Project Planning

The equivalent of a business plan wasn’t prepared. At minimum, the plan should:
- Define how the organization will absorb the impact of the facility,
- Identify expected expense changes (increased staff, administrative costs, facility maintenance costs, fundraising costs),
- Establish new revenue goals, and how they will be met, and
- Determine cash flow needs.

The immediate and long-term building needs were not thoroughly planned for. This involves either changes or additions to the building design, from simple changes to additional signage to complex modifications to the room configuration.
The size of building needed was a moving target. No thorough thinking-through of the amount of square feet needed for each function area too place, so the total square footage needed was never fully understood.
Building rehab needs weren’t thoroughly explored, and costly surprises ensued: environmental studies, mitigation studies, parts replacements, etc.
Not enough decisions were made prior to construction. Decisions were still being made requiring change orders to the construction, which cost time and money.
No one understood what was required to manage the building. The scrambling that went on when the building opened and staff wasn’t prepared didn’t leave a good image in the eyes of customers, staff or board members. This continued as building management needs fell through the cracks.