Owner’s representation in Miami

Who sits where on a Miami project

Owners are often surprised by how many parties are involved in even a modest build-out, and by how few of them work for the owner alone. The architect works for you, but on design. The general contractor works for you, but on a contract where every change is also a revenue opportunity. Lenders, landlords and building departments all have their own interests. An owner’s representative is the one person whose only job is your budget, schedule and quality.

Our principal, Sal DiBenedetto, is a Florida Certified General Contractor and a licensed Florida plumbing contractor, and he is also a licensed broker. That mix means we understand both the real estate goals behind a project and the way contractors price and build it.

Our work phase by phase

Before design

We set a realistic budget and schedule from the start, including soft costs, permit time, long-lead items and contingency. We check existing conditions so the design team starts from facts, not assumptions.

During design

We review drawings at each stage for cost and constructability, push decisions to happen on time and make sure the drawings include the hurricane-rated products and details Miami-Dade will require.

Bidding and contracts

We prepare a bid package, prequalify contractors, level the bids so they can be compared fairly, and help negotiate the construction contract alongside your attorney.

Construction

We attend meetings, walk the site, track the schedule, review every pay application and change order, and keep a written record of issues and decisions.

Closeout

We drive the punch list, final inspections, certificate of occupancy or completion, warranties, as-built drawings and final lien releases.

Florida lien law and paying contractors safely

Florida’s construction lien law gives contractors, subcontractors and suppliers the right to file liens against your property if they are not paid, even if you already paid the general contractor. This is one of the most important reasons owners hire a representative.

• Notice of Commencement. Generally recorded before work starts on projects above a threshold value. It identifies the owner, contractor, lender and surety, and it affects how lien rights work.
• Notices to Owner. Subcontractors and suppliers who do not contract with you directly send these to preserve their lien rights. We track every one received.
• Lien releases. We require partial releases with each payment from the contractor and from each party that sent a notice, and final releases before final payment.
• Final contractor’s affidavit. Florida law calls for the contractor to provide one before final payment, listing anyone still unpaid.

The rules are technical and deadlines matter. Your construction attorney should set up the process; we enforce it pay application by pay application.

Hurricane readiness during construction

A Miami project under construction during storm season is exposed in ways a finished building is not. Loose materials, open roofs, temporary openings and tower cranes all need a plan. We make sure the construction contract requires a written hurricane preparedness plan, that the contractor knows who makes the call to secure the site and when, and that builder’s risk insurance covers windstorm and flood at the right limits and deductibles. After a storm, we document the site’s condition, track recovery costs separately and keep the schedule and insurance claims aligned.

Choosing a construction contract structure

How you hire the contractor shapes who carries risk when prices or conditions change. In a market where material and labor costs have moved quickly, picking the right structure matters as much as picking the right contractor.

Whatever the structure, we focus on the clauses that cause most disputes: what counts as a change, how allowances are reconciled, who pays for permit delays, liquidated damages, retainage and how the contractor documents costs. Your attorney drafts and finalizes the contract; we make sure it reflects how the job will actually run.

Permits and inspections in Miami-Dade

The building department is part of every Miami schedule. Each municipality runs its own, and Miami-Dade County handles unincorporated areas, so procedures and review times vary by address.

• Product approvals. In the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, windows, doors, storefronts, roofing and other exterior products need Miami-Dade Notices of Acceptance or equivalent approvals. We make sure submittals are complete, because missing approvals stall inspections.
• Threshold buildings. Florida requires a special inspector for threshold buildings, generally larger or taller structures. That inspector’s schedule becomes part of the critical path.
• Private providers. Florida law lets owners use private providers for plan review and inspections in many cases. Sometimes that saves time, sometimes it does not. We evaluate it project by project.
• Other agencies. Fire, health department for food service, environmental review and utility approvals each have their own sign-offs.

We keep one master list of every required approval and inspection, with who owns it and when it is due, so nothing is discovered the week before opening.

Area-specific project issues

Construction in Brickell and Downtown Miami often means working inside occupied towers with strict landlord rules on freight elevators, noise hours and insurance. In Miami Beach, historic district review, flood elevation and limited staging space shape almost every job. Coral Gables has detailed design review of exterior changes. Restaurant openings in Wynwood bring grease, exhaust and outdoor seating issues, and industrial work in Doral usually involves slab, power and sprinkler upgrades for warehouse users. We set the plan around these conditions from the start.

How we report to owners

Owners hire us to know what is going on without having to chase it. On every project we provide a short written report on a regular schedule, usually every week or two, covering:

• Budget: original, approved changes, pending changes, contingency left and forecast at completion.
• Schedule: milestones met, what slipped, why, and the recovery plan.
• Permits and inspections: status of each open item.
• Decisions needed from the owner, with deadlines and our recommendation.
• Photos and notes from site walks.
• Payments: pay applications reviewed, amounts recommended and lien release status.

Lenders and investors often want the same information. We format reports so they can be shared with your partners and your bank.

Leveling bids so they actually compare

Three bids for the same Miami build-out can differ widely, and the lowest one is often the most incomplete. Before you choose, we put every bid on the same footing.

1. Break each bid into the same trade categories and line items.
2. Identify exclusions and assumptions, such as permit fees, hurricane-rated products, after-hours work, temporary protection or utility connection fees.
3. Check allowances against realistic costs, since low allowances shift risk back to you.
4. Compare general conditions, fee and insurance costs on the same basis.
5. Review schedules and staffing, and ask each bidder how they would handle the specific site conditions.
6. Interview the finalists, including the superintendent who will actually run the job.

The result is a recommendation based on total expected cost and risk, not the number on the cover sheet.

Warning signs we watch for

• Change orders submitted after the work is done, without prior approval or backup.
• Pay applications that bill ahead of actual progress on site.
• Missing lien releases from subcontractors who sent Notices to Owner.
• A superintendent who changes often or is rarely on site.
• Inspections being failed and rescheduled repeatedly.
• Long-lead products, such as impact windows, switchgear or rooftop units, not yet ordered when the schedule says they should be.

Catching these early is what keeps a project from going over budget at the end, when there is no time left to recover.

A hypothetical example: restaurant opening

The following is hypothetical and for illustration only. A restaurant group has signed a lease for a second-generation space and wants to open before the busy season. The landlord has offered an improvement allowance, and the group’s chef has already sketched the kitchen.

As owner’s rep, we would first confirm that the space’s grease interceptor, exhaust path, gas service and electrical capacity can support the menu. We would push the design team to finish health department and fire plans early, prepare a bid package with clear allowances for equipment and finishes, and line up the landlord’s approvals for exterior signage and any outdoor seating. During construction, we would track kitchen equipment deliveries and inspections closely, because those are usually what delays opening. At closeout, we would make sure the landlord’s allowance is paid on time, which often depends on providing lien releases and certificates the lease requires.

Owner’s rep for investors and lenders

Investors repositioning a building and lenders funding construction both need independent eyes on the work. For investors, we can review a value-add budget before you buy, then oversee the renovation once you close, so your underwriting and the actual project stay connected. See our Miami investment sales page for the acquisition side. For lenders and equity partners, we can review draw requests and confirm progress in the field before money is released.

Fees and starting a project with us

We price owner’s representation as a fixed fee, a monthly retainer or a percentage of construction cost, depending on the project and how involved you want us to be. Fees are agreed in writing before work starts. Our role is advisory: we do not act as your general contractor on the same job, so our advice is not tied to construction profit.

To get started, send us what you have: a lease or purchase contract, any drawings, a budget if one exists and your target opening or completion date. Call or text 239-256-5005, email info@diberealestate.com, or reach out through the contact page. If you want us to run the project day to day, see Miami project management, or read our general owner’s representation overview.

Condominium and association repair projects

Since Florida tightened its building safety rules after the Surfside collapse, many Miami associations have faced structural inspections, reserve studies and repair programs at the same time. These projects are hard for volunteer boards. They involve large budgets, unit owners who are paying special assessments, engineers’ reports that are not easy to read, and contractors working around residents.

We help boards turn an engineer’s findings into a defined scope, bid it competitively, compare contract terms and then oversee the work with regular written reports the board can share with owners. We coordinate with the association’s engineer of record, attorney and manager, and keep a clear record of every decision. The rules for associations continue to change, so we rely on the association’s counsel and engineer for compliance questions and focus on making sure the work gets done properly and at a fair price.

Tenant build-outs under a landlord work letter

For office and retail tenants, the lease work letter sets the rules for construction: the allowance, who picks the contractor, landlord approvals, supervision fees and how and when the allowance is paid. Many tenants sign the lease without knowing what their build-out will actually cost, then discover the allowance covers only part of it.

We price the build-out before the lease is signed, so your tenant representation negotiation is based on real numbers. After signing, we manage the landlord’s approval process, keep the contractor on schedule and assemble the paperwork needed to collect the allowance, which is often lien releases, a certificate of occupancy and final invoices.

Construction terms owners should know

Managing long-lead items and the Miami supply chain

On many Miami projects, the schedule is set less by the work on site than by the products that have to arrive. Impact-rated windows and storefront systems, electrical switchgear and transformers, rooftop HVAC units, elevators and commercial kitchen equipment can all carry long and unpredictable lead times. Product approvals add another step, because a substitution that is not approved for the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone cannot simply be swapped in when the original is late.

We identify long-lead items during design, push to finalize those selections first, and ask the contractor to release orders as early as the contract and drawings allow. Where it makes sense, we look at owner-purchased equipment to lock in delivery dates. We track every long-lead item on its own schedule line, with order date, approval status and promised delivery, and we raise the alarm the moment a date moves. Utility service is part of this too: Florida Power and Light and other utilities need lead time for new service or upgrades, and those requests should be filed well before the building needs power.

This kind of tracking is unglamorous, but it is often the difference between opening on time and paying rent on an empty space for months. It is also where an owner’s rep with a contractor’s background earns the fee, because we know which items tend to slip and why.

Owners based outside Miami

Many of the owners we work with in Miami live in New York, elsewhere in Florida or abroad. For them, an owner’s rep is the person on the ground who walks the site, sits in the meetings and tells them plainly what is happening. We set up a reporting rhythm that fits your time zone, share photos and documents through a single shared folder, and flag decisions early so you are never asked to approve something major on a same-day deadline. Owners with projects in both states can also see our Brooklyn owner’s representation page.

Value engineering without losing what you paid for

When bids come in over budget, the contractor’s first move is usually a value engineering list: cheaper substitutes, simplified details, scope moved to later. Some of those ideas are good. Others save money on paper and cost it back in maintenance, insurance or a failed inspection.

In Miami the risky substitutions tend to involve the building envelope. Windows, doors, roofing and storefront systems have to carry the right product approvals for high wind zones, and a lower-priced product without the proper approval can stop a job at inspection. Changes to mechanical equipment can affect humidity control, which matters a great deal in this climate.

We review each proposed change with the architect and engineer and ask three things: what the owner actually saves after the contractor’s markup, what it does to the schedule and the permit, and what it does to the building over the next ten or fifteen years of operation. Then the owner decides with the full picture.

Neighbors, shared walls and pre-construction surveys

Many Miami projects are built tight against other buildings, especially in Brickell, Miami Beach and older blocks of Downtown Miami. Demolition, pile driving and heavy equipment can cause cracks or complaints next door, and a neighbor dispute can slow a project down.

• Document adjacent buildings with photos and video before work starts, so later damage claims can be checked against a record.
• Ask the engineer whether vibration monitoring makes sense for the foundation method being used.
• Agree on crane swing, staging and access with neighbors in writing where the work crosses a property line.
• Confirm work hours and noise rules with the city before the schedule is set.

These steps cost little compared with a dispute. They are part of how we run project management as well.