Renovation During Occupation

CBQ: DPI does everything from design-build work to lease and prelease budgeting. How would you define the company’s specialty?
Stuart Smith: Our core business is the build-out of corporate-business interiors. It can mean various things, including a build-out of new space, the complete renovation of an existing space, or the occupied renovation of existing space.

CBQ: How large do those projects get?
SS: Since I’ve joined DPI, we’ve pushed for larger projects. When the company started, they did a lot of smaller projects, which is how it works: you do a lot of small projects, and you try to do them well. As your reputation develops, you get into bigger projects. Our push right now is on larger projects, especially LEED and green-oriented projects. We’re working to make our average project size grow from the $200,000–400,000 mark to the $5 million mark.

CBQ: What’s going to give you that edge? What sets you apart from other companies trying to do the same thing?
SS: We have a real commitment to safety, which is often overlooked by other companies. This includes public safety, our clients’ safety, and first and foremost the safety of our own employees. We utilize an external organization, Barantas, to conduct third-party audits and to work with us on the management of our safety programs. We have a zero lost-time frequency rate, which certainly helps set us apart.

CBQ: Would clients say safety is more important than cost or time management?
SS: Truthfully, not all clients understand how important safety actually is. So our safety program for them isn’t as important as cost or budget, and we have to stay competitive there, too. That goes for scheduling as well. Our commitment to delivering on those two core elements—as well as the acquisition of industry-leading professionals, like project managers and site managers, who all have unique abilities to be proactive thinkers, especially in terms of project development—that’s what draws our clients and then helps us keep them.

CBQ: What do you think has made DPI such a success in the corporate-renovations market?
SS: We deliver on two fronts primarily. The first is construction management, and the second is general contracting. Under the construction-management model, we are an effective partner and leader from the preconstruction process, ensuring that budgets are managed and expectations are aligned at the end of the line. In doing so, we’ve developed a scenario by which changes and unexpected occurrences are minimized, and cost and budget are achieved.

CBQ: You’ve also recently found great success in sustainable building. What are some of your sustainable practices?
SS: We utilize waste-management practices in all of our projects, regardless of whether or not we’re going for LEED certification. We also focus on indoor-air quality. Material selection and design can also be helpful and make a big difference; when the opportunity presents itself, we push to ensure that those are implemented as well. We’ve been seriously investing in these practices for almost four years now.

CBQ: Speaking of LEED, I’ve heard that your entire staff are APs.
SS: Well, as the vice president of business development, I’m not LEED accredited, but I’m the only person in the company who isn’t. We now ensure that all of our project managers and project coordinators go through the LEED-accreditation process, and we do what we consider a top-down approach. The approach comes from Rick Perin and Elvio DiSimone, our cofounders. They did the accreditation process first—and then mandated that our entire project team and the rest of the company get the accreditation as well.

CBQ: Tell me a bit about your recent LEED Gold project for Altus Group.
SS: We just finished the build-out of Altus Group’s new head office in Toronto. We built 65,000 square feet for them on one floor in the GWL building, located at 33 Yonge Street. It’s not a LEED-certified space as of yet, but we are in the submission stages, and it appears that we will achieve LEED Gold status. We chose to feature FSC millwork and low-VOC products. The important thing to know is that we were able to deliver that space at only $70 per square foot. It’s an incredible mark for the build-out of a LEED Gold space, and an incredible mark for us.