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TRI-BAY BLOG

Message from Tri-Bay President

Hello

Welcome to Spring/Summer 2022! As we fast approach mid-year, we have uplifting news and the continued saga of price increases, rising wages, supply chain woes, material shortages (real or created), and scheduling challenges.

Let's focus on the positive and the things we have some control over. Our relationships with clients, subcontractors, design professionals, and material suppliers are what we value the most. Our business depends on those relationships, and there is nothing more important than that in keeping our doors open. We want to acknowledge that first. We remain proud of our core values of honesty, transparency, integrity, and quality services from pre-construction to occupancy. The reality of the current economic climate is that all costs are rising, for everyone, without exception. We continue our commitment to you to provide the most value for your dollar on every project we engage in, no matter the complexity of the unexpected challenges.

The construction industry in Florida has seen an unprecedented amount of new work in progress and planned work for the near future and beyond. Tri-Bay Construction LLC is growing as we roll into the second half of 2022. We have several new design-build projects with contracts pending or underway.

We are also excited to announce our CFO's retirement (in June), Linda Bay-Callahan, who has provided our team with detailed and dedicated financial skills for almost ten years. While Linda has been with the company since our humble beginnings nearly ten years ago, she has spent over 35 years in the corporate finance world. We are very happy for her and her husband Daniel and wish them both a very exciting, peaceful, and fun retirement. Our hope is they get to enjoy this time together, crossing items from their bucket list. Linda's financial experience, expertise, foresight, and corporate wisdom have helped Tri-Bay grow, weather some serious storms, and live to grow again. She will be missed. Although the third "Bay" in Tri-Bay is retiring, her legacy and footprint remain in that we are still building mainly due to her contributions over the past ten years. Thank you, Linda, for all you have done and continue to do.

With Linda's departure, we welcome to the team, Debbie Bates! Debbie will take over the Accounts payable and Accounts receivable duties along with Vice President and General Office Manager Elizabeth Bay. See our website in June for a complete profile of Miss Debbie. Debbie and I have worked together before for several years, and it is no accident that our paths crossed again just at the right time. Welcome aboard, Debbie!!

Mark Bay, President

OWNER and GENERAL CONTRACTOR RELATIONSHIP of MUTUAL TRUST

Our last issue brought together the concept of the close link between collaboration, trust, and integrity. We talked about teamwork and the ability to admit mistakes, integrate each part into the whole, and find collective solutions to the challenges that inevitably arise on a construction project.

In this issue, we would like to focus on the Owner and the General Contractor (or Design-Builder) relationship and how important transparency, trust, and honesty are in that relationship. This relationship is often the foundation on which a successful project is built.

Today's economic climate demands an acceptance of reality and a willingness to work within that reality and compromise. Until our supply chain issues are resolved or at least brought to some sort of normalcy, knowing when a product or material will actually arrive has become a mystery making finite schedules, definite completion dates, and liquidated damages clauses in contracts a desire ( a wish) more than a possibility or a reality. This environment is treacherous for both the Owners and the General Contractors/Design-Builder. Owners lease space that must be occupied by a specific time or there are financial consequences; lenders want to know a finite cost and a finite date to structure their loans. General Contractors MUST minimize overhead costs on every project as the profit margins are small in such a competitive industry.

Today, the reality is that subcontractors and suppliers are putting very short limits on their cost proposals, some as little as seven days. Some suppliers are less transparent and will provide a cost proposal, and then when the product arrives, they announce a cost increase and will not deliver until the material is paid in full. Others include several month lead times for materials, often longer than the project's duration. These are just some of the challenges we all face in the construction industry and the shortages of skilled labor and rising wages for some of the skilled labor in highest demand; one example is Block Masons.

These are just some of the more glaring challenges making the construction industry a contentious environment right now. Delayed projects create an atmosphere of frustration and often animosity between all parties involved. Finding a viable solution, somewhat palatable to all parties, is an arduous task at best. Today, signing a contract with a liquidated damages clause for project delay could be suicide for a small company.

Especially when there is no way to know:

when materials might arrive
if the entity supplying the material is telling the truth (they may not even know!)

But giving a contractor an open calendar for completing a project could be suicide for the Owners.

The solution must come in:

communication
mutual understanding,
and a very carefully phrased compromise regarding scheduling in the Owner/Builder contract.

Since every construction project is unique, requiring various types and quantities of materials, it is challenging to compose a one size fits all scheduling clause. This is also true of material escalation clauses, and there is no standard escalation clause that can be used for all contracts on all projects.

In the past, a GC was often able to absorb a small percentage increase in one or two items throughout the project's duration without any impact on the Owner or subcontractors. In our current climate, 10-15% increases have been commonplace in multiple disciplines, from project conception to actual material delivery.

OUR TEAM IS ON THE MOVE

Who's Coming and Going

CONGRATULATIONS LINDA BAY

ON YOUR RETIREMENT

Linda Bay-Callahan joined Tri-Bay Construction in 2015 after a couple of years of rapid growth.

Linda brought forty years of corporate accounting and finance experience to the table, and she has always been an invaluable asset to the Tri-Bay Construction Team.

Linda will be retiring this month after a long and successful “work-life.”

She and her husband, Daniel Callahan, hope to spend their retirement traveling as often and as far as possible whenever time allows. Their non-traveling time is likely to be spent playing golf and enjoying beach activities between family time. The matriarch of the Bay family just turned 92 on Memorial Day, and Daniel has children and grandchildren that they will spend time with.

We will miss Linda here at Tri-Bay and want to wish her and Daniel a long, healthy, and fun-filled retirement.

We all thank her for her many contributions during good and not-so-good times. Thank you, Linda!!!

WELCOME TO THE TEAM DEBBIE BATES

Before joining our team, Debbie worked with Mark Bay for seven years with another local commercial contractor.

Debbie has 20 + years of experience working in commercial construction and property management. Debbie will be managing our company's finances. Debbie's vast experience and commitment to everything she does and her outstanding character fit in with Tri-Bay's core values and can only add to the company's growth as a whole and increase the overall strength of the Tri-Bay Team.

A successful business owner for 11 years – (Home Day Care), Debbie also served her community volunteering as a guardian ad litem providing a voice to children in foster care. She donated countless hours of her time as an advocate and served the best interests of our most precious resource, our children. Debbie's spare time is spent with family and raising butterflies, contributing to the delicate balance of nature and community.

We welcome Debbie and look forward to her successful future with Tri-Bay!

FEATURED PROJECT

Montierre Development

Key West Mixed-Use Building

Due for completion in June 2022

This project entails the construction of a three-story mixed-use Concrete and Steel building containing two residential units totaling:

2,593 square feet on the third floor,
light industrial space totaling 2,942 square feet on the second-floor level,
and 2,941 square feet of covered parking on the ground floor.

Construction projects are restricted and limited in the number of apartments and business space projects qualified for construction under the ROGO (Rate of Growth Ordinance) in Monroe County by having the apartments listed under the “affordable housing” requirements.

Tri-Bay Construction and Montierre Development of Hobe Sound, Fl collaborated and shared personnel on this project which began in January 2022 and will be complete and ready for occupancy in June of this year.

Owners of both companies have worked together before, and this

will likely not be the last project they undertake together.

Check Out Our Project Photos on the Tri-Bay Website

OUR NEW NORMAL

In putting our best foot forward in the current climate, we will strive to be open, honest, and willing to compromise to make your project a success and provide you with the best value possible at the best cost we can provide.

Let us help you build your project from idea to concept to drawings to completion. Know the procedures of a construction process from beginning to end.

I will begin by sitting down with you to get to know you and learn about your needs for the project.
I will tell you how I do business and provide you with contacts of prior clients and urge you to speak with them.

We want you to walk away from our first meeting with a feeling of confidence that you have selected the right contractor.

I will continue to seek innovative new approaches to scheduling, materials, and contract agreements. Our "new normal" has arrived. Will it change again? Yes, it always has. We will adapt with you. We feel that "waiting for the change" is not the best approach. Let's deal with what is here now and make the absolute best of it by creating new industry approaches that benefit all of us.

Let's not be adversaries like some think we should be, working to perpetuate the myths about contractors because they "like the game."

The Tri-Bay DIFFERENCE

When you come to

Tri-Bay Construction with a project in mind, let us help you get to the finish line despite the increased costs, scheduling delays, and the other everyday construction challenges we have always had without games.

Let us work with you to design and build the best possible building for your growing business and build a long-lasting relationship built on trust, integrity, and transparency.

BUILT TO LAST

A BIT OF HUMOR

Tri-Bay Construction does its best to keep your project on schedule.

With the unexpected variables in the industry today, we make sure our clients are kept in the loop for any shifts that may be unexpectedly introduced during the project.