Delivery timelines, and how they actually slip

Two dates, and only one is binding.

Every preconstruction project has a projected delivery date used in marketing, and a contractual outside date beyond which the developer is in default. These are not the same and the gap between them is frequently wide.

The projected date is an estimate made before construction begins. The outside date is the promise, and it is generally set with substantial margin.

A buyer who plans around the marketing date and does not know the contractual one has misunderstood what they signed.

Five stages, and the early ones are the least visible.

Presales. Most projects require a threshold of sales before construction financing is drawn. Until that is met, nothing is built, and this stage is invisible from outside.

Permitting. Approvals take time and can take longer where a project is complex or a site is constrained.

Foundations and below grade work. In coastal Miami this can be slow and can surprise, and it is where unexpected conditions surface.

Structure. Generally the most predictable stage, since a tower rises at a fairly consistent rate once it is going.

Finishing and closeout. The stage that most often runs long. Finishes, systems commissioning, inspections and the certificate of occupancy are where months accumulate.

Buyers watch the structure because it is visible. The delay usually happens before it starts and after it finishes.

Ordinary causes, mostly.

Presales taking longer than projected. Permitting and approvals. Labour and materials availability. Weather and storm season. Design changes made during construction. Inspection and closeout.

None of these is exotic and none indicates a troubled project by itself. Large buildings are complicated and complicated things run late.

What does merit attention is a developer whose previous projects consistently ran well beyond their projected dates, or a project where the developer communicates poorly about delay. The record is more informative than the reason.

Find the outside date before you sign.

Contracts contain an outside date for completion and provisions governing delay, and they generally reserve the developer considerable latitude for causes outside their control.

Find the outside date, establish what happens if it passes, and understand what categories of delay are excused. This is a legal question and your attorney should walk you through it specifically.

Also establish what happens to your deposits during an extended delay, and whether any right to cancel arises and at what point. These are the provisions that matter, and they are readable before you pay anything.

Three habits.

Check the developer’s record. What did their last three projects project, and what did they deliver? This is verifiable from public records and press coverage, and it is the single best predictor available.

Establish the current stage honestly. Has the presale threshold been met? Has permitting been secured? Has construction financing closed? A project that has not started is at a different point on the curve than one with a structure rising.

Plan for later than projected. Not as pessimism but as arithmetic. If your plans depend on a specific date, build in margin, and if they cannot accommodate margin, a completed building is the better answer.

One question.

What happens to you if this delivers meaningfully later than projected? If the answer is that you would be inconvenienced, preconstruction is workable. If the answer is that a lease ends, a school year starts or a sale completes on a fixed date, the risk is real and should be treated as such.

Preconstruction rewards buyers who can wait and penalises buyers who cannot. That is the whole of it.

When the answer is neither: a project already under construction with a structure topped out carries much less timing risk than one still in presales, and it is frequently available. If timing worries you, that is where to look rather than abandoning new construction entirely.