The Tender Process

Tendering is stressful and costly when run by people with an agenda that isn't your own. Those are probably the biggest takeaways from our experience with this. I would also tell past me, that allowing someone to push you into allowing a company to only get one tender offer in is absolute madness. It's railroading at it's finest and as tendering is a huge part of the development process, which shouldn't be undertaken lightly.

So, going back to the start.... we were always told by Pico that once we were looking to confirm pricing for the development, it would be put to tender. That people would submit their offers and we would get to choose which we liked the sound of best. We had many conversations about this, and how the tender process helped to get us a better deal.

It sounded like a good thing. And my business brain felt this made perfect sense, shopping around essentially and making sure we got the best deal. So we pushed on. Ready for this next stage which was so exciting as a tender, would mean that it was really happening!

It was a bit of a shock come time to actually ask for tender submissions and to be told that only one company was being considered.

Initially we were told this was because only one company was interested. The reason given was that our job was somewhere in a grey area of being too big to fit into the comfortable box of a house building construction company, but too small for many large scale companies. It was a shock given the conversations and preparation Pico had done with us to have us ready for this now fantasy situation of multiple companies quoting and trying to get our work. We couldn't quite figure out why he was saying it now wouldn't happen like this.

I guess I took this as a bit of a challenge, as I like to try and cover all bases. So at this point, I decided to start reaching out to contacts and I found a couple of companies who were willing to put in a tender and who I communicated with for a period of time, discussing the build, implications, timing, size, sending plans and talking through expectations of pricing.

One even made the offer to take on not only the construction but the project management.

Being me, I was excited to jump on this, so I sent them on to Pico who promptly arranged yet another meeting.

We thought he was going to be as excited as I was to see options, however he almost seemed to take it as a personal affront. Which was even more of a shock to us. This was one of the times where after this meeting, Dwayne and I had a very intense series of conversations after as we were both blindsided by the statements made by Pico.

First he tried to put us off getting more tenders by telling us each one would cost approximately $50'000 which was a surprise in itself. Then there were the thinly veiled threats of that should we choose an alternative project manager that there would be extra charges added to our bills. Conversations where the thread was "I need to make you aware that there are a number of things that BECA hasn't charged for. And if you were to take on another Project Manager, those would have to be charged for" which when I questioned why they hadn't been, as this was never something we had asked for, Pico evaded answering and just told me it was part of the service. That didn't make a lot of sense. But both Dwayne and I felt very much like we were being told that essentially it was going to cost us a lot of money if we took this project out of Pico and BECA's hands. Even though we would have still been retaining them as engineers.

The entire meeting was baffling. As back when we initially started discussing the major project, Pico had passed comment that perhaps we should look to a cheaper company than BECA to run the project, as their project management fees were very high. Which felt a little like he was assuming we could not afford them anyway. And we had affirmed with him then that the cost was okay. So for him to about face and tell us that we couldn't afford to look elsewhere was enough to silence the both of us. I mean honestly, how do you respond to that???

it was one of the more awkward meetings I think that we had and I immediately debriefed with my mother and step-father as I needed to know that the statements Pico had given us, were not being misunderstood by me. Or misinterpreted.

This was really stressful to go through given that both of us were present for all meetings, and debriefing after was becoming normal. But after most it was usually just clarifying what the other had heard and understood, checking we were all seeming to be on the same page. And for the most part we came out of them with positives. Not this time. This time we were both hurt. Confused. Struggling to understand what had just happened and if I'm honest, this is where the biggest cracks in the project were beginning to show. But by this time we felt like we weren't in a position where we could afford to do anything about it.

We were stuck. And the only thing we could do was to try to push on.

Current me, quite frankly wishes past me had pushed harder for a better tender deal and ensured that we got the fairest deal we could get. I would reiterate that getting everything in writing and making sure you have witnesses to every single meeting is absolutely key to ensuring that your project manager is competent, trustworthy and can do their job properly.

We didn't do those things, so we were left in a position where we had one single tender.

I honestly cannot advise this as a good idea. If anyone tells you it is, run a million miles in the other direction. As they are steering you wrong.

I will tell you though, that the single tender that came through was from a company who we had never heard of. Maycroft.

We started to ask around about them, having by now been misled so many times we wanted to know who we were going to be being railroaded by next, but we heard nothing but positive feedback which was definitely a pro. Also their build quality was recognised as being very good. Many people did also deem them to be one of the most expensive companies to build with, which seemed to be a con we couldn't avoid. The weighing up of this, was that good quality and higher costs, would leave us in a better position post-build.

Given the state of things with BECA and the lack of options, we signed with Maycroft.

Looking back, I am in many ways glad we did, as you will read the progression and see how Maycroft have made themselves worth every cent. But it's important that no one should feel as trapped as we have along this journey, so please. Choose your teams wisely. See a red flag? Run. The money is not as important as your mental and physical health.

Here are a couple of neat shots Maycroft took of the building after the original roof was removed and when the old portal frames were coming down!