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Best Practice: Align the Lease, Architect Agreement, and GC Contract Before Tenant Improvement Risk Shows Up
A lot of tenant improvement risk is set before design starts. The lease gets signed first. The architect comes in later. The general contractor comes in later still. By then, key delivery dates, landlord approval rights, notice requirements, and turnover conditions may already be fixed. If the downstream agreements do not match those upstream obligations,…
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Industry Watch – The CRUX Report Confirms What Good Contracts Have Been Telling Us All Along
One of the things I love most about construction is the process itself. When a project is working the way it should, owners, designers, contractors, and consultants are all moving in the same direction. The work is demanding, but it is also collaborative. It is disciplined. It is creative. It is deeply rewarding. When the…
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Industry Watch: How This Commonly Accepted Clause Can Legally Shut Down Your Job
Most owners sign the AIA A201 General Conditions without ever discussing Section 2.2. Until it becomes a problem. A recent court decision analyzed in Lexology highlights what happens when an owner fails to provide “evidence of financial arrangements” as required under AIA A201 §2.2. In that case, the court sided with the developer after financial…
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Best Practice: Why Reusing Old Liquidated Damages Clauses Puts Owners at Risk
For private owners, liquidated damages clauses are meant to manage schedule risk. But when those clauses are recycled from old contracts (written for different projects, markets, and risk profiles) they can become unenforceable. Worse, they can backfire at the exact moment you need them most. The Problem: Familiar Language, New Risk Liquidated damages clauses appear…
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Industry Watch: New York’s Retainage Law Exposes a Bigger Owner-Side Blind Spot
Prompt payment laws rarely come up, until they’re violated. That was my first reaction reading New York’s latest retainage amendment. I’m not surprised by the law itself. I’ve been writing about prompt payment acts around the world for years. What struck me was how many standard construction contracts are likely out of compliance under this…
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Industry Watch: Documentation Before Rework Is a Discipline, Not a Legal Tactic
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve walked a site, seen a condition that clearly needed corrective work, and heard a project leader say, “Let’s just fix it and be done.” There’s a natural urge to get a bad condition behind you. I get it — you’re protecting budget, schedule, and reputation. But the…
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Industry Watch: Prompt Payment Laws in Construction — Recent Cases Owners Can’t Ignore
On a Massachusetts project, an owner thought it was “just” behind on paperwork. Instead, a court found it had breached the Prompt Payment Act, deemed seven applications approved, and ordered payment of more than $4.6 million — before the owner’s own claims were even heard. That’s exactly what happened in the Tocci Building Corp. v.…
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Industry Watch: Rethinking Contract Risk, Beyond Schedule-Based Liquidated Damages
I have reviewed many construction contracts over the years.Most of them focus on dates and delay.Very few speak to the risks that cause the greatest harm to owners. Problem and Context A recent Lexology article on data center construction risk offers a strong introduction to liquidated damages, force majeure, and indemnity. It is a useful…
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Industry Watch: Why Small Decisions Derail Projects — And How Owners Can Stay Ahead
A friend of mine is in the middle of a kitchen remodel, and the project has taken a familiar turn. What started as a simple upgrade has become a slow drift into frustration — unclear scope, incomplete design decisions, and a growing list of misunderstandings. Listening to him describe the situation reminded me just how…
