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How the master developer holds one development strategy and one technical standard across every phase of the district.
Now City, as master developer, holds the vision, the capital, the partnerships, the land strategy, and the phasing. The Owner’s Design Consultant serves as the technical integration and delivery lead for the district: coordinating planning, entitlement, engineering, infrastructure, architecture, and consultant teams to ensure every phase advances under a single development strategy and technical standard. It is the connective layer between the master developer’s intent and the vertical development that follows.
Masterplan refinement, entitlements, and design to roughly 50% completion, captured in Owner’s Project Requirements that lock quality, performance, and aesthetics.
Independent estimates at each milestone and apples-to-apples bid normalization mean a firm, enforceable price earlier than conventional delivery.
The builder’s documents and the built work are reviewed against the OPRs at every stage: the owner’s watchdog against quality erosion and scope drift.
Conventional projects choose between two flawed paths. Edgewater’s hybrid method takes the strengths of each and pairs them through the ODC.
The traditional path
The fast path
Edgewater’s path
Concept and schematic design with iterative owner review, then a comprehensive Owner’s Project Requirements package: detailed drawings, outline specifications, and performance criteria at a design-development level. Budget and schedule are reconfirmed before anything goes to bid.
Design-build firms bid a fixed price (or GMP) on the OPR package. Because the product is fully defined, proposals are truly comparable. The ODC answers bidder questions, issues clarifications, and normalizes bids for an apples-to-apples decision.
The builder’s architects produce construction documents, and nothing proceeds to construction until the ODC and owner confirm the documents honor the OPRs. Submittal reviews and coordination keep the intent intact.
Site observation, submittal and shop-drawing review, change-order evaluation, payment certification, and substantial-completion inspection: the ODC represents the owner’s design interests until the finished district matches the promise.
The RFP binds every design decision to ten interlocking principles: both compass and performance framework. Every ODC deliverable is measured against them.
Walkability, safe public space, access to nature; daily life that is naturally active and restorative.
Gathering places and social infrastructure that make the district feel like home to a diverse population.
Native landscape, habitat, visible water; nature woven in, not added on.
Parks, plazas, courtyards, and greenways organize the site and carry stormwater, mobility, and identity.
Mass timber, optimized envelopes, passive design, renewables, shared district energy.
Designed for people, not cars: multimodal, human-scale, parking sufficient but unobtrusive.
Microgrids, storage, passive survivability, emergency resource hubs.
Mixed housing types and price points, local business in the retail mix, universal design.
Water reuse, waste reduction, energy generation and storage, monitored in real time.
Art, craft, and story rooted in Salem and the Willamette Valley; beauty as essential infrastructure.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ODC | Owner’s Design Consultant: the independent design team working for the owner through design, procurement, and construction oversight. |
| OPRs | Owner’s Project Requirements: the package of drawings, outline specifications, and performance criteria (roughly a design-development level of definition) that locks the owner’s intent and becomes the basis of the design-build contract. |
| Design-Build (DB) | A delivery method where one firm holds responsibility for both final design and construction under a single contract and price. |
| GMP | Guaranteed Maximum Price: the enforceable ceiling a design-builder commits to for delivering the defined product. |
| SD / DD / CD | The classic design stages: Schematic Design (the big moves), Design Development (systems and dimensions resolved), Construction Documents (everything needed to build). |
| Bid normalization | Adjusting competing proposals for alternates, contingencies, escalation, and risk allocation so the owner compares true equals. |
| Entitlements | The public approvals (land use, zoning, permits) that give a project the legal right to be built. Edgewater’s uses are largely permitted outright under MU-III zoning. |
Now City issued the ODC Request for Proposals on December 5, 2025, covering the 5.29-acre Phase 1 program: 350+ multifamily homes, a ~15,000 SF AI Innovation Hub, and ~40,000 SF of experiential retail, inside an Opportunity Zone and the West Salem Urban Renewal Area, with a feasibility study behind it and most uses permitted outright. Two strong multidisciplinary teams responded, and both relationships continue. Their proposals, converted for web reading, are on the Delivery Teams page.