County of San Diego Operations Center

Hometown pride┬áThe County of San Diego Operations Center will consolidate its operations in a brand-new office campus. April Terreri learns how a collaborative approach is achieved among many players. In another six years, all functions of the County of San Diego Operations Center will be consolidated on a beautiful new campus on 38 County-owned acres in Kearny Mesa. The projectÔÇÖs three phases will ease the consolidation process for employees over a six-year period, after which the campus will be home to 4,000 County employees.  Lowe Enterprises Real Estate GroupÔÇôWest, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises, Inc., is the developer of the project, and ROEL Construction, also of San Diego, is the general contractor. Lowe is a national real estate services company specializing in the investment, development and management of commercial and hospitality projects and employs around 8,000 people nationwide. ROEL had annual revenues of $355 million in 2008 and employs just over 250 people.Currently, about 10,000 County employees are housed in various locations throughout the county, with around 2,000 housed in the current operations center on the 38-acre piece of property. ÔÇ£The goal for the County is to create a new environmentally friendly campus,ÔÇØ notes Wayne Hickey, CEO of ROEL Construction. ÔÇ£The County is pursuing LEED Silver certification for the six new four-story 150,000-square-foot office buildings. The new campus will provide an integrated and full-service facility for the CountyÔÇÖs employees, as well as for county residents visiting the campus on business.ÔÇØ The project, funded through a public bond, will create between 200 and 400 new construction jobs.One of the challenges involved in this project is to keep employees working on the site while construction progresses. The first phase began at the end of 2008, when ground was broken for the 10,000-square-foot central utilities plant that will run the HVAC operations for the entire campus.Phase one also includes the construction of two of the six new office buildings and a parking structure to accommodate 2,000 cars. Ground was broken for these buildings in early April 2009. Completion date for this phase is 2010.The second phase will entail construction of the next two office buildings and a 20,000-square-foot single-story building housing a conference center and cafeteria. This project is scheduled for a 2012 completion. The final two office buildings and an additional parking structure to accommodate another 2,000 cars will be completed by 2014. By the time the project is finished, about 4,000 employees will be working for the County on the new campus.ÔÇ£We already demolished a few buildings that were either vacant or underutilized in order to build the first two office buildings,ÔÇØ explains Mike McNerney, senior vice president for Lowe Enterprises. ÔÇ£Once these buildings have been built, weÔÇÖll move the employees who are working in older buildings on the site into the newly completed buildings. We will then demolish the buildings they were housed in. Next, weÔÇÖll move on to the second phase of construction, and once those buildings are built, weÔÇÖll move in the employees from the County annex site, and Lowe will purchase that site from the County for another project, unrelated to this one. Phase three will not require any additional demolition.ÔÇØ In total, about 10 buildings built in the 1960s will be demolished to create the new office campus.The goal for this project is to save money over time, while offering an aesthetically pleasant campus, says Hickey at ROEL.┬áÔÇ£The County was spending a lot of money maintaining buildings that were over 40 years old. This new construction will offer a compact walkable campus, providing better service for the residents of San Diego County through the one-stop planning and permit center.ÔÇØ The campus is close to public bus transportation, and the County offers carpooling and van pooling programs, which contributes to LEED points.Some of the LEED components include placement of photovoltaic panels on parking structures, recycling and reusing materials from demolished buildings, using natural light to reduce energy consumption, using recycled carpeting products, mitigation of storm water runoff, planting water-efficient foliage and installing irrigation to reduce water consumption, using energy-efficient roofing and glazing systems to reduce heat gain and improve interior lighting, and using energy-efficient lighting and mechanical ventilation systems to reduce energy consumption while improving occupancy comfort.Clearly, with so many people involved in the planning and construction of this projectÔÇöfrom the developer, the general contractor, architect, consultants, all the subcontractors and County officialsÔÇöitÔÇÖs commendable that everything has been administered properly, the budget continues to be on target and schedules are being met, notes ROELÔÇÖs Hickey. ÔÇ£Whenever you are dealing with a government agency such as this, you must negotiate with many committees,ÔÇØ he explains. ÔÇ£This is where Lowe Enterprises came in. WeÔÇÖve been working with them for about 20 years, and they act as the liaison between the general contractor and the County to aid in the communication and decision-making process. They also collaborate with the architect and various consultants to assure things are administered properly.ÔÇØManaging the construction project itself is difficult enough, but taking into consideration the safety of employees and visitors presents other challenges. Hickey notes that it is not uncommon for construction to progress while people are continuing to work onsite. ÔÇ£This happens quite often, but when youÔÇÖre dealing with the public as well, safety is a key concern,ÔÇØ he says.ÔÇ£We had to access utilities so we could move the utility lines in the street,ÔÇØ continues Hickey. ÔÇ£This means we will minimize traffic disruptions so there is low impact on vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The goal is always to do this kind of work off-hours.ÔÇØA bus shuttle will carry employees to the existing office buildings from an off-site parking lot a few blocks away. ÔÇ£The entire development team has done a great job to keep a business-as-usual environment during construction by placing visible signage for those folks visiting the existing County buildings so they know how to catch the shuttle,ÔÇØ continues Hickey.ROEL honors its partnership with Lowe and the County. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve been in business since 1917, and this fact really says a lot about how we approach projects through a collaborative effort,ÔÇØ Hickey says. ÔÇ£The project is progressing expeditiously, and weÔÇÖre meeting the budget and the aggressive schedules.ÔÇØHickey notes that ROEL received a national safety award recently. ÔÇ£Securing a highly visible project in our hometown in a tough economy is quite an accomplishment for us. This is because we have partners who believe in us. We are proud, but humble.ÔÇØ  ÔÇô Editorial research by Dan Finn┬á