization.
Using these documents, GARANCO prepares project-specific conceptual pricing based on current market conditions, trade input, and real-world construction experience. Continuous pricing exercises during design allow the Owner and design team to make informed decisions while maintaining alignment with the project budget.
As the design progresses into detailed coordination, GARANCO works closely with the Owner and design consultants to refine pricing, scheduling, logistics, and construction sequencing. Construction documents during this stage are typically developed to approximately 75% completion.
At this stage, GARANCO continues refining project pricing and typically develops a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) proposal based on the evolving construction documents. Budget accuracy is generally refined to less than ±5%.
Because the GARANCO Project Management team remains engaged throughout design and preconstruction, potential cost impacts, coordination issues, and constructability concerns are identified early and resolved collaboratively before construction begins.
The final document phase incorporates Owner feedback, permitting requirements, constructability refinements, and finalized material selections. The construction documents are considered 100% complete and are used for final trade procurement, permitting, and contract execution.
GARANCO works closely with the Owner and design team to ensure all project components are fully coordinated prior to mobilization.
During construction, GARANCO provides proactive field leadership, coordination, quality management, and schedule oversight to ensure the project is delivered in accordance with the design intent, budget, and project schedule.
A major advantage of GARANCO’s CMAR process is that the same Project Management team involved during design, budgeting, and procurement continues leading the project throughout construction. This continuity creates a seamless transition from preconstruction into field execution while maintaining accountability and preserving institutional project knowledge.
Throughout construction, GARANCO maintains active communication with the Owner and design team while strategically managing quality control, safety, scheduling, and field coordination. By integrating preconstruction leadership with field execution, GARANCO delivers a collaborative, transparent, and accountable construction process from initial planning through final completion.
The scope of the FTCC project consists of 69,267 square feet of interior up fit to their existing main campus building. The program spaces will include nursing, birthing & medication labs, a wellness center, campus bookstore, computer & tutoring labs, administrative & cashier offices, veteran’s, women, & minority mentoring centers, new restrooms, testing center, chemistry lab, science & general classrooms, and a conference center with full kitchen.
