Our Experience
Life Sciences R&D
This confidential client was planning to refurbish and repurpose several floors of a multi-purpose building in Pennsylvania into a Life Sciences R&D facility — including the development of a Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory. The project formed part of a major reorganisation and restructure of the client's US operations, making the substantial completion date a critical driver alongside cost certainty.
Design work had already commenced with an architect, and the client wished to move to a design-and-build contract structure under which the architect would be novated to the construction contractor. We were engaged to manage the full procurement process on the client's behalf and to develop the commercial framework needed to make the contract attractive to the right contractors.
The complexity of the scope — a BSL-3 laboratory, life science fit-out, and works within a live tenanted building — required a major contractor with specific capabilities and proven experience in life sciences environments. However, the total installed cost of this project was relatively modest for the scale of contractors typically capable of delivering this type of work, creating a real risk that the most qualified bidders would not engage with a procurement of this size.
A further challenge was the novation of the architect to the incoming design-and-build contractor, which needed to be structured in a way that preserved design continuity, managed risk clearly between parties, and remained commercially acceptable to the market. The procurement had to be designed to work both for the client's need for schedule certainty and for the supply chain's commercial requirements.
We managed the procurement process from end to end on behalf of the client. We invested significant effort consulting with the market early, raising the profile of the project and building relationships with the supply chain. We also incorporated specific elements into the procurement process designed to make the project more commercially attractive to the contractors best suited to deliver it.
Working closely with the client's team, we developed the scope of work, procurement documents, and commercial model — ensuring the procurement was as aligned as possible with what the market required. We also worked closely with the client's legal counsel to develop a contract that was commercially attractive to suppliers while protecting the client's requirements for cost certainty and schedule performance.
Our engagement ensured a credible and competitive tender process, with qualified contractors engaged and motivated to participate — giving the client the confidence to move forward with a well-structured delivery vehicle for this technically demanding scope.