At Oakwell, we safeguard institutional capital and operational continuity—going beyond just completing construction. We align every decision to protect patient care, campus performance, and long-term financial value where the stakes are highest.
Owners deserve full visibility into where their capital is going — and how it is being spent.
Owners should not be forced to carry disproportionate project risk — especially when they do not control the day-to-day construction.
Project teams should succeed when the owner succeeds.
Timing and strategic cadence can determine whether a project creates value or drains capital.
Early risk visibility and reduced risk for capital projects
Cost certainty and reduced change orders
Efficient use of capital and reduced waste
Efficient and innovative solutions that lower lifecycle costs
Traditional delivery models have made construction and capital projects unpredictable and expensive.
If you are a CFO, executive sponsor, financial or facilities leader responsible for capital projects at a health system or a university, you will find yourself asking:
Why do over 60% of construction projects cost more than planned?
Why do we have to set aside so much contingency that we rarely get back?
Why am I making financial decisions without clear visibility into risk or tradeoffs?
That’s because most project delivery models were never designed for today’s level of volatility. Over the past decade, the cost of building hospitals, academic buildings, and infrastructure has increased dramatically, forcing CFOs and sponsors to approve capital for projects without having full clarity. Costly labor, costly materials and ever-changing schedules force the owner to carry large contingencies, delay or cancel projects and bear the brunt of late-stage change orders.
The owner bears most of the risk, even though they have the least control over day-to-day construction decisions.
Owners aren’t making poor decisions. The traditional model itself is working against them.
Instead of thinking...
“How do we transfer as much risk as possible to contractors?”
We ask...
“How do we identify and manage risk earlier—before it becomes expensive?”
Transparent Project Delivery is a governance and financial framework designed to give owners more clarity and control.
This is what makes this model ‘transparent’. All costs are visible to owners, at all times – from planning to turnkey delivery of the project. No lump‑sum pricing or unverifiable assumptions. Costs are developed transparently. Owners can actually see:
Traditional models often reward protecting individual interests, pushing risks to others, and maximizing claims when things go wrong. Contractors’ and designers’ profits have something at stake. If the project goes over the base planned cost, their profits take the first hit. The owner’s contingency stops acting as their default cushion.
Transparent Project Delivery transfers the risk of cost overages to designers and contractors and rewards them for their efficiency through shared savings.
When projects come in under the planned base cost, 50% of the unused budget is returned to the owner, and the rest is split between designers and contractors. This ensures that there is an incentive for efficient, innovative, and constructible solutions.
Contingency becomes a strategic tool, not a cushion.
When everyone works toward the same success metric, animosities and weaponized change orders disappear – making way for trusted partnerships.
They are active environments with real‑world consequences:
See how Grady Health unlocked $30M in cost savings through Transparent Project Delivery.
Transparent Project Delivery gives owners a derisked solution — one where costs are visible, risks are managed early, and project teams are rewarded for protecting capital instead of consuming it. The question is no longer, “Can we afford to build?” It is, “Can we afford to keep building the same way?”
Connect with Oakwell to build with clarity, reduced risk, accountability, and confidence.
Download our Intro to TPD eBook that explores open-book financials, profit-at-risk model, and shared savings agreements. This document acts as a plain language guide that explains TPD for owners and executives.
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Stronger incentive alignment across project teams
Reduced owner exposure to cost escalation
Greater accountability for project performance
Shared participation in project savings
Traditional project delivery often rewards activity rather than outcomes. Oakwell's Profit-at-Risk Delivery changes that dynamic by creating direct financial accountability for project performance.
Under this model, providers have something at stake when projects get delayed and go over planned costs. But they also stand to gain when they help the owner reduce costs, manage risk, and create savings.
The result is a powerful incentive structure that encourages efficient engineering and design, proactive collaboration, disciplined execution, and upstream problem-solving. When projects outperform expectations, savings can be shared among the parties responsible for creating them. When costs rise, provider profit is exposed first, before the owner’s contingency capital becomes a cushion.
For institutions seeking the behavioral and financial benefits of Transparent Project Delivery without completely modifying their existing contract structures, Profit-at-Risk Delivery can provide a focused, streamlined alternative.
Oakwell works with owners, designers, contractors, and project teams to establish clear performance expectations, profit-at-risk structures, and shared savings mechanisms.
By aligning financial outcomes around project success, we create an environment where providers are rewarded for reducing costs, minimizing disruption, and protecting owner capital through efficient design and delivery.
When incentives align, better outcomes follow.
Higher ROI across capital investments
Lower total cost of ownership over time
Improved alignment between facilities, finance, operations, and leadership
Greater long-term value creation across the infrastructure portfolio
Hospitals and universities manage complex portfolios of capital needs across infrastructure renewal, deferred maintenance, expansion, resiliency, decarbonization, real estate, and operational improvements. The challenge is rarely identifying worthwhile projects.
It is determining how capital should be deployed, sequenced, governed, and executed to maximize long-term institutional value.
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Oakwell brings a unique perspective as engineers, financiers, project delivery leaders, and infrastructure strategists. We understand how project sequencing affects ROI, how financing influences implementation, how operational constraints impact delivery, and how individual projects can either compete for capital or strengthen one another.
We help institutions transform capital planning from fragmented projects into an implementable, long-term roadmap that aligns with institutional intent and mission.
Oakwell helps institutions develop implementable capital programs that align infrastructure investments with operational priorities, financial strategy, growth, and mission.
Our approach combines strategic capital planning, front-end project development, governance structures, project controls, financial planning, and implementation sequencing into a single framework. We help owners determine which projects should move first, which should be bundled, which should be deferred, and how each investment contributes to future savings, resiliency, operational performance, and mission advancement.
By integrating engineering, financing, project delivery, real estate and sustainability we help institutions maximize value not only within individual projects, but across the entire capital portfolio.
The value of a capital program is measured by how effectively capital is deployed. Let’s make each dollar work harder.
Faster project delivery with stronger scope and cost discipline
Improved constructability and fewer coordination gaps
Better lifecycle performance and maintainability
Clearer accountability across design and construction teams
Design-build can be powerful when teams are aligned early. It can also become expensive when speed replaces discipline, estimates harden too late, or design decisions optimize for construction convenience instead of long-term owner value.
Oakwell’s design-build approach integrates engineering, project delivery, cost validation, and operational planning from the beginning. We do not treat design-build as a shortcut to construction. We use it as a disciplined delivery structure to reduce coordination risk, improve constructability, and make smarter decisions before capital is locked in.
Because Oakwell brings engineering, financing, and project delivery thinking together, we evaluate every design-build decision through first cost, lifecycle cost, operational impact, maintainability, incentives, and long-term performance.
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Oakwell coordinates design and construction around the owner’s operational and financial goals. We bring engineers, contractors, facilities teams, and project leadership together early to validate scope, identify risks, improve constructability, and align the project around measurable outcomes.
Our design-build work is grounded in transparency, technical rigor, and lifecycle thinking. We focus on building the right solution, and not just the fastest or most convenient one.
Design-build should accelerate value — not hide risk.
Stronger coordination across designers, contractors, vendors, and stakeholders
Better visibility into cost, schedule, risk, and decision points
Reduced operational disruption during project execution
Clearer accountability and fewer late-stage surprises
Our role is to protect the owner’s capital, operations, schedule, and long-term interests through disciplined project leadership.
Capital projects involve many parties — designers, contractors, consultants, facilities teams, executives, vendors, authorities, and end users. Without strong owner-side leadership, decisions can become fragmented, risks can escalate, and the owner’s priorities can get diluted.
Oakwell serves as the owner’s project management partner and advocate. We keep the project organized, decisions visible, stakeholders aligned, and delivery teams accountable to the institution’s goals.
We create the structure, cadence, and visibility needed to move projects forward with confidence — while making sure the owner’s interests remain central at every stage.
Oakwell manages the project from the owner’s perspective. We coordinate teams, track scope, budget, schedule, risks, decisions, and deliverables, and help leadership understand what needs attention before issues become expensive.
Your project needs more than coordination. It needs an owner advocate.
Better protection against unnecessary change orders and claims
Stronger oversight of quality, scope, schedule, and design intent
Reduced disruption to active campus and clinical operations
Greater confidence that the final asset performs as intended
Our job is to make sure what gets built matches what was promised — and that construction decisions do not compromise long-term performance.
Construction administration is where projects either protect or lose value—without disciplined oversight, scope drift, field decisions, and change orders can quietly erode performance, budget, and schedule. Oakwell acts as the owner’s advocate on-site, ensuring what gets built stays aligned with the original intent while actively managing risk across cost, quality, and execution.
Oakwell supports owners through construction with disciplined oversight, technical review, issue tracking, and coordination across project stakeholders. We help evaluate RFIs, submittals, change orders, schedule impacts, quality concerns, and operational constraints.
Because we understand engineering, finance, project delivery, and campus operations, we look beyond construction completion. We focus on whether the work protects the owner’s capital, supports operations, and performs as intended over time.
Oakwell integrates capital planning, financing strategy, project delivery, and construction oversight into a single, accountable model that protects your capital and operational performance from concept through completion.
The result: clearer decisions, lower risk, and projects that deliver measurable financial and operational outcomes—by design, not by chance.
Projects get built once. The consequences last for decades. Construction oversight should reflect that.
