News

With today’s changing economy, the utility companies are going through an extreme re-organization, passing most of their costs onto Builders and Developers. This is making it more important to know the right contact for design, fees and construction. With over 40 years of dry utility experience, Silver Fern Management is working with both sides of the spectrum; Builders and Developers. You can count on our expertise to help navigate utility providers and their associated costs.

Silver Fern Management’s Utility Division provides a variety of services which include meeting and coordinating electrical/telephone/natural gas/cable TV design needs with Client, bidding out street light design, reviewing the status of existing projects that are foreclosed / partially complete, advising on best course of action for the Client to take concerning contracts with the utility providers, assisting Engineering firms with government agencies coordination regarding utilities, and verifying bidding materials from Contractors.

Richard Seminara
Executive Director, Dry Utilities

Do you own or are you interested in a partially improved development? The change in the market has created price volatility opposite of what was seen in 2005, and the availability of responsible contractors is again favorable. Understanding the cost to complete a partially improved project with current market pricing and accurate scopes of work is critical for the disposition analysis of an investment or finishing an existing development.

With every engagement Silver Fern confirms the status of development with the jurisdiction, reviewing existing project materials and conducting a site inspection to determine true as-built conditions. This effort allows us to produce specific scopes of work for incomplete improvements which generate accurate competitive bids. Our budgets include all re approval fees and associated permits as well as a detailed description of the incomplete work. Silver Fern provides a complete summary so that our client has the information to make an informed decision regarding the asset.

Stephen Ochoa
Director of Construction

Current conditions of the real estate market are now dictating as an industry we are at the “Cross Roads” in determining how we approach the disposition of properties with previously acquired entitlements and/or improvements. Whether acquiring or moving forward with land you have retained, answers to these questions are vital. Over the past two years Silver Fern has been critically involved and have assisted in those decisions by analyzing multiple distressed and/or dormant properties throughout the Valley. Assessment of a projects status or current plan approvals while determining the worth of preserving approvals from a zoning and platting perspective is key to maintaining your asset value. Investigating accuracy under which approvals were achieved and obligations with existing municipality and third party agreements are instrumental in making good decisions. We assist in mitigating your long term exposures to unwanted liabilities and unnecessary surprises. Furthermore, navigating through municipalities and governing agencies new policies, standards and procedures for timely and cost efficient ways to achieve and/or maintain extensions or re-approvals is quickly becoming the key to success. We are your “Cross Roads” expert.

Mari Flynn
Vice President of Land Development

2010 brings the development and homebuilding community to a beginning of healing the nuclear landscape that the last half of the decade left, a sobering look at what remains and wondering which direction is north. It is time to identify and create a plan for the next coming of the Phoenix Market. Investors have assets that now need to be brought to market and builders are recovering from the hangover of the 60,000 permit party. We suddenly woke up to a valley of finished and partially finished lots and not enough stores for builders to sell from. There are specific locations where the supply and demand metric is beginning to show a pulse, and the projects that are being assessed are the very same that were “mothballed” or “shelved” in the years of 2006 through 2008.

Understanding an asset today during the due diligence phase is a complex process due to the circumstances when development ceased. Many times we find that the busy years of the first half of the decade led to an environment where money solved all development problems; cost control and experienced decisions were sometimes sacrificed for volume and speed of lot delivery. Hindsight illustrates that the pace that the industry operated was not conducive to quality and efficiency. Now as those same projects are brought back, determining the status and total development cost as well as identifying cost saving measures is important to today’s market setting.

Silver Fern Management is a full service construction management, entitlement, land development, and real estate consulting firm. We also provide general contracting services and partner with private lenders to deliver Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP / not to exceed) development strategies to builders in this price sensitive market. We are a core of experienced industry professionals that not only understand the market but are also seasoned by the downturn and have survived the tumultuous ride. We are focused on the owner’s strategy and the market needs.

John Fortini
President / Managing Member

Southern Hills is a 17-lot subdivision in Phoenix