Div 01 · Owner's Representation
An owner's representative with no stake but yours.
The owner's chair is the only one at the table without a professional in it. Every other seat bills against decisions you were never trained to question.
Every other seat at a project table has something to sell: a design fee, a construction contract, a change order. An owner's representative is the one advisor whose only stake is the owner's outcome — and that is the entire service. We review the work of your architect, your engineers, and your contractor against your budget, your schedule, and your contract, and we put what we find in writing before it costs you money.
Written recommendations within two business days · Nothing to prepare · Mutual NDA from the first conversation
Division
Div 01
Phase
Kickoff → Closeout
Issued for
Owner review
Sheet
S-101
The record behind the judgment
$280M+
In capital projects delivered
20 yrs
Design and construction, both sides of the table
Zero
Unplanned outages, live data-center upgrade
Secret
Active U.S. DoD clearance
The role, day to day
Owner's representation is mostly the discipline of examination. Drawings get reviewed for coordination and completeness before they become change orders. Pay applications get checked against work actually in place before money moves. Change orders get traced to their origin — owner decision, unforeseen condition, or design gap — because the origin decides who pays. Schedules get tested against the critical path, permits get tracked against the approval sequence, and meeting by meeting, every open item has a name and a date attached.
The deliverable is the same throughout: written recommendations. You stay the decision-maker on every dollar and every direction — our job is to make sure no decision reaches your desk unexamined.
When owners bring us in
The best time is before the land is bought or the loan is signed, when a feasibility review can still change the answer. The most common time is design and construction — a drawing set that needs independent eyes, a pay application that doesn't match the site, a change order that arrived priced with leverage. And a meaningful share of our work starts mid-project, when something has already gone sideways: the entry point matters less than the discipline that follows it.
What we deliberately don't do
Aldermont holds no design or construction license — deliberately. We don't compete for your architect's scope or your contractor's contract, which is exactly why our review of both is independent. The licensed A/E designs and carries the design liability; the licensed GC owns the means, methods, and safety of construction; the owner decides. We advise.
Asked about this service
How much does an owner's representative cost?
Industry-wide, owner's representation is typically priced as a small percentage of project cost or as a monthly retainer scaled to the project's phase and pace. Every Aldermont engagement is scoped in writing to the project in front of us — and the simplest way to find out what yours needs is the $350 project review, which is credited in full against your first invoice if you engage us. What the role costs is best measured against what it catches: a single unexamined change order or front-loaded pay application can exceed a year of advisory fees.
What's the difference between an owner's representative and a construction manager?
A construction manager manages the building process itself — often holding trade contracts or delivering the project at-risk, which gives the CM its own stake in cost and schedule outcomes. An owner's representative holds nothing: no design scope, no construction contract, no procurement. We sit on your side of the table and review everyone who does hold those contracts. On larger projects the two roles coexist; the owner's rep is the one reviewing the CM's numbers too.
Do I need an owner's representative if I trust my architect and contractor?
Trust isn't the issue — obligation structure is. A good architect is still obligated to their design and their fee; a good contractor is still obligated to their margin. Neither is contractually obligated to tell you when the other's work is drifting against your interests. The value of an owner's representative is not suspicion of anyone; it's having one party whose written obligation runs only to you.
Can you take over a project that's already in trouble?
We don't take over — we come in beside you. Mid-project entry is routine: we read the contract, the drawings, the pay history, and the correspondence, then tell you in writing where the project actually stands and what your agreements entitle you to. Disputed change orders, stalled permits, and slipping schedules are the three most common reasons owners call mid-course.
Two ways in
Start where the risk is lowest.
Orientation call · 20 minutes · no fee
Find out whether you need us at all.
Fifteen minutes on your project, five on a straight answer: whether an advisor is worth your money at this stage, what it would take, and what it would cost. No documents, no preparation. If the answer is that you don't need one yet, you'll get that answer too — it's the cheapest thing we can tell you.
Project review · 60 minutes · $350, credited if you engage
Bring the project. Leave with recommendations.
A working session on your actual documents — the parcel you're weighing, the drawing set, the budget, the permit path you can't see through. Written recommendations land within two business days, in your hands to act on with or without us. If you engage us, the fee comes off your first invoice in full.
What to prepare: nothing.
Send whatever is already on your desk — a site address, a PDF set, a bid, a change order, a letter you don't like the tone of. Or send nothing and just talk. Working out which of it actually matters is the job you're hiring, not homework you owe us first.
Related field notes