Hi Reader,

Last year, our team at Dena was brought in to support the pre-construction phase of a mid-rise project in Toronto.

While working through Site Plan Approval, we started doing what we usually do — looking closely at the building systems and asking where we could simplify things and remove unnecessary cost.

I hate waste in construction!

One of our deliverables was a preliminary budget, but instead of just pricing what was on the drawings, we took it a step further.

For the past 20 years, I've approached the projects the same way every time:

If this were my own project, what would I change?

So we created budgets based on two versions of the same building:

1. One based on the original design
2. One based on how we thought it should be built

The difference was meaningful.

The optimized version came in at roughly 8.7% lower in hard costs, with about 2-3 months in schedule savings.

On a conservative basis, that translated to about 8–10% improvement in the pro forma.

Obviously, we are not magicians and not every project has that kind of opportunity.

Some are already well thought through.

Some are too far along to make meaningful changes.

But many projects fall somewhere in between.

In our experience, there are usually a handful of key areas — structure, envelope, mechanical systems, layout efficiency — where most of the opportunity sits.

The challenge is that it’s not always obvious when it’s worth digging into that process.

That’s why we put together a free & simple tool:

​VE Potential Assessment Tool.

It’s a quick way to gauge whether your project is likely to benefit from a more structured VE review — based on its stage, design, and overall setup.

If you have a project that’s close to working, or one where costs feel a bit tight, it might be worth running it through.

Take the assessment and let’s have a chat.

Thanks,

Payam Noursalehi

Dena Project Management

330 Highway 7 E, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3P8
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