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Commercial Construction
Roundup
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Bellerive
Plaza Renovations
Location:
12756 Olive Boulevard at Mason, Creve Coeur, Mo.
General Contractor: Holland-Hinrich Construction Co.
Developer & Leasing Agent: The DESCO Group
Engineer: Kuhlman Design Group
Cost: $7 million
Completion Date: Fall 2000
Size: 114,168 square feet
Architect: Kuhlman Design Group, Nova Group
Description: The renovated shopping center features a remodeled
68,000-square-foot Schnucks that is 14,000 square feet larger than
the original store. The center also includes 46,168 square feet
of additional retail space housing 18 specialty retailers. The retail
center features new exterior finishes, new landscaping and new sidewalks.
The redesigned parking lot enhances traffic flow in and out of the
shopping center.
Highlighting the new conveniences is the first-of-its-kind Schnucks.com
Café, a business center that brings technology to customers’
fingertips. The café features computers at each table from
which customers can access their e-mail and AOL account, surf the
Internet and review files on disk—all while enjoying ready-to-eat
food from the deli or food bar.
Black’s Ridge Office Building
Location: 16253 Swingley Ridge Road, Chesterfield, Mo.
General Contractor: R.G. Brinkmann Construction Co.
Developer: Swingley Ridge Development, LLC
Engineer: J.R. Grimes Consulting Engineers
Cost: $5 million
Completion Date: September 2000
Size: 65,000 square feet
Architect: TR,i Architekts
Description: This four-story building is the new St. Louis
central district headquarters for IKON Office Solutions, a leading
office technology company. The exterior blends a two-tone brown
and tan brick with a profusion of gray-tinted glass. A four-story
curtain wall of tinted glass flanked by horizontal ribbon windows
highlights the main entrance. Extensive glass elements are also
incorporated into the curved rear facade.
The lobby features a dynamic, contemporary look centered by a glass
and steel monumental stairway to the second floor. Two elevators
will access all floors from the lobby. A combination of surface
and garage parking will accommodate more than 300 vehicles.
BJC Healthcare, South Campus
Location:
St. Louis, Mo.
General Contractor: McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
Engineer: HOK Structural, David Mason & Associates
Cost: $90 million
Completion Date: November 2001
Size: 365,000 square feet
Architect: Executive Architect—Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum,
Emergency Dept. Architect—Christner Partnership
Description: The south campus project includes a 10-story,
340,000-square-foot tower building that will house a new Trauma
level I emergency and urgent care department at street level,
a cafeteria area on the second level and a heliport on the rooftop.
The upper floors of the building will contain clinical research
laboratories. Connected to the Tower’s North side will be
a 336,000-square-foot, 700-car replacement parking garage for
St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Elevated pedestrian bridges
will link the garage to St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Subcontractors: Ahal Contracting, Alberici, Condaire, Inc.,
Corrigan Company, DuPont Flooring System, Otis Elevator, Sachs
Systems (a division of Sachs Electric Company), Senco, Spirtas
Wrecking Company, Tech Electronics, Volk Construction Company
Construction Outlook
By Peter Downs
After nearly a decade of growth, the national economy is showing
signs of slowing. St. Louis Commerce asked three construction
industry leaders to reflect on the slowdown and what it means
for the industry. They are Jeff Cook, president of Arco Construction
Co.; Lynn Schenk, vice president of Grubb & Ellis/Krombach Partners;
and Anthony Thompson, president of Kwame Building Services Company.
How is the commercial construction industry faring? Will
the good times continue?
Cook: Our focus is the private
sector, so we can only speak to that arena. St. Louis along with
many other U.S. cities has seen vacancy rates increase from 1
to 2 percent to 7 to 10 percent or more in the last year and a
half. This is mainly due to the tremendous amount of space either
developed and constructed, space vacated due to consolidation
of operations and delivery systems, and the static needs of larger
users in the market place with the slowing economy.
To put things in perspective, in the last 18 months, approximately
4,000,000 to 5,000,000 square feet has become available, when
in years past only 500,000 to 1,000,000 square feet was annually
constructed in the marketplace.
Five years ago, the projects we did were for owners who occupied
their buildings. Speculative office and warehouse buildings were
almost non-existent. The last two to three years, including this
year, more than 60 percent of all warehouse buildings have been
developed by third, speculative parties, and the percentage of
speculative office space has been even higher.
Hopefully, the airport expansion and other major public projects
will continue to provide a steady stream of work for our very
talented group of construction firms in the St. Louis area. Although,
our strategy, which several of our fellow local general contractors
follow, will continue to be traveling with our repeat customers
to multiple markets.
We see the market cooling over the next two years while the current
surplus of office and warehouse space gets absorbed. We are tightening
our belts and preparing for a slow-down.
Schenk: If you talk to general
contractors, most say they are still very busy, but their backlog
of projects is down about 30 percent from a year ago. Speculative
construction has slowed down. The start of many new projects is
depending on pre-leasing, Cupples is an example. The service center
market is still pretty strong, and the office market is still
strong, but the bulk warehouse market has a lot of space available.
Thompson: The commercial industry
is doing very well. There appears to be no sign of it slowing
for another four to eight years. In the St. Louis area several
major projects are in the planning or design phase, indicating
a continuous flow of construction through 2009. As one major project
winds down another will start.
What do you see as the major trends in the industry?
Schenk: Everyone today is
designing buildings to accommodate more fiber optic cabling and
power. The amount of power tenants consume today is higher than
it ever was before. Yet, energy efficiency is still pretty much
on the fringes. It has not entered yet into the mainstream of
the financial analysis. It is probably common more common in the
owner-user market, but you don’t see it in the speculative market.
Cook: We have been seeing
some attention by owners occupying their buildings to investing
in lighting, HVAC, pavement designs, etc. with three to seven
year paybacks. We have seen the market continue to dictate a shorter-term
approach toward energy efficiency of lighting, etc. in speculative
buildings primarily because the needs of the potential tenants
are unknown. It has not made sense to invest in a lot of additional
features that may not be used.
With regards to delivery systems, over the past two years we have
seen a heightened need for buildings to be built faster and we
have responded by being creative and innovative with the logic
of our schedules. With the tightened schedules, you have seen
concrete tilt-up construction dominate the industrial and mid-rise
office building markets, balancing speed, quality and cost.
What are the main obstacles the industry faces?
Thompson: Labor shortages,
which studies prepared for our teams indicate are affecting the
BJC and MSD programs.
Cook: We believe that we in
the general contracting community need to continue to improve
our relationships with the subcontractor and supplier community.
We are blessed to have a very skilled workforce in our community.
However, our skilled workforce is aging. If we, as a community,
do not improve our ability to treat our vendors and suppliers
with respect and figure out new ways to inspire others, we will
have the predicted labor shortages.
Schenk: The economy. I met
recently with a client who supplies the automotive industry. They
said production is down 25 percent from a year ago. That has a
huge ripple effect, and it is just an example of what is happening.
Until we see the economy expanding again, we will see caution.
What kind of construction projects do the most to maintain
the region’s economic momentum and how can we get more of them?
Cook: Our observation is that
if each couple of years a larger, regional project is constructed
in the market, e.g. a Kiel Center, courthouse, airport expansion,
or a new stadium, particularly if it is constructed by one of
the larger in-town general contractors, it gives the larger general
contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers backlog, confidence
and pride in the St. Louis region. Ongoing projects such as these
free up smaller projects for the smaller contractors to complete.
We have the long-term potential to get ourselves organized in
the City of St. Louis, East St. Louis, and the surrounding areas
with fabulous highway access. We can then compete with other Midwestern
cities like Cincinnati, Indianapolis and others.
Before we can do this, several social issues like education, housing,
and the inclusion of our minority community need to be addressed
and become major priorities. By accomplishing that we can move
forward with rebuilding our City.
Schenk: Any kind of construction
project that creates new jobs is important. But, there is a lot
of stuff going on in the local economy, with TWA and Ralston being
sold, which are unknowns as far as the region goes. We need to
aggressively work with the RCGA to attract more companies.
New product is necessary to attract those companies. We haven’t
had new construction downtown since Metropolitan Square. As a
result, even professional firms committed to downtown are coming
out to new product in Clayton. We need to figure out a way to
get new product downtown. We need to figure out a way to supply
large contiguous blocks of space to tenants that need to grow.
Thompson: The three “r’s”
are projects that will maintain economic growth in the region—roads,
rails and runways. We can help get more of them by supporting
bond issues and tax increases like MSD’s and the Governor’s transportation
bill.
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