The Marco Corporation

Type: New Facility Design/Build

Industry: 150,000 sq. ft. Office/Warehouse

Duration: 16 months [2004-2005]

Role: Owner Representative & Project Lead

Situation

The Marco Corporation, a second generation privately owned family business providing a variety of promotional merchandise, lettershop, warehouse and distribution services to Fortune 500 clients across North America had, by 2004, outgrown their Brantford, Ontario facilities and were spread over multiple locations across the city.

The decision to commit to building a new state-of-the-art office and warehouse facility was made, and land was purchased in a new business park outside Brantford. The company's President boldly stated at an all company event, that the company would be moving into the new facility within 15 months. However, how that was going to happen, and what the new building would be like had yet to be determined.

See Project Images Below

Challenge

Marco's senior leadership, while experts in their own business, had never undertaken a project of this nature. Their current operations, scattered across four separate facilities, made determining the new facility's size and layout a challenge once everything was under one roof.

How would future business and growth requirements be accommodated? Should all operations be moved at one time or phased over multiple moves? How would operations manage with as little impact to business as possible during equipment, inventory and personnel moves? What opportunities were there for improving efficiencies, communications and corporate culture? What design principles, office layouts and opportunities for social interaction were best suited to promoting these goals? These, and many other decisions would need to be addressed over the next year in order to ensure the project was on time, on budget and achieved the promised benefits.

Results

In conjunction with the structural engineering consultant who was the only resource initially on-boarded, we identified a list of 5 general contracting firms who were invited to bid, and a smaller architectural firm with a strong commercial design background (who had worked with a number of the general contractors) was selected.

Through an accelerated, and iterative design process involving Marco's leadership team, and based on the requirements and space allocation analysis I conducted we were able to develop a building design and the bid package required to execute an RFP within 3 months. A well-respected Brantford-based builder was selected, and their connections were leveraged to accelerate building plan and permit approvals.

In May 2005, 12 months after breaking ground, Marco's office and warehouse operations were moved into the new facility over a 3-day week-end with operations resuming Monday morning with no impact on operations. Four separate facilities around the city were consolidated into the new office and warehouse facility, which has served Marco exceptionally well over the intervening years. The ability to consolidate operations and staff improved operational efficiency and helped build a stronger corporate culture by having everyone together and improving cooperation and communications.

The project was delivered on time and on-budget as originally conceived with high praise received for the buildings form, function and design. A number of elements such as selective millwork, technology infrastructure, signage, and move scheduling were managed by me, in order to manage both schedule control and costs.

All consultants, including the architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer, interior designer, and efficiency expert, all commented favourably on the smoothness of the RFP, construction process, communications and the overall project management. While there were a few moments of contention with the General Contractor, overall the construction process and budget management went smoothly and the client was very pleased.