Executive Project Management

Project Advancement is for clients seeking discreet 3rd party assessment for:

  • Real Estate Development
  • Private Equity Investment
  • Complex Agreement Negotiations
  • Project Financial Analysis
  • Program Assessment & Strategic Planning
    (including for profit & non-profit organizations)

WHY PROJECT ADVANCEMENT?

To help protect yourself and your investment, Project Advancement is focused on sharing what you need to hear rather than what you may want to hear. An informed, unbiased, and unfiltered voice can assist senior executives in assessing and minimizing complex risk factors. A seasoned private company executive provides knowledge and experience that cannot be matched by a typical consultant. Project Advancement delivers quality first-hand experience that can be put to work for your organization.

Through critical engagement, challenging the assumptions, and gaining a crisp understanding of how each stage of the program effects the outcome, Project Advancement is uniquely skilled to help harvest the highest overall value of a venture. This craft has been refined from a combination of substantial "granular" and "high level" real world operational experience.

THE APPROACH

All endeavors can be categorized as "projects" and each project has its own set of constraints and opportunities. The comprehensive value cannot be fully realized unless:

  • The mechanics are clearly understood
  • The leverage points are identified
  • A game plan is produced
  • Adaptive execution occurs

Project Advancement is positioned to engage at any stage of a program's lifecycle, and through its discovery process, help advance the project forward to generate optimum long-term results for all stakeholders. Project Advancement is for clients who recognize the world is not a zero-sum game and that more can be accomplished with critical thought and collaboration.

CORE VALUES

  • Respect - continuously earning the trust and confidence of stakeholders
  • Integrity - principled character
  • Independence - analytically diligent - avoiding groupthink
  • Wisdom - understanding the system's interconnectivity and the opportunity for value creation with cooperation
  • Resiliency - ability to adapt to challenging situations and develop long-term solutions
  • Authenticity - providing insight based on facts and experiences
  • Stewardship - generating options and exercising prudence in the path forward - the means matter

TESTIMONIALS

Over my career in real estate development, Pat Adler has been one of the most thoughtful and detailed professionals I've had the pleasure of working with.  His understanding of the details and ability to connect the dots, in an industry that is often disconnected, is unmatched.

Pat Adler is one of the most thorough individuals I have ever come across within a Family Office. He excels at putting a highly disciplined thought process around solving complex problems, and his meticulous attention to detail ensures a smooth execution.

Pat Adler is a pleasure to work with both personally and professionally. Pat has a unique ability to break complex problems into manageable strategies. This skill set of Pat provides a clearer vision of potential outcomes, allowing the parties to look beyond the numbers, and discuss alternative paths which can create additional value for the community and investors. His insight has helped ApexOne Investment Partners grow and his experience in working with Family Offices helped ApexOne expand its presence with, and serve, this sophisticated group of investors.

With Pat you never get generic advice.  He invests the time to get to know you, your business and your industry.  He asks the fundamental questions (that too often we forget to ask) and challenges basic assumptions.  He is not shy about sharing his honest opinion.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Pat Adler.  He has provided Arizona Helping Hands (and me) with great insights on operational and financial matters.

I have had the opportunity to work with Pat Adler for over ten years. He is a pleasure to work with and is a consummate professional. He has a very strong technical background, but his greatest talents are in negotiating and structuring win/win deals and creating places where people want to live. I am extremely proud of the work that Pat and T.W. Lewis did in our community.

I have had the opportunity to work with Pat in many different capacities over the 20 plus years I have known him. Pat is smart, motivated, thorough, consistent and above all highly ethical. He strives to develop productive, win-win solutions.

Pat is a thoughtful and careful partner in the work we do for children in foster care. He immersed himself in data and information about child welfare and in a short time assessed where the needs are and how our partnership could work best to improve the lives of the children we serve.  We work smarter and are more accountable for meaningful outcomes because of Pat's work.

Pat has an incredible vision and passion working with charities. His experience, patience, and care challenged our organization to take a holistic perspective maximizing the support we received to the impact we make in the community.

Pat Adler is a dedicated advocate for the organizations he supports. His ability to ask thought-provoking questions and his keen eye for data and metrics builds incredibly generative conversation which frames actionable goals and strategies for organizational growth. I've very much appreciated the opportunity to work in partnership with Pat and found his organizational coaching invaluable.

Pat and I have worked on numerous projects together since 2002. His industry insight and creative input promotes a productive client/consultant relationship that has fostered some of the most desirable planned communities in the Valley. I have enjoyed working with Pat and recognize him for his articulate vision and attention to the aesthetic and economic details of a project. Pat has both the industry knowledge and personality to bring success to any endeavor and I recommend his talents and services without hesitation

Pat is a true professional.  He knows how to create value in both land planning and land development.  His insights have always been welcomed in the communities I have been involved with.

I've worked with Pat on several large master planned communities over the years, and he ranks at the top when it comes to bringing a team together and delivering a successful project. His ability to establish a great working rapport with everyone involved results in a team approach to the budgeting, design and construction phases of a project. Pat has high expectations which brings out the best work from his team, and I can honestly say that his projects have all been the ones that I have been proud to have been a part of.

Pat understands the land development process.  That knowledge allows him to take a thorough and proactive approach to negotiations, ensuring that the bests interests of his client are protected throughout any transaction.

Pat Adler’s approach to land development exemplifies the requirements needed to succeed in today’s Real Estate Market.  He uses a strong background of development experience in combination with a solid understanding of what it takes to make a project marketable and desirable.   I would welcome Pat’s involvement in any project.

Pat Adler and Project Advancement bring wisdom and integrity to any engagement that would benefit from a 3rd party assessment. His experience and expertise could be invaluable to any decision making process.

I have been in business for 39 years in The Arizona real estate market selling land and master plans. Pat Adler has to be one of the most talented and thorough human beings I have ever dealt with in my career. His attention to details and deal structure is second to none. He understands the needs of his clients, the need for exact performance, and knows the meaning of urgency.

In a word, Pat is exceptional. He is a master at identifying, analyzing and solving complex problems, and thrives in an environment of trust and accountability. Other words that describe Pat are smart, hard-working, tenacious, productive, fair and ethical. In my 40 year career in real estate development, I have not worked with anyone who is more talented or effective than Pat. I would highly recommend him for any project assignment related to engineering, development, deal structuring, contract negotiations, research or analysis.

CASE STUDIES

Better Integrated Design

Challenge: The land owner had approved subdivision plans within a scenic desert setting, but the plans were highly inefficient and the design did not take advantage of the views associated with the property.

Solution: By reconfiguring the layout to better conform with the natural terrain, the infrastructure roadway improvements were reduced by 50% and the lot count only dropped by 5%. The new design also reduced the disturbance of the native desert by 17%, minimized the need for retaining walls, and improved the views from the lots. The new design yielded further cost savings by producing standard luxury lot dimensions, which eliminated the need for custom home designs required by the prior design. The net result was a significant reduction in construction costs while simultaneously increasing revenues due to the additional lot premiums for views of the hills and washes (instead of the prior design’s rear yard views of multi-tier retaining walls which had created a “racquet ball court” effect).

More Than Money.

Challenge: How to generate more leverage and accountability from nonprofit organizations

Solution: Producing a Challenge Grant in alignment with the philosophy articulated in “The Giver and the Gift” by Peter Greer & David Weekley is an effective way to leverage of resources beyond the proposed donation amount. A well thought out and carefully structured Challenge Grant will: a) cause the nonprofit to have a higher degree of accountability, b) generate new likeminded donors, c) create a sense urgency with a Challenge Grant deadline, and d) enable a true win/win/win/win outcome (for the nonprofit, the sponsoring donor, the new donors, and most importantly for the beneficiaries of the non-profit). An example of the leverage achieved through a recent Challenge Grant involved the nonprofit generating a 6X multiple on the sponsoring donor’s investment (the Challenge Grant was not structured merely as a matching grant and thus allowed for additional income for the nonprofit). The Challenge Grant produced talking points for the nonprofit to engage with new donors and helped energize the staff of the nonprofit to achieve much more than expected in a relatively short time period.

Begin with the End in Mind

Challenge: The traditional approach towards obtaining the highest quality and most cost-effective product is flawed.

Solution: The traditional steps to produce a product are: 1) design the product, 2) obtain competitive bids from contractors/suppliers, 3) award the bid to contractors/suppliers, and 4) construct the product. The problem is that this process does not fully leverage the talents and expertise of the trade contractors and suppliers. It is extremely beneficial to partner with them upfront - during the design process - to effectively manage costs, quality, constructability, availability of materials, and/or the use of alternative materials. The contractors/suppliers have a clear and current understanding of these factors. A simple shift in the design with the input from the contractors/suppliers upfront can allow for significant cost savings and improved outcome. The only way to truly utilize the talents and expertise of the contractors/suppliers is to partner with them in the beginning of the process. Producers who have experienced this revised approach in the sequencing of the production steps can attest to the numerous tangible and intangible benefits. However, this revised approach must be managed in a specific manner to achieve the desired results. This is a different methodology than “design build” because it preserves all of the producer’s decision points, risks, and rewards.

Keeping Flexibility in the Design

Challenge: Due to numerous variables associated with soil compaction, it is difficult to avoid costly importing or exporting of dirt to complete the grading of a project.

Solution: By strategically working with the home builder, the city, the civil engineer, and grading contractor on a large project, an in-depth contingency plan was prepared that avoided the high costs of importing or exporting dirt to complete the grading of the project. By designating the flow pattern of the grading operation to meet the initial needs of both the home builder and the grading contractor, the civil engineering plans were designed to isolate the last section of work to allow for a significant raise or lower of this portion of the site. Introducing this flexibility into the design to accommodate the soil characteristics allowed this flex area of the project to be raised 2’, which allowed for the cuts and fills to balance and saved the homebuilder approximately $1MM by not having to haul away excess material.

"Best and Highest Use" of a Property

Challenge: Developers typically think in one mindset – DEVELOP, but the high cost of the improvements for a single-family residential subdivision was resulting in a lower land residual value for the developer.

Solution: The uncommon approach of diverting the use of the property away from being developed as a single-family residential subdivision and towards being converted into a city open-space preserve was advocated. By keeping an open mind, this unusual “best and highest use” for this particular property emerged. It resulted in the sale of the property to the city, which yielded a 30% increase in land value for the developer.

Strategic Land Plans

Challenge: How to generate more overall value from a property.

Solution: The first rule of real estate “location, location, location” is incomplete. Two key elements are missing, the price (its importance is self-evident) and the land plan. In single family residential developments, the land plan sets the tone of the community and specifies the lot size(s), street configuration, and open space areas. It is important to insert strategic inefficiencies into the land plan to enhance the feel of the community, increase the fluidity of the community, and ensure that open spaces are located in the correct areas of the project - where they will be more meaningful to the residents. The introduction of curvilinear streets, enhanced locations for the open spaces, and increased amount of area dedicated to open spaces is not the most efficient use of the property, but that is the point - these strategic inefficiencies create a differentiated community that prospective residents are able to recognize and appreciate. These improved land development techniques allow for a higher overall value to be derived from the project both in the initial sale and with subsequent resales. Because the land plan doesn’t change as communities age, these items must be appropriately planned and done right the first time in order to create lasting value.

Change the Paradigm: One Size Does Not Fill All

Challenge: The traditional production builder’s approach in using the worst-case design scenario for the heating and air conditioning (HVAC) system per floor plan is flawed because it doesn’t factor in the varying heat loads associated with different home solar orientations.

Solution: When it comes to HVAC design, bigger is not better. Having the right sized HVAC improves the resident’s experience and comfort level because the system is balanced and the right amount of air is flowing into each room based on the room’s sun exposure. HVAC units are optimized to run a certain minimum duration, if too much air is flowing into the area with the thermostat, the system will turn off before the rest of the home has reached the desired temperature and before the system has run its optimized duration. Since the traditional production builder’s approach is to use the worst-case design scenario for each home they build regardless of the home’s actual solar orientation, many homes are ending up with an oversized HVAC unit and ductwork that doesn’t match the needs of the particular home’s solar exposure. This occurs because many production builders typically do not take the time to figure out the specific heat load of the home - in regards to its lot and selected options - and design an appropriate HVAC system. The solution is simple, specifically design the HVAC for the particular home and yield a win/win/win result. The resident wins because they are more comfortable with each room getting the appropriate amount of heating and cooling, the trade contractor wins because there are less warranty call backs associated with resident’s discomfort, and the builder wins because the HVAC system is right sized and not worst-case sized, which yields cost savings.

PRINCIPAL / MANAGING PARTNER

Patrick Adler

The Managing Partner of Project Advancement is Patrick Adler who brings over three decades of in-depth experience across multiple sectors. Patrick Adler has worked at several best in class organizations including Del Webb's Coventry Homes, David Weekley Homes, RBF, and T.W. Lewis. At T.W. Lewis, Patrick was one of four key executives that managed this nationally recognized private homebuilder in the Phoenix marketplace. T.W. Lewis fulfilled its mission in becoming one of the best homebuilding organizations in America as measured by product quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability. The holistic approach of collaboration and creating value for all stakeholders was firmly imbedded into Patrick's DNA at T.W. Lewis. Rooted in residential development and deal structure, Patrick has demonstrated that the skill set he has cultivated is fully transferable into other arenas (including family office philanthropic activities).

Patrick is a LEED® AP and a graduate of both Loyola Marymount (with a Bachelor of Science & Engineering (Civil Engineering)) and ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business (with an MBA). Patrick has specialized skills and services which are offered through different entities which include; Registered Professional Engineer (California, Arizona), Arizona Real Estate Broker (for PCA), and Qualifying Party for Arizona Class A General Engineering & Class B Residential (for other entities).

RESOURCES & DOWNLOADS

Project Advancement Brochure

Download the Project Advancement Brochure PDF.

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Profile

Download Patrick Adler Profile PDF.

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V-Card

Download Patrick Adler's V-Card.

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CONTACT US

For more information about a minor or major engagement with Project Advancement, please contact Patrick Adler at 602-989-2448 or PAdler@ProjectAdvancement.com.