Director of Design & Construction, Real Estate Development

Comunilife Inc. is looking for an experienced Director of Design and Construction, to join its Real Estate Development team. Under the supervision of the Chief Housing Officer, the Director of Design and Construction will manage design, construction and capital improvements associated with Comunilife’s growing real estate portfolio. The Director will manage contractors, consultants, architects and Comunilife staff to successfully plan and complete new construction and major renovation projects. This includes ensuring construction and renovation projects are high quality and completed on-time and within budget.

Essential Duties

• Collaborating with senior Real Estate Development staff, select key consultants and contractors including architects, engineers, general contractors, surveyors and sustainability consultants. Manage these contracts throughout the predevelopment and construction phases.

• Review and provide comment on significant contracts including the Architects Agreement and the General Construction Contract.

• Review design sets, cost estimates, and key due diligence items and provide feedback informed by constructability, cost, and operations.

• Oversee preparation and management of construction timelines and cost estimates, and ensure on-time delivery of key project milestones.

• Represent Comunilife in design meetings with joint venture partners during predevelopment.

• Determine the scope of moderate to major renovations projects, and organize design reviews and solicit feedback from senior leadership on upcoming development projects.

• Collaboratively determine construction phasing strategies that minimize tenant disturbances for occupied rehabilitation projects.

• Visit all construction sites on a weekly basis to ensure timely progress, identify and address construction and coordination issues, and assess work quality. The Director will be required to attend all construction meetings and manage relationships with Lender and Bank Engineers and Architects.

• Review monthly construction requisitions and track and negotiate potential and final change orders.

• Determine strategy for meeting and tracking M/WBE compliance and local hiring during construction.

• Oversee successful turnover of buildings to Comunilife Facilities teams, including managing the successful completion of punchlist items, negotiation and finalization of key maintenance contracts, expediting the resolution of building issues and repairs, and ensuring all required turnover documents are provided

• Implement a standard operating procedure for construction records management. This includes saving and distributing key construction due diligence such as meeting minutes, DOB, permit and lender approvals, warranties, manuals, and other documents provided by the contractor and architect during construction.

• Set portfolio and pipeline-wide sustainability goals related to green building standards, resiliency and energy retrofits, ensuring Comunilife maintains a high-quality portfolio.

• Development and maintain Comunilife design and specifications.