In one of the fastest-growing construction markets in the country, Colliers Project Leaders’ Arizona team has built its reputation on something remarkably simple: getting projects done on time. For over 30 years, Colliers Project Leaders has set the standard nationwide as the owner’s representative for project management, guiding clients through every stage — planning, design, construction, commissioning and occupancy — with consistent on-site involvement and predictable outcomes that reduce risk and protect capital. In Arizona, that work is led by Daniel Johnson, PE, geographic discipline leader, and a team of project managers who operate as a true extension of the owner’s team.
“We provide owners with management of cost, quality and schedule,” Johnson says. “We protect their interests throughout the duration of the project. The value we bring is the culmination of technical expertise and dedicated resources that owners simply don’t have.”
That dynamic plays out in consequential ways every day. When a field issue surfaces without an owner’s representative present, the conversation typically goes one direction according to Johnson: the contractor proposes a solution, the engineer approves or modifies it and the owner absorbs the cost —Johnson’s team changes that formula. With his credentialed staff, they engage at the same technical level as the designer, and work with the contractor to identify the optimal solution between design and constructability to provide the owner with the most cost-effective and schedule-conscious path forward.
Staying Ahead of the Market
Arizona’s explosive growth — industrial, commercial and residential — is putting significant stress on the water and wastewater infrastructure that makes all of it possible. Developments cannot be built until that infrastructure is in place, making the project schedule everything for owners.
“Time is ultimately money,” Johnson says. “Schedule expedition is what we bring to the table, and it’s key for our clients. They can’t start bringing revenue in, or getting beneficial use, until that infrastructure is there; and we protect their budgets through the entire life cycle of building it.”
One local factor has proven especially disruptive: the surge in development has created a significant bottleneck on electrical gear, stalling water/wastewater projects that could otherwise be substantially complete. Colliers Project Leaders’ response was characteristically proactive. The team developed alternative contracting processes and interim operating specifications — vetted and approved by The Salt River Project (SRP), Arizona Public Service (APS) and the state regulatory board — that allow projects to come online months earlier than waiting on permanent electrical gear.
Specifically, on the Superstition Vistas Water Campus project, Johnson’s team recommended implementing an interim operating specification for the facility’s automatic transfer switch.
The successful coordination between the owner and contractor to execute the revised plan enabled the Water Campus to begin operating nine months prior to delivery and start-up of the ultimate transfer switch. “A relatively minor plan change at the time,” Johnson says, “that enabled the project to be brought online per the project schedule.” It is the same discipline applied to every project: identify choke points early, build in resolution time and track continuously to mitigate risk.
Local Knowledge, National Reach
Colliers Project Leaders’ position in the Arizona market is built on a unique combination: deep local expertise backed by the full resources of a national platform, giving clients immediate access if required to a full network of in-house specialists across structural design, civil and electrical engineering, regulatory compliance, and financial analysis from local offices in Phoenix, Gilbert, and the West Valley.
