City Grill

Kelley Cowan 
Director, Sacramento Region
XL Construction

Cowan says the Sacramento area is seeing projects moving forward, particularly in education and health care markets with K-12 schools, medical office buildings and behavioral health facilities.

“We are also seeing more clients transitioning their projects to alternative and design-build delivery methods in lieu of the traditional design-bid-build approach,” says Cowan, who notes a growing appreciation for the value provided with increased collaboration among all parties during the design process. She says this includes iterative design-option analyses of constructibility, cost and schedule as well as early coordination, input from the trades and site preplanning.

“Over the course of the pandemic, we were fortunate to receive many opportunities and didn’t suffer any project shutdowns primarily because our projects were in essential markets,” says Cowan, who recently received Women of Influence honors from the Sacramento Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW).