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In an industry where budgets are blown and projects are completed months after schedule, it's no surprise that the general contractors who stand out use time and budgets to their advantage.
Take T.B. Penick & Sons, a century-old contractor based in San Diego. The company recently completed a concrete parking structure at the Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park. The hook? T.B. Penick & Sons finished the project two months in advance and on budget, a practice that fourth-generation principals Tim and Marc Penick are trying to make as common as possible.
In March, the company launched affiliate Convergent Inc., a design-build company licensed in both California and Nevada, to meet what Tim and Marc Penick saw was needed in the concrete structural design market, according to company spokesman Robert Blodgett.
The creation of Convergent offers a single-source solution because structural design, engineering and construction are available under Convergent's umbrella and through one point of contact.
It's a trend that Jim Ryan, the executive vice president of Associated General Contractors San Diego, noticed about 20 or 30 years ago.
"Most (general contractors) are moving toward alternative forms of delivery," he said. "Design-build is one. Construction management risk and construction management general contractors are...