Intelligent Interiors

In 2006, KM Building Company, a Minneapolis contractor, took on a new project. Plymouth-based Enpath Medical, Inc., a rapidly growing medical-device manufacturer was consolidating facilities in Plymouth and Bloomington, and needed to find a larger production, office, and warehouse and distribution facility.

Once Enpath chose a suitable facility in Plymouth, the con- tractor had just five months to clear out the space—a former Control Data and Honeywell warehouse—and plan and build 95,000 square feet of high-tech work-space in time for Enpath to begin production there in February 2007. It was a daunting assignment, but an increasingly common scenario for contractors that transform bare-bones or outdated facilities into efficient, welcoming new workspaces.

Such interior specialists say that as project timelines get shorter, they function best as part of a well-coordinated team that includes the tenant-to-be, landlord, architects, and property managers. Sometimes, the contractor’s role is to give clients a reality check early in the process, according to Todd Hayes, vice president of project management for Minneapolis-based Greiner Construction.

“They always seem to want more than than they can afford and want it more quickly than it can reasonably be done. It’s always been that way,” says Hayes, whose firm does buildouts for both tenants and property management firms. In the latter case, typically, the client is “part of the team, but not the driving force. We take direction from whomever is writing the check.”

Time is Tight

For contractors, the typical project sequence begins when they receive a set of plans from the architects. Though contractors accept tight budgets and compressed work-schedules as an inescapable part of their business, they warn that trying to save money by limiting design time will backfire.

“They shortchange themselves by not giving the design team enough time to do the job right,” says Bob Jossart, president of Minneapolis-based RJM Construction. “Then the quality of the construction documents goes down. It’s a horrid place to try to save money. For every dollar you save on design—once you get below a fair fee—you could end up spending $5 to $10 more because of excess change-orders.”

Jossart also cites increasingly difficult work rules landlords or property managers may impose on contractors doing buildouts in multi-tenant buildings. “They might not let us have access to the elevators for construction activities during the day to avoid interfering with the other tenants. If we have to run the elevators at night to move materials, we have to pay overtime costs.”