Pivotal Projects Inc. managed the Shaw Tower project, a live/work tower located in Coal Harbour, Vancouver.

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Even after a series of mergers and acquisitions, Pivotal Projects Inc. has maintained its core value of providing “smart” solutions for its clients. According to President Ed Welch, the company re-branded itself in the spring of 2008 to reflect the evolution of the firm and to bring focus to its commitment to green building practices.

Faced with an expanding market and the potential for uncontrolled growth, Pivotal Projects approached its future with the same insight and clarity clients have come to rely on. According to Welch, the right response was measured growth, identifying the right people to bring on board and staying true to Pivotal’s core values. The results have been impressive. This past year saw the opening of offices in Ottawa, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia, and a re-branding to reflect the firm’s natural evolution.

“We offer management advice to some of the most significant projects across Canada,” Welch says. “It was important to stay true to our core values and map out a strategy that would give us the best opportunity for long-term sustainable growth.”

In 1989, Pivotal Projects was the management services arm of a Toronto-based engineering consulting firm. Its success led to a corporate restructuring orchestrated by Welch and the creation of Pivotal Projects Ltd.  

“Owners were hiring us for objective opinions, so we felt it necessary to extract ourselves from the management of the engineering firm,” Welch says. “It was important to provide clarity in the relationship between the firms.”

In 2006, Pivotal merged with Intex Consulting in Calgary, Alberta, for an instant presence in western Canada and an enlarged client base in Ontario. With that move, the company moved from renovation and renewal projects to nearly all ground-up projects, and Pivotal now boasts offices in Van­couver; Ottawa and Toronto; and Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta.

Pivotal Projects offers real estate development advisory and project management services across Canada and internationally. The company relies on its team based approach and an extensive knowledge base in providing the right advice to clients on new construction and redevelopment projects to large public corporations, institutional clients and developers. and for a variety of asset classes.

“Senior members of the Pivotal team are engaged by institutional investors at the very inception of a project,” the company says. “Our depth of understanding on macro issues surrounding multi-year developments in an evolving economy has proven invaluable to developers of some of the largest projects in Canada.”

Strategic Growth
CEO Archie Roberts, who joined Pivotal Projects with the Intex Consulting merger in 2006, says Pivotal made a decision last year to develop a sustainable organization. This plan will ensure Pivotal Projects survives through the good times and the bad by remaining at a manageable size vs. growing at an uncontrolled rate.

“We didn’t necessarily want to be the biggest, just the best in all the ways our performance is measured by our clients,” Roberts says. “We want to build a business that is sustainable through the lows and the highs. We took the decision to create an organization that would continue to thrive even  through a slower economy.”

This strategy is meant to grow Pivotal Projects through the booming economy in western Canada, specifically Alberta and the economic prosperity coming from the oil sands. Roberts predicts other parts of the country soon will experience growth, especially Newfoundland as offshore oil drilling begins there.

“Here [in Alberta], we have projects totaling tens of billions of dollars,” Roberts says. “We have a fair amount of work to keep things going as the world works through the current debt crisis.”

Canada’s largest trade partner – the United States – continues to suffer through a debt crisis and a failing economy. This will effect opportunities for companies like Pivotal Projects, according to Roberts. Energy production will make up for fewer manufacturing projects as the United States imports less from Canada, he adds.

“Some of our institutional clients will rely more on outsourcing,” he says. “Institutional businesses, as well as private and public businesses, will begin to reduce their spending. We believe there will be more investment in infrastructure in our country in the next five years, so we’re beginning to focus on that business and how we can add value for those clients.”

Tight Space
Pivotal Projects is overseeing downtown Calgary’s Bankers Court expansion project, which is part of a three-tower office development. The project is 14 stories and about 322,000 square feet. The company is providing project advisory, predevelopment advisory and full project management services, as well as acting as the owner agent representing Brookfield Properties and GWL Realty Advisors.

“Because Brookfield, a public company, and GWL Realty Advisors [representing a large institutional investor] are representing their respective interests, they chose Pivotal as an independent project manager to objectively represent the interests of both parties,” Roberts says.

This project is aiming for LEED gold certification, and its LEED elements include a triple-glazed curtain wall system, [and] waterless urinals along with high efficiency mechanical systems.”