This 2.06 Million-Dollar, 21,342 SF project is located in South Whitehall Township at the Crest Plaza Shopping Center. Retail A is the new Wine & Spirits Shop, Retail B is Plaza Beverage, Retail C is Atillios Restaurant and Retail D is the Hallmark Store.
This project was constructed on an “Open Book” Construction Management Basis with 100% of the cost savings returned to the owner. At the end of the project, we returned $21,000 in cost savings.
Permits were submitted on 09/05/02 to the Township. The Building Permit was received on 10/02/02 with a list of conditions that had to be satisfied before occupancy would be granted by the Township.
Construction was started on foundations on 10/02/02 and had to be completed and opened early enough to allow four existing retail Stores to move into their new space so the existing Strip Mall Store could be demolished and the site reworked for the new Target Store. A January 20th deadline was set by Target on the Developer Preit-Rubin, Inc. to have the pad ready for their construction. If this deadline was not met there was a Liquidated Damage of $500,000.00 set as a penalty. There was also the risk of losing Target as their anchor tenant for the mall. From the beginning of the project it was clear that there was no room for failure.
Several factors made this project Challenging:
1. The Developer is from Philadelphia, the Civil Engineer is from Philadelphia, the Architect is from New York City, The Structural Engineer is from Maryland and the MEP Engineer is from New Jersey.
All were unaware of the high standards of construction required by South Whitehall Township.
2. The site work and demolition contracts were handled by Preit under separate contracts and required co-ordination with throughout the project.
3. Interface with the public and the stores that remained open during the construction.
4. Construction Drawings of this new retail space were submitted as a shell with minimum store finishes shown at the start of the project. Discussions with the store owners on requirements continued up to the completion of the Project. The high standards of construction required by South Whitehall Township had to be included.
5. Eight days were lost due to weather conditions including an 11/30/02 snow storm.
6. On 9/11/02 the power and phone companies were notified that their lines ran across the rear corner of Retail A. The relocation of these lines had to be co-ordinated by the Developer and the Utilities. The phone lines were relocated by 9/12/02 but the power line relocation was not completed until 10/19/02. Masonry walls were erected as high as possible prior to the relocation and had to be completed after the lines were removed.
The Utility relocation caused lost time and remobilization of the masonry, steel erection and roofing that has not been documented as lost time since all Trades continued and worked around the problems created by the power lines. Crews working second shifts, Saturdays and Sundays throughout the project made up time. The project was completed in 118 calendar days.
The Wine & Spirits Store was open for business on 1/10/03 and the Plaza Beverage was open on 1/13/03.
Both were completed in a little over three months despite adverse weather conditions, utility interference, ongoing drawing development and South Whitehall Township inspection requirements.
Due to final decisions delays on layout and final selections of finishes in Attilios, Preit decided to temporarily close the Attilios and Hallmark stores so their deadline could be met for the Target Pad.
This decision included the temporary storage of all items that would be reused in the new stores.
The Hallmark store was open for business on 1/23/03 and Attilios was open for business on 1/28/03.