From Storage Problem to Two-Story Warehouse

Joseph Marcus, Assistant Project Manager, walks us through the 320 Paterson Plank Road project, and how REDCOM was able to provide creative solutions, all while saving the owner time and money.

320 Paterson Plank Road is one of our recently completed industrial projects located in Carlstadt, NJ. Our team began working on this project as a bid-build, meaning that we were initially hired on solely as the general contractor. After we provided the owner with cost-effective designs, our team was hired to complete the full design-build project.
 

“We took over as the architect of record and completely re-designed the building to better suit the footprint with the limited space that the site presented,” said Joseph Marcus, Assistant Project Manager on the project. “They also hired us as a general contractor. So, we designed this building from the ground up, including all of the drainage, all of the utilities and every feature on the building.”

Site Work

The site design was no easy feat; Carlstadt is in a high-risk flood zone, and during the construction process, it was a problem that we encountered time and time again. During the foundation work of the building, our construction team was constantly hitting groundwater. The neighboring creek caused a lot of groundwater infiltration. To solve this issue, the building had to be raised six feet from the ground.

Our team was able to lift the entire site, so that the foundation of the building was protected from groundwater infiltration. Additionally, we installed over 700 concrete columns in the ground to support the slab to ensure that the building had a solid foundation.

Because there were existing buildings on the site, after the initial demolition, we brought a crusher to crush the bricks, the cinder blocks and all of the material. We the reused these crushed materials as fill. We also imported a lot of fill to the site. In layers, we slowly raised the elevation of the site. The current facility is sitting nine feet above original grade.

Initially, the warehouse was designed to have a 40,000 SF first floor and 13,000 SF mezzanine for storage. However, the owner faced a storage problem, due to the township’s limitations on outdoor storage. The original design did not supply enough storage capacity for our client’s needs. Our team needed to re-engineer the mezzanine into a full second floor.

“Given the limited space on-site, ownership decided to go with a full second floor so that way, they’re able to store material on-site,” explained Marcus. “That happened five months into the construction process, so we had to switch gears a little bit. We had to re-work our schedule to not delay construction completion as long as it probably would have taken if we didn’t quickly wrap our heads around and fully accept the second-floor design.”

This was the biggest creative solution because the steel had already been erected by the time a second floor was added. Our team had to field-modify the existing steel. We had to drill holes and strategically coordinate with ABC for the placement of all of the columns and footings. Additionally, we had to make sure that everything lined up perfectly, so there would be a seamless transition from the original mezzanine to the new second floor. Our REDCOM staff was able to re-engineer the building to feature a full, 40,000 SF second floor, which makes the building an 80,000 SF, two-story warehouse, which is very unique.

We gave the owners several different options to get material to that second floor:

1. We gave them two overhead doors to the second floor. This allows them to drive material on a palette with a forklift and lift it from the parking lot directly onto the second floor.
2. We gave them a hole in the second floor that is 36 by 12 feet with 2 sections of removable railings. They can remove those railings and use a forklift from inside the building to lift material and load straight onto the second floor.
3. Lastly, we gave them a freight passenger elevator (that ADA compliant). It has a 6,000 lb. capacity, so they can load materials into the elevator and bring supplies to the second floor.

Saving Time and Money

Our number one priority with this project, as well as all of our other projects, is client satisfaction. We went above and beyond to give the owner comfort with us as the new architect of record to re-design and re-estimate the facility. When all was said and done, we were able to value engineer, design and build an 80,000 SF, two-story warehouse facility, on the same footprint, saving ownership three and a half million dollars. We were able to satisfy the owner and the township!