Ghana Amansie Affordable Housing Project

Project recovery and protection of the lender’s investment.

The Ghana Amansie Canadian Multicultural Association was building a 48-unit affordable housing development with the aid of City of Toronto funding and other government grants. The project, which was already 6 years behind schedule, was approximately 60% complete when construction came to a halt as a result poor project management and major budget shortfalls. Construction contracts were awarded without a competitive bids process and without completed mechanical and electrical drawings, which resulted in further delays as well as cost overruns, payment disputes, construction liens and claims.

As one of the main contributors of funding on the project, The City of Toronto completely reorganized the development team including appointing A.W. Hooker as the new quantity surveyor and project loan monitor.

A.W Hooker completed a thorough review of all costs which included visiting the site to confirm the construction progress and reviewing all hard and soft cost invoices to date to verify the value of the amount complete. This exercise confirmed that the project had an even larger budget shortfall than expected and serious cash flow problems and that the previous analysis had overstated their assessment of the value of completed construction; numerous invoices remained outstanding and several overpayments were made. With this report, the City had a thorough understanding of the actual progress to date and were provided payment confirmations and recommendations.

A.W. Hooker also reviewed the delay claims and extras the contractor was claiming as a result of the project delay. Supported by years of construction cost data, A.W. Hooker negotiated these claims with the contractor and project team to the benefit of the owner.

As construction resumed through to successful completion, A.W. Hooker prepared monthly project monitor reports for the lenders to ensure proper distribution of funds and identify any areas of risk to the capital budget.

Overruns and delays of this mismanaged project added up to almost $7M before A.W. Hooker’s involvement helped to recover the project and provide all the involved lenders with confidence that their investment was being managed properly.