Mitch Lapin, President of Fortney & Weygandt, Inc was featured in a recent issue of Commercial Construction and Renovation magazine along with one of current senior living projects.
During 2019 and continuing into 2020, our Program Management Team completed 8 programs that included 231 locations across 19 states. A majority of the programs were retail, convenience stores, dental offices and exercise studios. The project scopes included refreshes, store within a store, additions and build-outs. Fortney & Weygandt Rollout Program Management excels at planning and coordinating the entire process from start to finish in order to deliver a quality project within budget.
Complete project management encompasses:
Single source responsibility and accountability
One Fortney & Weygandt Rollout Program Management employee will be assigned to your project as the main point of contact. This Project Manager will not only oversee the project but will also be a liaison with vendors and the Fortney & Weygandt Rollout Program Management staff.
Scheduling
We know the process of renovating can be stressful due to the potential of lost revenue because of downtime. We work with you to create a schedule to keep your businesses up and running while staging our work to be done in an open environment. We offer flexible 24/7 scheduling as well.
Vendor Coordination
Identification and qualification of subcontractors is a critical component of any successful project. Our resources have been tried and tested via our national network and the extensive database we have created with over 25 years of projects. Additionally, we can acquire all materials, coordinate the shipping, provide secure storage and then install all components.
Permit expediting
We don’t allow the permitting process to slow projects down. Through our permit expediting partner we have the ability to pull permits from coast to coast on a timely basis.
As I write this, we are 40 days into a shutdown that is affecting this country in unprecedented ways. Public health and safety actions have required many retailers, restaurants, gyms, hotels and other service providers to close. In some of the states where we work, construction has been deemed essential, so projects have continued without interruption. Unfortunately, in other states, projects have been halted by the local government or by the client. We have left those jobsites clean, safe, and secure—ready to re-open when the time comes.
Social distancing has changed every aspect of our lives. Events have been canceled, work schedules adjusted, and the daily rhythm of life altered. So much has become virtual. Through it all, I am amazed at how quickly our team has adapted to remote work, rotating office schedules, new jobsite requirements and so many other changes to how our jobs used to function.
| In the field, our superintendents, crews and subcontractors have been working together to make our jobsites safe. We are practicing social distancing on those jobsites where we are working in an enclosed space. Our projects have been equipped with custom wash stations at sites that do not already have sinks. The sites without running water are using water tanks that are gravity fed. We have hand sanitizer available, in those areas where we can find it. In the office, we are working remotely and reducing the number of people in the office at any one time. Site visits and pre-bid meetings on site have been conducted remotely when applicable or in person with reduced head counts and in open spaces. We have more meetings on Microsoft Teams or Zoom. We continue to be active in bidding a great deal of projects for starts later in the year and are happy to help our clients as they prepare for their return to market. |
For the community, we have donated the N95 masks we had in stock to a local health facility. Our employees are ordering produce from restaurant suppliers who have seen a sharp reduction in orders. Many of us are supporting our restaurant clients by ordering carryout at home and at work. There has even been a joke sharing email to help lift our spirits and keep us smiling.
While we are communicating with our partners, clients and employees across great distances the shared experience of confronting this virus has brought us all closer together. We applaud the work that is being done by first responders and those on the front lines who keep people fed, safe and secure. We are in this together; we will get through this and emerge stronger than ever.
Sneak Peek of the newest Buffalo Wild Wings in Columbus, Ohio. This 7,947 Sq. Ft. restaurant has seating for 297 of its biggest fans. 📣 #BuildwithFW
We have written before about the changing nature of retail projects as retailers look at non-traditional spaces for their next project. The trend continues with our most recent project of converting a former HH Gregg store into a Waterway express Car Wash. Converting a former appliance and consumer electronic showroom into a drive-thru car wash had it’s challenges. We added wash bay entrances into the front and back of the existing structure, new floors into existing space, and many modifications to the structure to accommodate a unique new use. Click below to visit the project's page with photos, details and video.
Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. recently completed construction on an Extended Stay America in Port Charlotte, FL. This was a 53,000 square foot 4 story new build hotel. This 120 room hotel offers 9 room variations to fit their clients needs. The hotel is conveniently located off I-75, just miles from the harbor.
We enter this year with some room. Well, 745 rooms to be exact! We have several hotel projects under construction ranging from the early stages in the design-build process to preparing for the furniture, fixtures, and equipment. And there are more coming! We have been building hotels through many cycles in our forty-two years of construction. We usually see a burst of new construction and then an inevitable drop off—note the emphasis on usually. This time seems to be different.
It was a busy night at the Cleveland Foodbank. It is a continued tradition for the Fortney & Weygandt Team to volunteer to give back to the local community. We weren't the only ones so giving though.
If you’re looking to open a new facility or expand one already in existence, there’s a lot to know about how construction of a senior living facility works best, and how to navigate building codes, health care regulations and working with a construction firm. Here, Mitch Lapin, president of Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. a national general contractor that serves a number of different market segments, including the senior living industry, talks about what renovation or construction of a senior living facility is like from the construction firm’s perspective.
We started in retail construction more than 40 years ago and have seen many changes during that time. Recently, all you see are stories proclaiming a retail apocalypse or an historical brand is closing thousands of stores. The catastrophic headlines are alarming, but don’t present the full picture or the potential opportunities for these stores outside of the traditional framework of retail.
