How to Find Private Construction Projects Before They Go to Bid

To find private construction projects before they go to bid, follow the public steps a project must take before anyone builds it: the zoning or land-use change, the land sale, the site plan, then the permit. Each step is a public record, and each one tells you more about the scope and who to call.

One real project below shows the whole trail. More than 15 months after its first public hearing, no building permit or general contractor had shown up in the public record.

The short version

• The problem: bid boards and lead lists show a private project once a general contractor is already pricing it. By then the owner, designer and builder have usually picked who they trust.
• The fix: watch four kinds of public record in the places you work, every week. Read each one for two things: does the scope fit your trade, and who is named.
• Where to start: one city or county you already work in, reviewed once a week.

Why does finding a project early matter?

Planning and land-use records can show a project six to 18 months before bid, depending on the project and the city. ConstructConnect The early months are when an owner is still choosing a designer, a builder and the systems that go in the building. A trade that is known to the team then gets asked for budget numbers. A trade that shows up on bid day gets compared on price alone.

Where can you discover commercial development proposals?

Commercial development proposals are filed with the city or county planning department long before a building permit. Most planning departments post their current land-use, zoning and site plan applications online, as a list, a map or the packets for each planning commission meeting.

Start with three places in each market you work: the planning department's list of current applications, the planning commission agenda packets, and the county recorder for land sales on the same lots. A proposal that shows up in all three has a named owner, land under it and a team forming.

One real project, record by record

This is a real private project. The records are public. We changed the owner, the city and the address, rounded the size, and never pursued it for anyone.

The project: a family-owned business in a small Mountain West city that had outgrown its building. It wanted a new office and warehouse in a business park, about 50,000 square feet, and planned to use part and lease the rest.

Three things stand out. The owner was named from the first hearing. The building type was public 14 months before we looked. And the first record that would reach a typical bid service has not appeared yet.

Which public records show a private project early?

Watch these record types, in roughly the order a project produces them:

• Land-use map changes and zone changes. These show a proposed change in what may be built on a site, and usually name the owner or applicant.
• Planning commission and city council agendas and minutes. Agendas give the address, the request and the hearing date. Minutes often add what the owner said about the building, which is where "tilt-up" and "we outgrew our space" showed up above.
• Land sales and loans at the county recorder. A deed to a new single-purpose company, followed by a deed of trust to a bank, is a strong sign the project is funded.
• Site plan and design review. These name the civil engineer or architect and describe the building's size, materials and site work. Austin, for example, runs site plan review for commercial and multifamily projects. City of Austin Seattle holds public early design guidance meetings for eligible projects. Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections
• Building permits. Useful to confirm a project, but late. By the permit, the team is usually set. Seattle makes permit and property records searchable online. Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections

How do you know what construction projects competitors are bidding?

You usually cannot see a competitor's bid list. You can see the public records that name them: the plan holders list for a project out to bid, the bid results after it closes, the permit that names the contractor, and the projects a firm posts about itself.

• Plan holders lists. Many public owners and bid services list who downloaded the plans for a project out to bid. A name on the list means the firm is looking, not that it will bid.
• Bid results. Public owners usually publish who bid after the bids are opened. Over a few months this shows which jobs a competitor goes after and which it skips.
• Permits and site plans. A building permit often names the contractor. A site plan names the civil engineer or architect, who often works with the same builders again.
• The firm's own posts. Contractors announce awards and groundbreakings on their websites and on LinkedIn.

All four show up late. On the project above, no general contractor had appeared in any public record more than 15 months after the first hearing. So the more useful question is which projects your competitors have not found yet. The early records put you on those first. When a competitor does show up, write down where you saw it and the date, as an observation, not a guess.

Which record matters most for your trade?

A record is a reason to look closer, not proof your trade will be bought. Scope, delivery method and the bidder list can all change after a hearing.

Who do you call first, and when?

Call when a record names someone with a decision to make, not when a project first appears. In the trail above, that was the council approval: the owner was named, the building type was known, and the team was not yet chosen.

On an early private project the first call is usually the owner, the developer, the architect or the civil engineer, not a bid administrator. Who to contact first on a new construction project walks through how to pick.

What should you write down from each record?

Keep one line per project so anyone on your team can pick it up:

1. Location and parcel, if listed.
2. Record type and date.
3. What the record says the project is.
4. Who is named: owner, applicant, architect, engineer.
5. Why it may fit your trade, written as an observation.
6. The next record to check, and the date to check it.

What mistakes do teams make with early records?

• Treating an agenda title as a project. Read the minutes or the staff report. The title above said "zone change". The minutes said "tilt-up office and warehouse".
• Calling on the first record. A request for a zone change can still fail. Wait for the vote or the land sale unless the fit is obvious.
• Stopping at the city. The land sale and the loan live at the county recorder, not on the city's website.
• Expecting full coverage. Some private projects need no public hearing at all. This method finds the ones that do.

What can your team do on Monday?

Pick one city or county you already work in. Bookmark five pages: its planning commission agendas, city council minutes, site plan or design review list, the county recorder search, and permit search. Then, once a week:

• Scan new agendas and minutes for commercial, industrial, multifamily and mixed-use requests.
• Add each fit to your list with the six facts above.
• Check the recorder for a sale or loan on the lots already on your list.
• Drop anything that does not fit.

Rezoning applications as construction leads goes deeper on the first record, and a weekly business development routine for construction shows how to make the review stick.

Want this done for you each week?

Columnline does this work for construction and engineering firms: we watch the records in your market, read them for your trade, and hand you a short list with who to call and why. That weekly practice is called pursuit intelligence, and our plain guide to pursuit intelligence explains how it works. H+O Structural Engineering's story shows the same weekly watch running in Greater Boston. For what AI can and cannot do here, read AI for construction leads. Book a call to see what it finds in your area.