Featured Case Studies
Eric Town Square
Glastonbury, CT
Fortunato Construction Group was selected as Construction Manager for this exciting mixed use project in the heart of the upscale Glastonbury, CT community. The scope of the development included three buildings with a total of 85,000 square feet, and an underground parking structure for 200 cars.
At the outset, even before the most preliminary of sketches were committed to paper, the developer’s goal was to build this project without displacing existing tenants. The task looked insurmountable. Critical to the success of the project was the need to envision and execute construction phases and sequencing to build the first building and relocate existing tenants without disrupting occupancy on this site that was already densely developed. The design needed to be driven by the constraints created by the project phasing requirements. And this had to be accomplished without diminishing the aesthetic impact of the design concepts or affecting parking and circulation. Fortunato Construction developed a plan and was selected by the developer to lead the team through solutions that would not compromise any of these requirements.
The project involved a complete redevelopment of every inch of an occupied office park. The major challenges that Fortunato met and surmounted included providing continuous access and parking, maintaining and reconfiguring complex utility services, and completing the demolition in phases integrated with the new construction. Beneath all of these requirements lay the need for an abiding focus on safety. The hugely successful result was that the tenants were kept operational while the first building was completed with limited demolition of the existing facility and without disruption to the safe use of the existing campus. This enabled the developer to relocate established tenants from the old buildings into the new building. After the first building was completed and the tenants relocated, Fortunato Construction was able to complete the demolition of the remaining buildings and erect the other new buildings and underground parking structure.
Fortunato Construction was selected early in the planning process because of another important facet of this project: architectural design. Fortunato Construction has an extraordinary ability to provide value management—control over design and construction costs—within the context of achieving other critical design objectives. The buildings were conceived to be a signature or landmark project in the center of Glastonbury’s business district. The design needed to attract Glastonbury’s finest retailers, restaurants and professional offices and was executed brilliantly by the architect and the project team underscoring Fortunato Construction’s ability to provide leadership and manage collaborative efforts.
The architectural design incorporates traditional materials and systems in a way that is contemporary but not trendy. The buildings massing is substantial but within the scale of the site maximizing the use of the land without overcrowding it. The brick façades are well complemented and balanced by windows giving the exterior a well conceived appearance. The stonework and exterior trim details add interest and complexity that really distinguish this design. Behind the obvious aesthetic success, substantial consideration was also given to constructability, and life cycle costs in selecting materials that were appropriate within all of the project parameters.
Throughout the process Fortunato Construction Group’s services went well beyond traditional Construction Managers’ duties and included the extensive preconstruction planning required to make this project possible, along with coordination and management of design build subcontractors and extensive support throughout the leasing and tenant fit up processes as the Owner effectively outsourced the technical support for these activities.
The project team leaders included Peter Romano, vice president and Steve Kravitz, project superintendent, both ten-year plus veterans of Fortunato Construction. The architect for the project was Doug Rosen, of Rosen Associates, and the Civil Engineer was Ken Smith, representing the firm BSC Group. These are design professionals whose relationships with Fortunato date back more than twenty years. Mechanical and Electrical design work was completed under closely coordinated design build agreements with the respective subcontractors under the direction of Fortunato Construction Group.
Under the leadership of Fortunato Construction this project was completed in approximately two years at a cost of approximately $13 million dollars. The fully occupied buildings stand as tribute to Fortunato Construction Group’s skill, determination and innovative approach to every challenge.