Imagine you are a client with multiple facilities in your portfolio that require a variety of smaller-scale upgrades, renovations or retrofits. Now imagine having to individually tender, procure and oversee a multitude of these smaller projects across your asset portfolio and the time, resource and risk burden involved with projects typically running concurrently or in quick succession.

Suppose you had a genie in a bottle. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a single contractor capable of resourcing, managing and executing a diverse program of facility upgrades across your entire portfolio of assets be they located across one city, province/state or country?

With PCL’s Special Projects teams located in our over 30+ operational centers and with a comprehensive Master Services Agreement (MSA) in place, you can lean your revitalization programs and reduce your risk, costs and resources with trust and confidence, knowing that PCL is managing all of the moving parts with consistent and reliable outcomes. 

Available for most project types, PCL’s Master Services Agreements are crafted to accommodate unique client requirements by combining multiple projects – as many as 50 or more – under one multi-year contract. This consolidated project delivery process builds trust and reliability with clients by leveraging economies of scale in the procurement of labour and materials, leaning processes and reducing redundancies, all of which help to improve schedules and reduce costs.

“MSAs allow us to help clients solve their unique and complex challenges while building lasting relationships,” says Special Projects Operations Lead Chad Keuler. “Our construction expertise with small, complex, fast-track project delivery across a broad geography gives us the tools to ask the right questions, develop customized solutions and deliver quality and consistency to succeed with this diverse service offering.”

Public and private sector engagement of the MSA project delivery model is rapidly increasing as clients recognize the value to stakeholders and end users of streamlining project delivery through a single point of contact that ensures consistency and reliability across a large portfolio of typically smaller value facility upgrades and improvements. Consider, for example, one of our public sector clients for whom we have delivered close to 300 smaller projects over the past 5 years, averaging 30 to 40 projects per year ranging in value from $250,000 to $5M.

“Imagine this client having to individually procure the 300 projects through different GCs and the internal resources required to manage all of their projects independently.” states Special Project Manager Ross McNeely. “With PCL, we provide a fully integrated CM approach and are involved with every project from the internal use-case or concept moment right through to completion and handover. We partner with our MSA clients to provide high level budgeting, phasing plans and scheduling that help the client formulate their business case, engage end users and secure funding. We then work with the design team to define trade scope packages for competitive tendering with a focus on sourcing labor and materials locally. The client benefits from worry-free project portfolio management that provides reliable consistency across all of their projects.”

Echoing Ross’ comments, Special Projects Manager Cheyanne Hammell who is overseeing delivery of some 50 projects under a two-year MSA with a major healthcare client, states: “A master services agreement offers substantial client benefits, including time saved on procurement, efficient planning, flexibility and attention to cash flow throughout the fiscal year to ensure clients’ long-term goals are met. Our focus is to work with our clients to maximize value and cost benefit.” 

In the current context of climate change and the rapidly approaching 2050 Net Zero carbon emissions deadline, building owners will need to upgrade, retrofit and ultimately decarbonize millions of square meters of space.

For owners facing a 28-year decarbonization commitment with the potential for multiple complex retrofits under way at any given time, PCL’s Master Services Agreements present an ideal contracting structure to bundle decarbonization projects of varying scale.  In such an arrangement, corporate logistics and resources can be efficiently planned across all projects, allowing us to assess overall costs and the long term payback for the portfolio-sized effort.  A PCL MSA would plot a complete decarbonization plan under a single, integrated, accountable and highly-flexible project management structure.

By leveraging our vast industry network and in-house expertise, project teams under an MSA work to lean processes and eliminate redundancies across all aspects of project delivery be it safety, quality, technology and/or sustainability methods.

“We solve project difficulties as they arise and pass those solutions on to prevent similar challenges in the future,” says Chad. “When you avoid those complexities on multiple projects in a row, the client saves time, dollars and risk.”

PCL’s MSAs benefit clients by sharing valuable experience and leveraging continuous improvement to help clients achieve multi-year goals on a single tender.  Our team of experts is organized to leverage this valuable experience across multiple projects under a single contract, assembling the proper process and people to address each client’s unique needs ranging from simple facility upgrades to complex revitalization and/or decarbonization initiatives.

With an MSA, you benefit from the same level of service excellence expected under single project contracts, with the option of extrapolating those expectations broadly across multiple building types and geographic locations. Focused on your future goals, our nimble and adaptable teams work with passion to build long-term trust and reliability to ensure that the MSA experience with PCL is one that will leave you wondering “Why didn’t we do it this way sooner?”