Lundgren Management Industry Connector
Spring 2013
In This Issue
Lundgren heads to CASH
Lundgren begins work of Millen Intermediate School
New regulations in 2014
Building a better community
"[Lundgren] did an excellent job organizing the critical path schedule activities to successfully build our new facilities. ... Due to their expertise, substantial dollars were saved. We truly considered them part of our team, looking out for the District's best interests and would not hesitate to acquire them to manage future projects of the District."

- Jerry Skaff, Director of Construction and Modernization for the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, for which Lundgren has performed pre-construction and construction management services on two recent projects.

 

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Greetings!

Dale LundgrenWhen the recession started pinching businesses everywhere over the last several years, Lundgren Management had to respond to hardships within the construction industry. For many in our line of work, the solution was to start focusing on new market sectors outside a company's core niche. That can be a positive short-term solution. However, in the long term a company risks becoming a jack of all trades but master of none.

 

Lundgren has a solution that has worked in both the short and long term.

 

Rather than pursuing different market sectors, we enriched our offerings right within our core area of expertise: school projects. We were able to diversify our offerings and became a business that our clients can call from project inception, rather than when we're "needed" in the construction process.

 

Within the overarching construction management services we provide, we focused on an integrated project delivery (IPD) approach to construction and program management, lease-leaseback, master planning, design management and Building Information Modeling (BIM). As a result, we have focused on our core strength - excellent school projects - while adding to our toolkit.

 

More than ever, diversification is vital for businesses seeking to thrive in hard times. But rather than expanding into new areas that may not be your specialty, consider enhancing services you provide in a realm in which you already excel. With time, you will prove to be a go-to leader in your field.

 

This isn't simply conjecture, either. Last year was one of the best for us, with Lundgren seeing a huge spike from previous years in contracts signed. Our goal of delivering quality construction services with integrity, leadership and teamwork never changed; we've simply added a few more routes to take in arriving at that goal.

 

With best regards,
Dale Lundgren


Dale Lundgren
President
Lundgren Management

 

Lundgren Team Heads North to
CASH Conference
 

CASH Conference
Aaron Haas, Vice President Operations, and consultant Jaime Castellanos, talk at Lundgren's booth at the 34th annual Conference on School Facilities.
At the end of February, the Lundgren team exhibited at the 34th annual Conference on School Facilities, hosted in Sacramento by the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH). This conference brings together education officials from across California, and discussion topics included the status and implications of new laws and regulations, planning and fiscal management issues, and status reports on school maintenance funding and programs. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to connect with representatives from school districts throughout the state - both those with whom we've worked in the past and potential new clients.

 

Networking at the conference provides a good window into trends in school construction projects. For instance, we noticed this year that school districts are getting construction management firms involved earlier and earlier in the process. Typically in the past, districts would wait until a project was approved to bring a construction management firm on board. Having a firm involved from the get-go, however, makes for a much more streamlined and cohesive process from start to finish.

 

We had plenty of good connections and conversations at our exhibition booth, and it was great to have with us one of our consultants, Jaime Castellanos, former superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa Clarita. In his time with Lundgren over the last several years, Jaime has been helpful in bringing an educator's perspective to the table when interacting with our clients, as well as being able to inform potential clients what they can expect in working with Lundgren.

 

All in all, our time at the CASH conference was well spent, connecting with educators and reminding all that Lundgren excels at school construction projects.

 
David G. Millen Intermediate School 

Palmdale School District 

DGM Renderings   
One of Lundgren's newest projects is the Palmdale School District's David G. Millen Intermediate School. Lundgren is the construction manager for the $30 million project, which is designed by NTD Architecture and will be delivered through the multiple-prime delivery method. The Palmdale School District serves more than 21,000 students in Kindergarten through eighth grade, with its intermediate schools serving seventh and eighth grade.

At roughly 96,000 square-feet, the school will include standard, science, music and home economics classrooms, an art lab, computer lab, special education classrooms with flexibility for large group and individual instruction, a library and media center, a gymnasium and physical education center, locker rooms, a multi-purpose room/cafeteria and administrative offices. The campus is essentially designed as a courtyard, with the facilities surrounding outdoor, multi-purpose space, as well as providing a safe and secure environment for students.

 

New Regulations in 2014
  

New Regulations As the year progresses, it is worth keeping an eye on the horizon when planning for construction projects.

 

Signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last fall, Assembly Bill 1565 (Fuentes) goes into effect January 2014. It mandates that school districts use a bidder pre-qualification process for any projects that receive School Facility Program funding and funding from any future bonds. It applies to projects with a budget of $1 million or more that are awarded between Jan. 1, 2014 and Jan. 1, 2019.

 

What this means is that school districts will need to adopt uniform guidelines and pre-qualify both primary, bidding contractors and all electrical, mechanical and plumbing subcontractors. The bill's mandates are expected to create significant additional steps and paperwork for school districts.

 

There are several requirements to note:

  • Prospective bidders must submit to the school district a standardized questionnaire and financial statement, which is not public records or open to inspection;   
  • The school district must adopt and supply a uniform system of rating bidders;   
  • The questionnaire, financial statement and rating system must contain, at a minimum, issues covered by the bidder-rating guidelines developed by the state Department of Industrial Relations;   
  • The school district must make available a list of all pre-qualified electrical, mechanical and plumbing subcontractors to bidders at least five days before the public bid opening date.

In other legislative news, three vehicles for a 2014 statewide school bond have been introduced recently. Assembly Bill 41 (Buchanan), Senate Bill 45 (Corbett) and Senate Bill 301 (Liu) are placeholders for negotiations that will take place throughout this year. The future of a state school facility program will be closely linked to the development of a bond bill.

Lundgren Cares About Building a
Better Community
 

   

Community At Lundgren Management, we see the community as much more than a group of potential clients. We care about investing in and giving back to the communities in which we work.

 

For example, in Bakersfield, Lundgren is a contributor and partner for the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA. We are a supporter of the Toys for Tots program in the Fontana Unified School District. We've also partnered with the Glendale Unified School and the Glendale Community College Education Foundation.

 

In our home community of the Santa Clarita Valley, we're a sponsor for the SCV Chamber of Commerce's 29th annual Oak Tree Golf Classic, coming up April 22 at the Tournament Players Club in Valencia. This tournament sets the stage for networking opportunities, helping forge strong connections and relationships in the valley's business community. We're also a supporter of the Culinary Arts Program at College of the Canyons in Valencia. The college's capital campaign has been raising funds for a new facility over the last two years, and this new facility will be a huge improvement over the rented space currently used by the program, providing a top-of-the-line educational space for preparing qualified culinary artists.

 

About Lundgren Management
Lundgren Management provides a comprehensive array of services which are incorporated throughout the design and construction phases of a project. By establishing open paths of communication early on in the process, the Lundgren Management team forges partnerships with each member of the project team, defines the goals and objectives for the project, and develops a consensus of how the goals will be met.

 

Learn more about us on the web at Lundgren.net

 

Lundgren Management 
Construction Management & Consulting
Managing Construction Programs
Through Trust, Teamwork & Leadership