December 19, 2002

Disputes, defects keep consultants busy

Photo by Ben Minnick Corke Amento acted as construction manager on the $10 million exterior repair project for Belltown's Seattle Heights.

The ink had barely dried on Corke Amento's business cards when they got their first job -- and it was a big one.

The two-person firm was hired to help the Port of Seattle meet its deadline for finishing Bell Street Pier in order to accommodate the pier's first customer, Bill Gates. Scope changes and clarifications threatened to delay the project because the contractor and subcontractors were requesting additional compensation.

Corke Amento entered as a neutral party to resolve the issues before "positions became hardened and personnel estranged," said co-founder Steve Amento. His firm entered the project at about 60 percent of completion and helped the parties prevent a lawsuit -- and finish on time.

Since then, the Seattle firm has grown to 10 full-time employees and now offers a range of services -- from dispute prevention to dispute resolution, from project management to managing defects investigation and repair. They also handle planning and project management.

"We have a unique niche," said Corke. "Our competitors say 'You guys are gutsy.'"

Diversification has helped the firm weather the downturn in the economy. Consultants are often the first to be cut when construction slows, and the firm has seen some of its master planning and dispute prevention and resolution assignments wither. But other areas -- such as handling building defects -- have picked up.

Corke Amento's building defect investigation and repair work manages the challenges owners, designer, contractors, insurers and attorneys face when buildings -- typically multifamily structures -- have functional problems.

Corke Amento coordinates all phases of the process, including investigation, scope preparation, budgeting, liability assessment and repairs.

The firm handled construction management for the $10 million leakage repair project at Belltown's Seattle Heights condos. "They liked the fact that we had projects under out belt," said Amento, whose firm has served as construction managers on projects totaling almost $40 million.

Corke, along with Steve Amento, founded the firm in 1996. Both came from construction management backgrounds, and both had worked as in-house construction consultants for law firms. Corke's bachelor's degree is in architecture, and Amento's degree is in construction engineering.

"Both of us having construction backgrounds, we realized that going to a lawsuit is not necessarily the most productive solution," said Corke. "One of the reasons we launched out was to get to a more neutral sphere -- to get into projects earlier, before the lawsuits."

Photo by Jed Share In their dispute resolution process, Steve Amento and Mike Corke interview key people and examine project records before making a settlement recommendation.

Corke said his firm's "neutrals process" for dispute resolution digs into issues by interviewing key people, and examines cost and other project records before making a settlement recommendation. This differs from other construction conflict resolution techniques that involve formal proceedings before arbitrators, judges or dispute resolution boards.

Corke Amento has used the neutrals process on small and large, public and private projects. Their neutral team typically comes in at the half-way or two-thirds mark in the construction process.

With Bell Street, Corke Amento worked with the port, PCL Construction and Hewitt Isley Architects to settle the major project issues before the parties were deadlocked.

"We signed confidentiality agreements and slowly developed the best and true rendering what occurred," Corke said. "They had a honest and fair evaluation of what each party was responsible for."

Previous columns:

• AGC hires two to head up district offices, 12-12-2002
• Could straw bail out dwindling lumber supplies?, 12-05-2002
• Burien gets intimate with its downtown, 11-21-2002
• Masonry awards make it hip to be square, 11-14-2002
• Taking the stress out of building repairs, 11-07-2002
• Planning for the worst, 10-31-2002
• UW Construction Hall of Fame honors three, 10-24-2002
• Kudos for the finishing touch, 10-17-2002