Client-Side Project Management Sydney
The client-side project manager Sydney developers bring in before the builder.
Submit your project details and get a clear read on your feasibility, your consultant team, and what a client-side project manager would change on your specific site.
-
Protect project delivery from feasibility through to handover
-
Your interests represented exclusively, not the architect's or builder's
-
Coordinate consultants, contractors and approvals under one accountable team
No obligation 30 minute introductory call.
15+ years
Client-side representation on complex developments
21 → 28 apartments
Same footprint. A stalled site made viable
94 keys, 500sqm CBD
Delivered alongside live light rail construction
Delivered alongside Sydney's leading developers and design consultants:
A note from Simon Kassis
Most developers only come to us after something's already gone wrong.
I hear the same misconception at nearly every first meeting: that a project manager just forwards emails and delegates.
That's not what changes a project's outcome. Understanding build cost, layout and structure well enough to catch a problem before it costs you, that is.
You've got an architect designing something beautiful. A builder pricing risk into every variation. Engineers, planners and consultants each working to their own scope, their own programme, their own fee. Nobody in that room is working only for you.
That's the gap client-side project management fills: one team, accountable only to you, across the entire project lifecycle, from the first feasibility through to handover.
I know the market feels uncertain at the moment. Costs are moving, councils are slow, and every headline makes a project feel riskier than it is.
But a development runs six to seven years from the first conversation to completion, regardless of what's happening this month.
The right team gets you through that timeline steadily. The wrong one leaves you exposed to every headline along the way.
That's the position APM Services is built for: in the room before the problems surface, testing feasibility, building for yield.
Regards, Simon Kassis
Client-side project management is for you if...
You want one point of contact across the whole project lifecycle
You've worked with a project manager before who felt more aligned to the builder's programme than your outcome
You want project management consultancy to ensure feasibility before purchasing land
You want a client-side project manager with contractor-side experience
What client-side project management means for you
When you choose client-side project management, you get someone whose only job is to look out for you. One person makes sure the whole plan actually works, from the very start to the finish.
APM Services brings end to end project lifecycle experience to every engagement, drawn from property development and property advisory work across ground-up builds, adaptive reuse and fit-out projects.
What changes when a client-side project manager is in the room from the start
Your consultant teams stop competing.
Left uncoordinated, architects, engineers and builders each protect their own scope.
Your design becomes buildable.
We coordinate before the DA is lodged, informed by real construction methods experience.
Feasibility holds up under scrutiny.
Financial models pressure-test land price, build cost, holding costs and consultant fees before capital is committed.
Risk assessment and mitigation.
Builder selection and contract structure are assessed to suit your project's scale and complexity.
Your building contracts are administered properly, not just signed.
Budget management and schedule management run as one function with project administration in a real-time, defensible file.
Your planning and approvals move without unnecessary delay.
Planned pathway to council approvals.
You get independent, client-facing advice throughout.
One point of contact, answerable only to you, from the first feasibility conversation through to final handover.
CASE STUDY – BURWOOD
When a client needed someone on their side
A client came to us mid-project, in the middle of an adjudication. The builder had taken them through the Security of Payment process, and the clock was already running.
We stepped in to represent the client's position by reviewing the contract, the payment history and the correspondence in detail.
Adjudications are rarely a surprise; there are telegraphed warning signs beforehand (a burst of variations, site resources thinning, the builder going quiet).
The real leverage point is having watertight payment schedules and a real-time file before the claim lands.
That client now has three towers under our management.
Client-side project management means being across every detail of the contract, working only for the client, with no fee alignment to the other side.
HOW IT WORKS
Three steps to a client-side project manager on your project
Step 1: Tell Us About Your Project
Complete the enquiry form with your site details, where you are in the project lifecycle, and what you're trying to achieve. The more detail you give us, the more useful the consultation.
Step 2: We Review Before We Meet
Simon Kassis reviews every submission personally before confirming a time. You get a considered read on your project, not a generic pitch.
Step 3: You Get a Clear Read on Your Project
In the consultation, we cover where a client-side project manager would add value on your specific site and what it would look like in practice.
This conversation could change your entire project outcome
We turned a zero-profit 21-apartment site into a 28-apartment project, returning $5 million. It started with a feasibility and a willingness to look at the problem differently.
Client Side Project Management
What client-side project management with APM Services covers
Development Feasibility
We analyse site controls, model development scenarios and pressure-test every assumption before capital is committed. You get a real number, not a hopeful one.
Design Management
We coordinate architects, engineers and specialist consultants during design, not after it, so the building that gets approved is one you can actually build and afford.
Procurement and Builder Selection
We run tendering and procurement with your commercial interests front of mind, matching the head contractor to the scale and complexity of your project.
Construction Management and Contract Administration
We administer the building contract on your behalf, run site meetings and site visits, and keep detailed reports so you always know where the project stands.
Project Coordination and Stakeholder Management
One team coordinates every consultant, contractor and approval across the project lifecycle, so responsibility never falls through the gap between them.
Handover and Aftercare
We manage defects, commissioning and quality standards through to handover, and stay engaged for ongoing support once the keys are in your hand.
About Us
Who you'll work with
Simon Kassis is the Managing Director of APM Services and has consulted on Sydney's most complex development sites, spanning new build and complex refurbishment projects.
His career started on the contractor side, as a contracts administrator at Built, before leading the engineering team at Toga on a 194-key hotel at 80 George Street, on a 500 sqm CBD site with light rail construction running alongside it.
He then moved client-side at Generate, representing the client on projects including 333 Kent Street and the DA for Canva's Sydney headquarters, before co-founding APM Services.
Client-side project management, in our view, only works if the person doing it has sat on both sides of the contract. That's the experience that shapes how we approach every project.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions every developer asks us before engaging
-
It means the project manager is engaged and paid by you, the developer, and answers only to you. A builder's project manager or superintendent still has to manage the builder's programme and commercial position. A client-side project manager has no allegiance to any other party on the project.
A client-side project manager protects your budget, your yield and your outcome, and coordinates the builder rather than reporting to them.
-
We work primarily with private developers across commercial, residential and industrial sites, including land subdivision. If your project sits outside that, tell us about it and we'll be upfront about whether we're the right fit.
-
We work across greater Sydney, including:
Sydney CBD
Inner City: Surry Hills, Potts Point, Darlinghurst
Inner West: Newtown, Marrickville, Strathfield South
South Sydney: Redfern, Alexandria, Mascot
Eastern Suburbs: Bondi Junction, Rose Bay, Double Bay, North Shore
Northern Beaches: Frenchs Forest, Mona Vale, Dee Why
-
Tell us as much detail as you have via our online submission. Site address, where you are in the project lifecycle, and what outcome you're after. The initial consultation is complimentary, with no obligation to proceed.
Your project deserves someone working only for you.
-
One team across the entire project lifecycle, from feasibility to handover
-
Construction and contractor-side experience behind every decision we make on your behalf
-
Resolving development issues across Sydney's most complex sites
-
No obligation 30 minute consultation, reviewed personally by Simon Kassis before you meet
Book a consultation
