Spoiler Alert: Using Partnering to improve communication is one of them
Partnering is playing a significant role in aligning the many project team members involved in the $250 million Boynton Beach Town Square mixed-use project currently underway in Boynton Beach, Florida. The project is being developed using a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt P3 (public-private partnership) financing approach to build out the public portion of the 20-acre site, including a city hall/library, police station, fire station, and city park. The remainder of the project, featuring commercial and mixed-use retail space, as well as a renovated historic high school-turned-convention center, is being financed through private equity and conventional debt.
Although P3 delivery offers a unique financial structure allowing the entities to get hard-to-fund projects completed, projects utilizing this delivery approach require a well-orchestrated Partnering focus due to the many stakeholders involved. This includes establishing a framework for success that focuses on leadership, communication, and accountability.
For example, the Town Square project, with Partnering facilitated by Neal Flesner, involves dozens of contractors, city officials, managers, and others who need to collaborate daily to ensure milestones are achieved. Project team members include: Community Facility Partners (owner), E2L and JKM (developers), and Haskell and H.J. High (design-build team), as well as project managers, and city officials.
According to Steve Collins, President with the Minnesota-based nonprofit Community Facility Partners, “All [project team members] have established a smooth working relationship dependent on trust, accountability, patience, honesty, and a can-do ethos that permeates the team’s environment.”
