Alares Architects & Engineers
Insight · September 24, 2026

Six days left in the fiscal year.

The federal fiscal year ends September 30. Every year some facility teams reach this week with money still available and no project ready to put under contract. The instinct is to find something to buy. The better move is to fund the work that makes next year's project possible.

Blue Alares graphic reading: Six days left in the fiscal year.
Topic

Capital planning

Deadline

September 30

Published

September 24, 2026

Read time

3 minutes

The problem

Construction needs a design, and a design needs to know what is actually wrong. If neither exists yet, there is nothing responsible to award this week. Rushing a construction contract to beat the deadline is how owners end up with change orders all next year.

What can move fast

Study and assessment work does not need a construction window or a finished design. It needs a clear scope and a site to walk. That makes it a good fit for the last week of the year.

Facility condition assessments

We walk the campus and grade every deficiency in architecture, mechanical, plumbing, electrical and structure, with a photo and a cost estimate for each. We have done this for the VA at Reno, and at Sacramento, Martinez, McClellan and Mare Island under a single task order. The report is a priced list you can build a capital plan from.

Feasibility studies

Before committing capital to something large, find out if it works. At the Reno VA a test well and thermal testing answered whether geothermal heating was viable before anyone paid for a system.

Seismic evaluations

An evaluation to ASCE 41 and the VA seismic handbook tells you whether a building needs targeted bracing, a structural retrofit or something bigger, before you spend construction money guessing.

Retrocommissioning

Tuning the systems a building already has is often the cheapest energy reduction available, and a retrocommissioning study puts a number on it.

Why it pays

Each of these turns into a defensible capital request with real numbers behind it. The money you spend this September is what gets next year's project funded, designed and built without surprises. If you have funds left this week, call us.

Funds left this week?

Facility condition assessments, feasibility studies, seismic evaluations and retrocommissioning that turn this year's money into next year's project.

Headquarters

1990 Main St,
Suite 750
Sarasota, FL 34236

941.444.0477