Recovering a Fixed Move-In Date
A 46,000 sf tenant fit-out in a leased shell must be occupied 11 months (about 48 weeks) after notice to proceed. Rent abatement ends then, and every day of slippage costs the client roughly $9,000 in displaced operations. At week 6, design development is one week behind. The remaining work is sequential unless deliberately overlapped: DD 5 weeks, CDs 12 weeks, owner review 2 weeks, AHJ plan review 5 weeks, bid and award 4 weeks, construction 24 weeks. Owner FF&E and IT installation takes 4 weeks and must finish before move-in. The contractor has offered to compress construction from 24 to 20 weeks for a $310,000 premium. The client wants a recommendation this week.
1. Is the move-in date achievable on the current sequence? Quantify the gap.
Read the worked answer
Convert everything to weeks from NTP.
- Remaining preconstruction at week 6: DD 5 + CD 12 + owner review 2 + AHJ 5 + bid/award 4 = 28 weeks.
- Construction 24 weeks, then FF&E/IT 4 weeks = 28 weeks that cannot overlap with themselves.
- Weeks available after week 6: 48 - 6 = 42. Committed after design: 28. Remaining for preconstruction: 14.
The gap is 14 weeks (28 planned against 14 available), before accounting for the week already lost in DD.
Note the asymmetry: the 14 weeks must come out of preconstruction and construction sequencing, not out of the permit review or the owner's review of the documents, because those are the activities where a shortcut produces a redesign later. Every week recovered before the field is cheaper and lower risk than the same week recovered in construction.
2. Build a recovery plan. Rank the measures by cost and risk, and show that it closes the gap.
Read the worked answer
Sequence by cost, then risk; recover freely before buying time.
- Overlap owner review inside CD production (2 weeks, $0). Requires fixed review milestones and a 10-day turnaround commitment.
- Overlap FF&E/IT with the last 4 weeks of construction (4 weeks, $0). Owner-side risk only; requires early procurement of shelving and casework.
- Early bid and award of MEP, drywall, and millwork during the final month of CDs (4 weeks, 1-2% premium). Standard for fit-outs; low design risk once the packages are frozen.
- Pre-submittal meeting plus phased permit, core and shell first, tenant second (3 weeks, low cost). Moderate risk: review comments can arrive after the package is bought out.
- Overlap DD with early design-assist CDs (2 weeks, some rework risk).
Total: 15 weeks against a 14-week gap, leaving 1 week of float.
What not to do: cut the AHJ review, delete the owner review entirely, or buy the contractor's acceleration before the free weeks are spent. The plan should be issued as a written recovery schedule with owners and dates for each overlap, or it will not survive week 8.
3. The client asks whether to buy the contractor's four-week acceleration for $310,000. Evaluate.
Read the worked answer
Price the time before buying it.
- Value recovered: 4 weeks = 28 days x $9,000 = $252,000.
- Premium: $310,000. Net: -$58,000 even if the acceleration works exactly as promised.
- Break-even: $310,000 / $9,000 = 34.4 days, and the offer only recovers 28.
So the purchase is negative-value as pure delay insurance. The economics flip only if (a) the $9,000/day significantly understates the loss (lost grant funds, lease penalties, contractual commitments to subtenants), or (b) the recovery plan above fails and acceleration is the only path left. Neither is true today.
Secondary risks: 24 to 20 weeks is a 17% compression of a fit-out, which typically shows up as overtime quality problems, inspection rework, and a contractor position that the compressed schedule was never achievable. If the owner still wants the protection, buy it as a separately capped allowance tied to days actually recovered and verified in the schedule update, not as a lump sum paid up front.