Fashion Facelift: Two Contractors Spiff up Scottsdale Mall

Scottsdale Fashion Square has evolved over the years with multiple expansions. Now the mall is undergoing a $95 million addition and renovation, with Arizona’s first Barneys store leading the charge.

By Christia Gibbons

Two construction giants, Phoenix-based Kitchell and Des Moines, Iowa-based The Weitz Co., are working within inches of each other on a $95 million expansion and renovation of Scottsdale Fashion Square.

Project managers say communication is key on the massive project, which includes Arizona’s first Barneys New York, an underground parking garage, new escalators, cooling system and restaurants. The project is being developed by Phoenix-based Westcor, which owns 27 shopping centers besides Fashion Square.

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First came the fall 2007 demolition of two structures to make way for Barneys: an existing parking garage to the east of the project along Scottsdale Road near Camelback Road and the closed Robinsons-May department store.

A 270,000-sq-ft, two-level parking garage is being built, about 200,000 sq ft of new covered mall on two levels is being added and Barneys will be housed in about 60,000 sq ft.

Kitchell is tackling the bulk of the project for Westcor, including the Barneys shell, with Weitz, hired by Barneys, fitting out the shell’s $16.5 million interior.

“One of my guys goes to Weitz at Barneys every morning to coordinate things like deliveries,” says Russ Myers, Kitchell senior project manager. Because Weitz has a finite space, Kitchell raised some storage space in the garage for its materials, Myers says.

Rusty Martin, senior project manager for Weitz, agrees that good communication, whether with Weitz or Barneys and all of its manufacturers, keeps things humming.

“The amount of coordination on the job has been extensive,” Martin says. “The lesson to be learned is that you can never do enough preplanning and coordination. Keep the lines of communication open - never assume the other guy had that detail.”

For all parties, there was at least a year of preplanning before physical work began.

Economy Plays a Role

Along with good communication, staircases and a down economy are major players.

That is, Kitchell has removed the winding staircase near Neiman Marcus and installed escalators (as well as revamping other escalators) and Weitz is overseeing and installing a $600,000 grand staircase in Barneys.

As for the economy, the construction guys point out that they’ve had plenty of available workers.

Myers says that with the sharing of only one subcontractor - for fire sprinklers - there hasn’t been a need to steal each other’s worker or vie for materials.

With more manpower available, pricing has been better, Martin says.

Fashion Square Mall has been expanded and updated numerous times since its opening in 1961. The catalyst for this most recent expansion was the closing of Robinsons-May in 2006. (Image courtesy Westcor)

“All the subcontractors are manned up and are much more responsive to us,” he adds. It’s kind of a “shoe on the other foot” situation because with the shaky economy there’s been a power shift with the subcontractors depending on the contractors.

“We call them up and they don’t ignore us,” Martin says. “We have a great group of subs.”

Steve Helm, assistant vice president/property management for Westcor, says it was the closing of Robinsons-May, not the economy, driving the project. “You build for the opportunity and always have long-term goals,” he says.

The vacancy came up in 2006. Westcor first acquired Scottsdale Fashion Square in the 1970s and Helm says the current project is phase 10. The mall has been updated three times since 1961.

Helm calls Barneys, which will have south-end frontage and not be boxed in like Robinsons-May, the “hood ornament” of the mall expansion.

Kitchell Doings

“March will be a big month for us,” Myers says. That’s when skylights are due to be installed and the expansion space will be water tight.

Along the way, his team and the nearly 200 workers on the job have accomplished some fancy footwork when it comes to timing.

It was a must to install a temporary cooling system, but a tricky proposition considering work is being done in a functioning mall.

The addition will provide space for up to 30 new stores within the 200,000-sq-ft, two-level addition. (Photo by Patti Reznik Photography)

Thanksgiving Day provided an opportunity to install that temporary system. The mall had to be up and running the next day - Black Friday.

“It took a lot of planning, double checking, triple checking and making sure all the pieces of the puzzle were in place,” Myers says. “We had contingency plans and people on call.”

The project, which started on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, was mapped out hour by hour in 15-minutes segments. “If we didn’t do that, we would be in trouble,” Myers says. “You can’t let an hour get away from you in a 30-hour project.”

Work on the escalators also had to be done on alternative schedules.

“Throughout the projects, we considered the tenants,” Myers says. “The mall walkers get there at 6:30 a.m. and we needed to be cleaned up by then. We take it very seriously to leave the place presentable. We like it when people say ‘you can’t even tell they were here.”

Weitz Workings

For the Weitz crew and its 60 to 80 workers, it’s all about high-end finishing touches.

Employing the use of 3D modeling, the Weitz contingent in Scottsdale could work with the staircase designer in Toronto and Barneys in New York at the same time. The parties sat in their separate locations with their computers and watched the evolution of that grand staircase and figured out how it would fit in the actual new store.

As Martin says, this isn’t’ a typical tenant improvement project. Kitchell may have done the shell, but Weitz is doing a full build-out including putting in all the windows, elevators and valet-service area complete with canopy.

“Barneys is sensitive to the image of the building - the exterior design of the building is actually Barneys,” he says.

Martin says the biggest feature of the new store is a two-story glass cube that is a Barneys signature.

The project is ahead of schedule because Martin says it was important to schedule extra time at the back end when all the $3.5 million in millwork is being completed and installed. The mall’s grand opening it set for Oct. 15, with Barney’s open a little beforehand.

“The big push with the Barney’s project is the finishes,” he says. He called the finishes a level 5, meaning very high-end. For instance, all exposed drywall must be hard, smooth finish- no texture, no imperfections.

Weitz is fitting in granite floors on the ground level and teak wood on the second.

“Knock on wood, it’s all going to fit,” Martin says. There are “easily” 100 different fixtures, one $60,000 shoe rack and one $100,000 wall for shoes, he says. “We have a spreadsheet just for the millwork.”

Martin has traveled to Toronto and Baltimore to eyeball some of the fixtures, and Barneys is flying him to China to check up on things there.

Most clients won’t spend that kind of money, but “it helps to have a better relationship with the manufacturer, to see where they are in the process and what some of their challenges are,” he says.

Key Players

Owner: Westcor
General Contractors: Kitchell; The Weitz Co.
Architect: Callison Architecture; Gensler (Barneys interior)
Engineers: Rick Engineering; A.V. Schwan & Assoc.; ARJO Engineers; Sparling
Subcontractors: Buesing Corp.; Juarez Contracting; Alliance Fire Protection; Amfab; Breinholt Demolition; Tri-City Mechanical; Hochstetler Masonry; Custom Roofing

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