Sooper Credit Union (SCU) desired to create a new retail credit union facility on land that it owned to serve area customers, but also to create a prototype for planned expansion to other locations.
Assignment Highlights
Hiring the Team. Developco assisted SCU in selecting a suitable project team including CKE Engineering, Lee Architects, and Fransen Pittman as the project general contractor.
Scope Change: The initial scope of this project was to renovate the two-story building at 5005 West 60th Avenue, comprising 24,890 SF. This facility served as a retail credit union and administrative offices since 1973. Due to the numerous phases of construction required to remodel this occupied facility, it dramatically increased the construction costs, time and disruption to employees such that it became evident that building a new prototype retail facility at this site in addition to remodeling a portion of the existing building could be very beneficial.
New Prototype CU Facility. Developco led all of the development tasks associated with creating this 3,995 SF stand-alone, ground-up retail credit union facility at the northeast corner of Sheridan Boulevard and West 60th Avenue in Arvada, Colorado (“City”); Adams County, State of Colorado. $2.23 million total project costs.
- Negotiated new fees and general conditions with the architect/contractor for a new project.
- Coordinated the delivery of all the utilities – gas, electric, phone, water and sewer.
- Negotiated the sale of Ditch Water rights that Sooper CU had for the property as well as be able to continue to irrigate landscape with ditch water instead of the more expensive City tap water.
- Delivered a complete/fully furnished new credit union facility from initial design, through entitlement with the City, construction and grand opening in 13 months.
Existing Building Renovation. The two-story building was renovated at a project cost of $1.24 million. Key Highlights of the renovation were:
- The renovation of this building took place after the construction of the prototype retail branch facility located in front of this building. This allowed Sooper CU to move some of it’s employees out of the existing building and into the new facility thereby creating more room for construction to take place and have less relocation/disruption.
- Asbestos Abatement. Coordinated the asbestos study, bid process, multi-phase removal, and required third party monitoring with the least amount of disruption to employees as possible. Employees, with exception of the drive-thru attendants, were relocated to the lower level.
- New FF&E. Due to the age of the facility and the reconfiguration of offices and the existing work stations, it was the right time to install an entirely new cabling/IT infrastructure since this facility would be the headquarters for Sooper CU and their five branch locations. After it was determined that their existing work stations could not be reconfigured due to the lack of availability parts, a new furniture plan was designed and an RFP was put together and bid out. The remodel gave Sooper CU the opportunity to update their surveillance cameras from analog to digital and have a remote access view of each camera location.
- Developco led the way in recommending the existing light fixtures be replaced with LED fixtures and take advantage of the Xcel Energy rebates. After the rebates, the payback time for these light fixtures was less than 3 years.
Results
- Interviewed and bid four general contractors and saved the project $19,500 in fee and general conditions.
- Negotiated a new design contract for the new credit union facility at a fee $24,000 below market.
- Saved a $3,500 furniture design fee by bringing the low bid furniture vendor to the project.
- Instrumental in obtaining $8,000 of Xcel Energy rebates.
- By negotiating the right to continue to use Ditch Water for irrigation, Sooper CU avoided a $1.32/sf irrigation tap fee. The square footage applied to the irrigated area and not the building which resulted in savings of approximately $115,000.