Still Working 9 to 5: Office Construction Remains Robust, For Now

While the recession has stalled some upcoming office buildings, there are still a number of current projects under construction.

By Scott Blair

With a recession in full swing and millions of Americans out of work, office construction has been hard hit: McGraw-Hill Construction (the parent company of this magazine) forecasts a 24% drop in office construction nationwide in 2009.

Yet several new office buildings are rising through the economic gloom in the Southwest, each filling a particular niche market or serving a specific tenant. Tempe Gateway (page 70) is located next to a bustling light rail stop. Mesa del Sol’s Innovation Park on page 73 offers back office space for a major financial institution. Campos Office Building (page 76) unifies scattered state government offices under one roof in a unique hybrid space. The new office tower One Central Park East and a new tribal government complex outside of Scottsdale are profiled below.

According to Robert Murray, vice-president of economic affairs with McGraw-Hill, the peak of office construction in 2008 was more restrained than in previous peak years such as 1985 or 2000. Since offices weren’t as overbuilt as they were in the lead-up to other recessions, the sector hasn’t dipped as drastically as in the past.

One Central Park East

It isn’t every day that an office tower tops off in downtown Phoenix. In fact, it’s been more than eight years. So the recent topping off of the 26-story One Central Park East on the northeastern corner of Central Avenue and Van Buren Street would be noteworthy even if it wasn’t occuring in the middle of a major recession.

Funding of the $175 million project has been stable, with Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Real Estate as managing member of the development team.

The 26-story One Central Park East was recently topped off in downtown Phoenix. The building features ground-level retail, nine levels of concrete-framed parking and 16 levels of steel-framed office space. (Photo courtesy MFRE)

 “We’ve been very fortunate to have the solid partnership and continued financial support of the National Electrical Benefit Fund, a pension fund with over $10 billion dollars in assets under management,” says Todd Kindberg, senior vice president and head of MFRE’s Phoenix office. “We are grateful to NEBF for giving One CPE the monetary backing to secure the project through these very difficult and unstable times.”   

The tower features 485,000 sq ft of class A office space on 16 floors, resting atop a nine-level parking garage, separate ground floor and lobby retail space. Going after corporate offices and law firms, developers are marketing the large, 30,000-sq-ft floor plates, floor-to-ceiling vision glass and energy efficient design. While no specifics were available on who will be occupying the building, broker Brad Anderson with the Phoenix office of CB Richard Ellis says that despite the current economic challenges, he is expecting to announce several significant commitments shortly.

The project team of Phoenix-based contractor Holder Construction and architect SmithGroup is on target for completion in third quarter 2009.

SRP-MIC Tribal Government Complex

Located at the intersection of Osborn and Longmore roads within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the new $70 million Tribal Government Complex is scheduled for completion this month.

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Construction-manager-at-risk Chuska-Sahara, itself a joint venture between Native American-owned Chuska and Sahara Inc., both of Tempe, chose to partner with a third contractor, Centennial, Colo.-based Haselden Construction. The project’s size and scope made the partnership necessary, says Dave Wolff, Sahara’s southwest area director and project executive.

The project was designed by the Phoenix office of SmithGroup, in partnership with Albuquerque-based David Sloan Architects.

The 180,000-sq-ft building features two rectangular, three-story office buildings connected by a three-level covered walkway. A single-story, circular building serves as the council chambers in between the two office buildings, while a similar but smaller circular building houses a cafeteria in back.

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community’s new Tribal Government Complex is scheduled to open this month. (Photo by David Lena)

The chambers and cafeteria are comprised of sandblasted, integrally-colored concrete with local aggregate. The walls are battered and resemble rammed earth that blend with the color and characteristics of existing structures in the community, says Mark Roddy, design principal with SmithGroup.   

“Not only are the walls curved, but they are going to be the exterior and some of the interior finish walls,” Wolff says. “It was an extreme challenge at times, but the end result really paid off and gives a wow factor to the whole project.”

The rectangular buildings pay tribute to the surrounding landscape with a mixture of concrete, split-faced, fluted masonry veneer, zinc metal panels and glazing.

Sustainable features include 120,000 sq ft of raised flooring allowing for individualized climate control in office cubicles and exterior shade structures. The lobbies also feature motorized shades with solar sensors that track the sun’s movements and adjust automatically.

The circular, battered concrete-framed building visible between the two office buildings of the Tribal Government Complex features aggregate sourced from facilities within the SRP-MIC community.

Each floor has a central hallway acting as the public thoroughfare, Roddy says. Offices are on the east side and service areas (elevators, restrooms, break rooms and conference rooms) face west. Conference rooms feature RoomWizard, a web-based room scheduling system that provides real-time meeting information on displays mounted outside each room.

The project started construction in August 2006 and had 250 workers on site at peak. In an effort to involve the community in the project, local job fairs were held and the project team actively pursued community members and other Native Americans, which made up between 12% and 19% of the workforce.

Wolff says it was more important to get the job built right than it was to meet an arbitrary deadline. “In the construction business we are more geared towards getting things done in a hurry, but here we had an owner who really wanted to do it right because this is their home,” he says.

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