CCI gives old warehouse new life

A CCI crew installs the new window systems on the exterior of the old Fairbanks Morris building.

Joe Peifer, a CCI field associate, hauls panels for the new window system. Photos courtesy of Corporate Contractors Inc.

Ken Hendricks looms large in the remodel of the old Fairbanks Morris manufacturing warehouse and offices in Beloit.

He owns the building. He owns ACM, the architectural metals manufacturing company moving into the building. He owns Corporate Contractors, the general contractor renovating the building. He even owns stock in the Italian company providing the window systems for the project, said T.J. Gonfiantini, CCI’s project manager on the job.

In fact, about the only thing playing a larger role than Hendricks is the building itself.

“It’s very overwhelming,” Gonfiantini said. “You walk in and say, ‘Wow, this is a big one.’ When we walked out, you almost had to look at pictures to remember what it looked like.”

CCI signed on in June 2005 to remodel the majority of the 365,000-square-foot building for ACM. It wasn’t easy considering the size of the building, its former use as a diesel engine manufacturing plant and the fact it was built in the 1940s.

So CCI broke the project up into phases, the first of which focused on preparing the 295,000-square-foot warehouse. The cleaners came first, but they had to use compressed air instead of water because of all the electrical systems.

“After a month and a half of cleaning, we started the painting phase, and they followed the cleaners,” Gonfiantini said. “We used 16,000 gallons of white paint, primarily on the ceiling.”

CCI next demolished some interior offices, reworked the lighting, painted 40 old bridge cranes in the warehouse, renovated the structure’s HVAC system, and added 10 loading docks to the north end and two to the south end.

“The biggest challenge for the inside shop area was making it safe for all of the lifts in the building,” Gonfiantini said. “Where they had machine bases, there were a lot of trenches, and about 90 percent of the project was working on lifts. There were no injuries.”

ACM moved into the warehouse in April 2006, and CCI started the second phase in June 2006 by demolishing 100 feet of offices in the front of the building and building a two-story office structure surrounded by a new cafeteria, training room and conference space. ACM moved into the new offices in January, and CCI switched its focus to the building’s exterior.

“We started the building façade while we were working on the new offices, but we stopped for the heating season,” Gonfiantini said. “We’re taking all the windows out and putting in the new window systems.

“We’re basically giving the entire face of the building a new look. Ken’s main colors are red, white and blue, and this building’s predominant color is a faded lime green.”

And as the project heads into its final stages, Gonfiantini said his team wants what it always wants: a satisfied client, even if that client happens to be CCI’s owner.

“We treat them just like a customer, and we really don’t look closer than that,” he said.

- Chris Thompson