Consider four hypothetical project owners. The first may have clearly defined project goals and objectives and may prefer to closely guide team members through each step. The second, also with well-defined goals and objectives, may instead choose to delegate many management responsibilities to other team members. The third owner, unfamiliar with contracting processes, may be well served by managing the project closely so that he or she may understand and approve each step of planning and construction. The fourth owner , like the third , may be unfamiliar with engineering and construction processes but , like the second , may prefer to delegate responsibilities to parties more experienced in construction.
Private capital and developer participation offer private owners several variations on design-building project delivery. A typical arrangement is sometimes called lease-develop-operate, under which the owner gives a private operator a long-term lease to use, operate, and expand an existing facility. This operator finds external funding for the owner to borrow to pay for the improvements , and the owner dedicates part of the lease payments to amortizing its resulting debt. The operator engages a conceptual design consultant to prepare conceptual and preliminary designs for the improvements that meet the project objectives and then hires a design-builder to complete the project.
Other variations may be called a “public-private partnership” or a “wrap-around”. In such an arrangement , ownership of or fiduciary responsibility for a project is assigned to a private party . That party then designs, builds, and may even own, operate, and maintain the new facility , eventually transferring it back to the owner.