Embrace Orthodontics is a specialist orthodontic provider led by Dr Jennifer Lee and Dr Michael Skilbeck.  They operate practices in Invercargill and Gore, and believe their patients deserve a healthy, confident smile.  They wanted to extend those smiles to Queenstown, with a new practice in the growing commercial area next to the Remarkables Park Town Centre.  

Having engaged a local architect, the project had quickly become more complicated than anticipated, with multiple parties engaged.  This resulted in budget projections which quickly surpassed expectations and threatened to derail their vision for the new practice.  

“The overall estimate was way higher than I imagined for a 125 square foot space” explains Dr Jennifer Lee. “That’s when I decided to seek a second opinion.”

We were engaged to provide that second opinion and discovered one of the contributing factors to the complexity of the project was the space itself.  Situated at ground level, it adjoins a hotel, is long and narrow, with a higher than normal ceiling height and is essentially what’s known as a ‘cold shell’ (i.e. has no services).  This had presented challenges and the need to engage multiple consultants in order to devise a plan to make it work for an orthodontic practice. 

As Dr Lee explains; “the space didn't have any opening windows and had these really high ceilings.  There were different consultants involved because of issues related to fire plans and to deal with all the permissions needed from the local Council, which was also complicated because the space was changing from retail to medical.”

While this might sound like an unusual situation, it’s not.  Medical developments are notorious for becoming complicated because it’s such a specialist area, with projects quickly extended to include additional parties because of the need for additional expertise.  This is where Medispace comes in, because we’re able to cut out all the noise and act as a single point of accountability, because we have all that expertise in-house.  For Embrace Orthodontics, this meant we were able to provide the assurances they needed and relieve the stress they were feeling.  How?  With a firm price covering everything from design through to key handover.

“Medispace has a very integrated approach, and from their experience they have this vast knowledge of the whole process from start to finish and could take care of everything, like resource and building consents" says Dr. Lee.

Indeed, we ran a streamlined approach with Council under ‘consent exemption’ - meaning the trades were pre-vetted and could self-certify, drastically reducing the programme time needed.  This was especially beneficial considering Embrace would be paying rent from a set date, regardless of whether the business was operational or not.  

Along the way adjustments were made to make the space more effective and comfortable.  For example, the initial design maintained the ceiling height which would make the space difficult to heat effectively during winters in an alpine environment where snow and plummeting temperatures are the norm. 

“I wanted to lower the ceiling for the whole area but had basically been told that would be too difficult,” explains Dr Lee.  “But with Medispace it wasn’t a problem.  They just made it all so very straightforward and I’m really glad we did - because it gets cold in winter and would be impossible to heat otherwise.”

We also assisted with furniture, fittings and equipment (FFE), and even signage, helping navigate all the various options and choices, which we know was appreciated.  As was keeping everything moving: “everything was on-time and very organised.  I knew that when Medsipace said something was going to be done - that’s when it would be done.”

Under the original programme Embrace Orthodontics Queenstown was scheduled for completion in September.  Using our design-build methodology, we were able to drastically reduce ‘time to revenue’ and have it ready by March.  Just as importantly, the revised pricing provided from our second opinion and the savings it offered was never deviated from, marking the entire project as ‘ahead of schedule and under budget.’

As for Embrace Orthodontists and Dr Jennifer Lee, we like to think they were completely satisfied with the result: “I’m very satisfied with Medispace and everything they’ve done.  I’d definitely recommend them and already have!”