Earning Trust in Construction: Immigrant Leadership, Real Scheduling, and Building Like an Owner-Operator (ft. Aditya Pandit, BECO)

Rishi Srivastava (00:41)
Today our guest is Aditya Pandit. Aditya, welcome.

Aditya Pandit (00:44)
Thank you. It’s pleasure to be here.

Rishi Srivastava (00:46)
The first section here is on your background, career, and leadership journey. You’ve navigated a career path from India to a master’s program in Charlotte, and now a project manager role with major responsibility. How has that immigrant journey shaped the way you approach leadership, communication, and earning trust with owners, lenders, and trade partners?

Aditya Pandit (01:09)
Moving from India to the US taught me that credibility isn’t given, you have to earn it. Early on I learned to listen more than I speak, over prepare and understand what matters to the owners and leadership. In construction like trust is everything, owners and lenders

Rishi Srivastava (01:15)
Hmm.

Aditya Pandit (01:26)
don’t want optimism, they want predictability and be honest in your communication like if something’s off they need to know. That mindset also shapes how I work with subcontractors. Many have decades of experience so I don’t lead with ego, I lead with coordination, fairness and accountability. When people see you organized and

willing to own your problems with them, trust builds easily. That immigrant mindset of earning trust daily and letting results speak has stayed with me throughout my career.

Rishi Srivastava (02:00)
You know, some people, they just talk and don’t deliver anything. And if you can deliver consistently and just talk when needed, that’s like in itself is a great thing.

Aditya Pandit (02:04)
Yeah, really.

Yeah, that’s a good quality to have.

Rishi Srivastava (02:15)
As someone who has worked across senior living, large multifamily, tenant improvements and infrastructure, what have you learned about building realistic schedules and where do contractors consistently underestimate time and cost?

Aditya Pandit (02:32)
One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that schedules don’t fail in the field. They fail in the assumptions made during planning. On paper, everything looks clean. In real life, construction lives in a gray area between trades, inspections, approvals, and decisions.

⁓ Contractors usually underestimate three things. First is design coordination and revisions. Especially on mixed use or terrain driven projects where small changes ripple across multiple trades.

Second is like long lead items, especially HVAC equipment, glass or glazing, elevators, kitchen equipment. If those aren’t ordered early, they quietly drive delays. Third is inspections and approvals.

Rishi Srivastava (03:11)
Mm-hmm.

Aditya Pandit (03:15)
They are outside your control but often assumed to be quick. One mistake, trade on a like for example kitchen hood equipment and if it fails then the entire process has to be repeated and that takes like not days but weeks of Realistic scheduling means planning backwards from inspections.

building in buffers and sequencing trades honestly. A good schedule looks conservative on paper so it can be aggressive in execution.

Rishi Srivastava (03:43)
I love it. Conservative on paper, aggressive on execution.

Aditya Pandit (03:48)
Yes, that’s the strategy which you have to follow.

Rishi Srivastava (03:50)
For a younger project engineer or assistant PM who wants to grow into an quote-unquote A to Z project role like yours, what skills or experience should they prioritize early in their career?

Aditya Pandit (04:05)
The best advice I give young project managers is simple. Don’t hide behind your desk, especially early in your career. Get into the field, learn how work is actually built, not just how it’s drawn. Drawing don’t show sequencing conflicts, they don’t show access issues, they don’t show real world constraints.

You also need to own your budget, learn cost reports, forecasting, change orders because money is the language of ownership and get comfortable with all your trades, ask questions, be friends, learn where the scope overlaps.

and where conflicts usually happen. Finally, take real ownership. Like if something goes wrong, step in even if it’s not officially your project. A big turning point for me was when I stopped just doing my tasks and started treating the whole project as my responsibility. When you think like a owner, communicate like a leader and execute like a builder. That’s like A to Z of

of a project manager.

Rishi Srivastava (05:04)
Yes, the job is so complex. There’s office who’s got all these schedules and estimates and then there’s field realities and you’re kind of connecting two different worlds here.

Aditya Pandit (05:12)
You know.

Yeah, people usually don’t try to merge them together from the initial get going. They see that as two different departments at the start. But actually when you think about merging those two departments from the get go, that’s where your project will be successful.

Rishi Srivastava (05:30)
The next section is on owner developer GC model, how it really works. You work for an owner GC that buys land, develops it, builds it, and then manages it long term. From your seat as project manager, how does that full lifecycle model change how you think about cost, quality, and risk compared to a traditional GC?

Aditya Pandit (05:54)
Working in an owner developer GC model it changes how you think about everything because the accountability doesn’t end at turnover. a traditional GC role success is finishing for the contract but in an owner GC model every decision follows you long after the ribbon cutting. ⁓ Cost isn’t just about initial price

Rishi Srivastava (06:14)
Mm-hmm.

Aditya Pandit (06:18)
It’s about the total cost over the life of the project or the life of the building. I always look ways to save money upfront so that it becomes less expensive when the time comes to maintain, to operate, repair over the course of the building lifespan.

Rishi Srivastava (06:19)
Mm-hmm.

Aditya Pandit (06:36)
Quality expectations go way way up as well because punch list quality isn’t enough when you’re going to own and operate the building. You care about how materials age, how systems perform and how the building actually works once people move in.

And risk isn’t transferred, it’s retained in a GC owner model. Design gaps, entitlement delays, market shifts, interest rates, all stay on the same balance sheet. That forces better pre-construction, earlier decisions, and more comprehensive assumptions. At the end of the day, you build like you’re going to be writing the checks forever.

Rishi Srivastava (07:15)
Yeah, it’s such a different world, right? A traditional GC who just gives the ownership to the developer, they don’t have to worry about what happens to this building three years down the line.

Aditya Pandit (07:26)
they just sign the contract and go by the contract but as a owner GC you just have to make sure that the project is done right no matter where you are

Rishi Srivastava (07:34)
Mm-hmm.

Your portfolio includes commercial, multifamily, and now a renewed push into single-family lots. How does the financial logic differ across those product types, and what makes a deal quote unquote pencil for each?

Aditya Pandit (07:52)
So each project type has a very different financial logic and if you understand that upfront a deal that looks good on paper can fall apart in construction

Multifamily is about volume and efficiency Small misses add up fast like for example $2,000 change order per unit multiplied that times by 200 units for example and it’s like 400,000 all of a sudden so that’s a huge money. if the the design doesn’t work It will not work for 200 times

Commercial construction, especially retail mixed use, is tenant driven. tenant credit, lease terms, how fast the space starts making money matter just as much as construction cost. A tenant opening like six months late can wipe out returns, so schedules and coordinations are critical. Single family lots are different. Margins are smaller, but capital turns faster.

They are sensitive to land infrastructure absorption rate but they give you flexibility to phase work and respond to the demand and how the contracts are signed. To be frank nowadays the contracts are pretty slow and we are not getting lot of contracts as we used to before.

at the end of the day a deal pencils when cost schedule financing and timing alliance and Construction sits right in the middle of that somewhere middle in that sweet spot if construction misses the Profama doesn’t work. No matter what the building it will always tell the truth

Rishi Srivastava (09:19)
Mm-hmm.

Several multifamily projects are fully designed but on hold waiting for financing. When capital markets tighten, how does that uncertainty show up in your day-to-day work?

Aditya Pandit (09:39)
When capital markets tighten, the impact shows up long before construction starts.

From the outside project may look stalled, but behind the scenes there is often more work happening. We are constantly repricing deals because numbers that worked 6 months a year ago don’t work anymore. Rates change, lenders adapt ⁓ assumptions, the budgets get rebuilt, value engineering becomes a focus, but not cutting corners.

Rishi Srivastava (09:56)
Mm-hmm.

Aditya Pandit (10:05)
The question is what we can rethink without hurting the project long term. We also use phasing as a financial tool, dealing scopes or amenities to stay flexible while keeping the momentum. When capital is tight, we also review estimates much more closely.

broad assumptions aren’t enough we go like line by line run constant what-if scenarios around several different things like rates rents timings procurements and so on

Nowadays AI estimating that that’s really a thing now and really helps speed up the process The reality is that design that made sense like at 4 % interest rates. They don’t work at 7 % interest rates. from a project manager’s perspective the hardest part is staying ready to build without wasting money just to feel busy It becomes a balancing act of patience discipline

an alignment between development, finance and construction. When those teams stay aligned, uncertainty is managed when they don’t. It’s a real risk.

Rishi Srivastava (11:09)
Yeah, so many factors.

You are involved in everything from land acquisition and rezoning to design, bidding, construction and asset management support. Which stage is the most misunderstood by people outside development?

Aditya Pandit (11:27)
Pre-construction phase I think is the most often misunderstood. From the outside it may look like nothing is happening but this is actually when most of the project risks are evaluated. During this stage your work on things like permits, zoning, utilities, environmental checks, soil testing, geotechnical reports, early budgets,

figuring out all these and making sure how project is actually going to be built. It’s also when you make sure the project makes sense for a marketing and financial standpoint. If things go wrong here, construction doesn’t fix it, it will just expose it. A bad soil assumption or missed utility constraint

or like misunderstood zoning conditions can come back years later and blow up the deal. Construction looks like hardest part because it’s visible but it’s really just executing the decisions when you’re made during pre-construction. So when pre-construction is done right, construction is predictable. When it’s rushed or underfunded

no time on the field or any heroics in the field will save the project.

Rishi Srivastava (12:35)
Also, preconstruction, people are estimating and guessing sometimes some of these things. They don’t have the complete knowledge of how things are going to play out.

Aditya Pandit (12:43)
the experience and I think AI nowadays is like helping us a lot so that’s something which everyone should be using and making use of the facility

Rishi Srivastava (12:54)
The next section here is on project finance, HUD, and market realities. Your company uses HUD financing, which you described as, quote unquote, a whole different animal. For people unfamiliar with HUD, can you walk through the major steps and what that one-year approval process feels like from the inside?

Aditya Pandit (13:15)
So HUD financing is very different from a normal bank loan. HUD isn’t just lending you money, they are your long term partners at risk. You are not only proving you can build the project, you are also proving you can operate safely and efficiently for the next 30 to 40 years. The process moves in stages. First, the project.

It has to hurt it has to fit through hard programs like HUD type affordability market demand long-term stability Then comes the third party reports appraisals market study environmental study cost reviews energy modeling the green building modeling If those assumptions don’t line up everything pauses

So you have to go back to the drawing board, make sure all these processes and all these stages are met and they are done right. HUD also expects design and cost to be nearly locked in early. So ⁓ we’ll figure it out later. we cannot have that.

Rishi Srivastava (14:12)
Mmm.

Aditya Pandit (14:16)
After months of hard review and revisions the hardest part is patience, keeping everyone aligned without building anything but once you close the project the payoff is like long term benefits and its fixed rates and there is like real financial stability for the project.

Rishi Srivastava (14:35)
Change items are not easy without.

Aditya Pandit (14:37)
it’s very difficult you have to go through a long list of items and all your contractors have to follow Davis Bacon wages which is again high wages you have to provide them all the documentations and nowadays it’s pretty difficult

Rishi Srivastava (14:54)
HUD’s green building requirements and MIP incentives influence design decisions. Can you share an example where a spec or system seemed expensive upfront but made financial sense once HUD incentives and long-term operations were considered?

Aditya Pandit (15:12)
So all the systems are tied together and they should work seamlessly. One good example is upgrading to a high efficiency HVAC system along with a better building envelope. Basically more efficient heating and cooling plus better walls, windows, roofs to hold comfort.

⁓ So on the surface it looks unnecessary first cost especially with construction inflation but on a whole that’s where the hard MIP reductions will help you to save on a long term. But when you factor in hard MIP reductions, lower operating costs, fewer maintenance calls and the math changes quickly.

on a project extra upfront cost pay for itself quickly because we saved the money over the time on this MIP program things like energy bills and tenant comfort these are few items that I can mention

as an owner operator will look beyond spreadsheets. Better systems mean fewer complaints, lower turnover, and more predictable operations. HUD’s green requirement push you to think long term and often protect you from short-sighted value engineering.

Rishi Srivastava (16:12)
Mm-hmm.

Your company is in the middle of a finance leadership transition from CFO to controller turned CFO. From your perspective, what do you wish construction CFOs understood better about the field? And what do you wish project managers understood better about finance?

Aditya Pandit (16:44)
That’s a great question because the biggest risk in development usually lives between construction and finance. It’s not within either group. While it’s like bitter sweet to see a long term CFO retire, transition like that also highlights how important alignment is between these two teams. What I wish CFOs better understood is that

construction risk isn’t linear, problems don’t show up neatly at month end like weather, inspections, trade issues, design gaps, can happen suddenly sometimes the least bad decision in the field looks expensive on paper but actually it saves the project

Rishi Srivastava (17:12)
Mm-hmm.

Aditya Pandit (17:27)
I would love to see financial teams spend more time on the job sites learning how the sequencing happens, how the inspections really work, what are the cost swings, and why the change orders made real sense.

On the flip side, I wish project managers understood the cost of capital. Carry cost, interest cost, delayed stabilizations can quickly kill the deal. Even if you finish under budget, a schedule slip isn’t just an operational issue. It’s a financial one that compounds daily.

The strongest teams are where project managers think like owners and finance understands how buildings are actually built.

Rishi Srivastava (18:12)
I’m about to talk to a trial lawyer and he’s going to talk about some of the issues with the schedules. know, when they don’t line up how, the owner gets mad at the GC and it can end up in court and cost a lot of litigation.

Aditya Pandit (18:28)
Yeah, that’s something everyone, especially the project managers have to keep that in mind and make sure the project is run smoothly.

Rishi Srivastava (18:36)
The next section here is construction, quality, and operations. You operate in a coastal high-humidity market and mentioned recurring issues like condensation, drainage failures, and mold. How do those maintenance realities feed back into how you design details, manage quality control,

and budget contingencies.

Aditya Pandit (19:00)
in coastal areas where there is high humidity in summer time most maintenance problems aren’t just bad luck they come from the design or construction details that were not done right initially so once you accept that it changes how you build we get very frustrated on water management

Rishi Srivastava (19:12)
Mm-hmm.

Aditya Pandit (19:19)
like if the site is not properly properly graded building pads don’t sit on the right elevations air vapor barriers are not done right the facades not done right if the canopies are not draining outwards of the building and these are the small little items that have to make sure that the building design is done right and then the building envelope is sealed watertight

mechanical designs matter just as much systems have to control humidity not just temperature and the side design like landscaping drains canopy downspouts has to move water like again away from the building and not towards the building a lot of condensation and mold issues get blamed on maintenance but usually it’s

from the start and it’s with the design team how they have designed the building and the construction team how they have missed the coordination and because of that gap after like few years it shows up and that’s where the blame would be on maintenance I don’t think it should be a maintenance blame that’s why our quality checks is very intentional

Pre-cover inspections making sure all the photographs are taken waterproofing mock-ups Trade specific checklist for this climate control all have to be seamlessly organized and made sure all these inspections are done, right? In this market like water always wins It’s a humid environment But unless you plan and build for it then

you do it right, then you’ll be all good.

Rishi Srivastava (20:54)
There’s a building near where I live and I was talking to an inspector who inspected that building. Immediately after the building finished, the superintendent took a workers’ comp and he retired because there’s some big issue that’s going to happen with that building in a year or two. And he just wanted to get away from it.

Aditya Pandit (21:15)
⁓ and they will come and get you even if you do that.

Rishi Srivastava (21:20)
You said the quote unquote real project begins after construction when operations and maintenance take over. How do you collaborate with the asset management team so recurring failures and tenant feedback actually improve how you build the next project?

Aditya Pandit (21:37)
That feedback loop between construction and asset management is one of the biggest advantages of being an owner operator. We don’t treat asset management as a separate department. We see them as our post-construction quality auditors. Every recurring issue gets tracked, where it’s happening, which system is involved.

and whether it’s a design issue, an installation issue or it’s a maintenance issue we get all these tracked for example if we start seeing repeated HVAC condensation calls in the same unit type then it immediately like falls back on the design team and the construction team to make sure it does not happen on our next project we also bring

asset management in before turnover and not after turnover. They review the drawings before pre-construction and design period. Their perspective is invaluable because they are the ones living in the building like every day on a day-to-day basis. I recently had a conversation with an on-site property manager at one of our senior living communities.

and she pointed out like one simple but very important thing. For senior living, toilets need to be slightly higher and the bathtubs needs to be slightly lower. It’s a small detail, but that makes a big difference in day to day usability and safety, especially considering it’s a senior living building. Tenant feedbacks matter too, but we filter it through data.

Rishi Srivastava (22:56)
Hmm.

Aditya Pandit (23:09)
one complaint might be a preference, 20 complaints about the same thing usually point like something is wrong it’s a design fault or some construction was not done right. At the end of the day every project becomes a prototype for the next one. If construction doesn’t learn from their opportunities you’re guaranteed to repeat the same mistakes but again just pay the higher cost.

Rishi Srivastava (23:24)
I

Learning is so important, from your mistakes and from your past.

Aditya Pandit (23:36)
You have to keep learning every single day of your life.

Rishi Srivastava (23:39)
You’ve published written work on punchlists post-construction activities and mixed-use challenges. From that research and experience, what are the most expensive mistakes you see owners and contractors make at closeout and turnover?

Aditya Pandit (23:56)
The most expensive closeout mistakes aren’t cosmetic mistakes. They are baked into the system. The first is rushing turnover. Everyone is under pressure to generate revenue. So by skipping proper commissioning, incomplete operational and maintenance manuals or unresolved life safety issues, they create a long term operational problem.

The second is poor documentation. Missing as-built, unlabeled panels, incomplete warranty information. They force maintenance team to guess and that guesswork turns small issues into expensive repairs. We also make sure to hand over a finished schedule and material list. So operations, asset management team, they have a clean cheat sheet.

for finishes and fixtures. Third is unclear warranty responsibilities. Without a clean handoff process, issues get delayed, trades disappear and problems become owner paid fixes. In mixed use projects, coordination failures at shared system get expensive fast when no one owns the interface. Closeout isn’t just paperwork.

It’s a setup for the next 20 years or 30 years. Done right the project performs better. Again if it’s rushed then the owners have to pay for the bills.

Rishi Srivastava (25:17)
just as important. The last section here is on construction technology and tools. You rely heavily on Excel, ClickUp for collaboration, and Yardi for financials. Where does tech genuinely add value in your workflow? And where does it still feel like extra work on top of what you were already doing?

Aditya Pandit (25:17)
Yeah.

So technology should make your job easier. Not just turn paperwork into digital paperwork. For me, Excel is still the backbone. It’s fast, flexible, great for cost modeling and what-if scenarios. Most project managers don’t need more dashboards. They need clearer answers. Tools like ClickUp, they help me with coordination.

keeping design, construction, development, asset management, all these departments aligned. So decisions don’t get buried in emails. Yardi, it’s an accounting software. It’s critical on the ownership side because it creates discipline among budgets, monthly draws, forecasts, paying invoices, keeping a track of reports.

So it’s a long term asset management tool. We are also starting to use AI tools. Recently we got into an AI estimating tool called Construct IQ. It speeds up your takeoff.

and gives you early pricing so that teams can focus more on decision making instead of manual number crunching. Where tech starts to fail, it is when the same info gets entered multiple times. Tools get rolled out without changing how people actually work. Or project managers turn into a data entry clerks instead of leaders. Technology work, it works best

when it supports good judgment not when it tries to replace it. As AI shows up more in construction the teams that adopt it early and use it to get better insight not just more data will be the ones that will progress.

Rishi Srivastava (27:07)
Mm-hmm.

No, technology should be like electricity, should just be invisible, right?

Aditya Pandit (27:23)
Yeah.

Rishi Srivastava (27:24)
The last question here, Aditya, is because your company builds and then owns its projects long term, life cycle cost is critical. Can you share a decision made in pre-construction that ended up saving major time or money years later in operations?

Aditya Pandit (27:43)
One of the most impactful choices we have made over and is investing extra in accesses, in drainage and serviceability during pre-construction. Things tenants never notice, but operators, they live with it every day.

Take mechanical and plumbing access for example. Early on we pushed for larger access panels, clear service zones around the equipment, logical shut off locations and consistent routing across unit stacks. Up front it looked like waste space and extra cost. Years later it paid for itself many times over.

Maintenance is faster, less invasive and don’t involve tearing up finished spaces around it. Another area is side drainage and grading. Spending a little more during pre-construction to get slopes, grades, inlets, overflow paths right, if it is done right, prevented repeated water intrusions and costly reworks.

Especially during like coastal storms, which we get a lot in this region These decisions don’t show up as a win in a pro forma But they absolutely show up in a lower operating costs fewer tenant complaints and less emergency spending

As an owner builder, you quickly learn that the cheapest decision during construction is often the most expensive one during operations.

Yeah, at the end of the day, construction is not just about putting walls and roofs. It’s about thinking 20 years ahead. Every decision you make in design, pre-construction, execution, shapes how a building performs, how the tenant experiences it, and how efficiently the building is operated.

Rishi Srivastava (29:30)
Yeah, you’re not just building for right now, you’re building it for the future, know, long term future. Very cool. Aditya, this was great having you on the show. I enjoyed this conversation.

Aditya Pandit (29:41)
Thank you. Thanks a lot for having me. Like to share my thoughts, my views. I hope it helps who are watching this. I look forward for the construction industry to grow big time.