VanDyk Mortgage Convention Center

CS was recommended to the City of Muskegon and the County of Muskegon by a satisfied former client. The 9 individual City, County, and Private stakeholders in the project were looking for an Owner’s Representative to help them navigate through a complex project. This 42,000SF facility was a critical step in the Muskegon plan to rebrand their city as a destination. Our services were needed to help guide the team through the budget overruns in design and lead the CM RFP process.

Budget Constraints:

Immediately upon our engagement with the project we identified budget overruns that would have killed the project at the outset. We began to address these issues while simultaneously onboarding a CM partner through a competitive RFP process. Working with the Design and CM teams we successfully took a 25% over budget design and defined a path back to the Client budget goals without sacrificing major functional aspects. Through clear leadership, our team was able to lead the Design and CM teams back to a project that met the design parameters the client desired by identifying over $5MM worth of complicated and cost prohibitive aspects of the preliminary design.

Site Selection:

The selected site location required an existing and active municipal road be abandoned, and the major utilities that ran along this road be separated and rerun appropriately. The Convention Center also needed to tie into two existing facilities; an operating minor league hockey arena and a fully refurbished active downtown hotel. Extensive earth retention systems as well as critical soil grouting for structural support were needed on both sides to ensure the existing structures were not compromised.

Environmental Challenges:

This project broke ground in the midst of a flurry of regulatory changes surrounding the appropriate disposal of PFOS due to the unfortunate events that occurred in Flint, MI. Despite the groundwater of the site being barely over the state recommended threshold, a conscious decision was made to appropriately dewater the site through a carbon filtration system to collect and dispose of the contaminates. Using our resources and industry relationships, we were able to align the right environmental partners and fast track an application to EGLE for state funding support. In a process that historically takes a minimum of 6 months, we were able to secure a $1MM grant in 4 short weeks, allowing the project to continue forward without substantial delay.

During foundation excavation, a buried fuel tank was uncovered that emitted an unfamiliar crude oil odor instantly. Knowing this was very uncommon, we notified state authorities and it was determined that it was an unmarked oil well from the late 1800’s that was improperly capped and buried. This well was highly volatile and was actively belching crude and noxious gasses. It stood within 2 feet of the existing hotel and was located directly in line with one of our expected footings. In partnership with the state, our teams quickly activated safety precautions, gathered and briefed the appropriate municipal parties, secured additional environmental state funding for abandonment, and then aligned the right teams to drill out and plug it appropriately. Unfortunately, this challenge brought the job site to a halt, therefore we worked diligently to abandon the well within 3 weeks, all while working with the CM to realign the critical path of the project schedule to avoid total schedule impact.