Building around lifestyles
Baton Rouge's Towne Center beats steel, concrete bottleneck

By Angelle Bergeron

The people who built Towne Center at Cedar Lodge have one regret: The $65 million "lifestyle center" retail facility in Baton Rouge wasn't finished in time for the 2004 holiday shopping season.

"Meeting the schedule, completing the job in time to get the tenants in, has been the most challenging thing," said David Faulk, project manager with Buquet and LeBlanc Inc. of Baton Rouge, the general contractor for the project.

Even though two restaurants opened for business in November - 13 months after clearing began on the 48-acre site - the center's grand opening isn't scheduled until the end of April.

Buquet & LeBlanc holds nine separate contracts totaling about $25 million for shell-building construction with owner Texas-based Creekstone Cedar Lodge I LLC.

"Our contract keeps growing because they keep adding phases to it," said Bill Firesheets, president of Buquet & LeBlanc. "Right now we are up to seven different buildings for seven contracts and we have a couple more than that for ancillary, infrastructure-related work."

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The contractor fast-tracked the project and came up with some creative, timesaving solutions.

"We did some foundation-only permits from the city in order to get started and we put the steel bids out early," Firesheets said. All of the buildings are structural steel with poured-in-place concrete.

It took som extra planning to get the steel on time, particularly the joists and the decks, Faulk said. "We typically have a 16-week delivery (time frame), so we released those in advance of the structural steel and that has made quite a difference," he added. Typically, a contractor would wait for the full set of documents to be completed and order everything at the same time.

Buquet & LeBlanc subcontracted with three steel suppliers: Superior Steel of Baton Rouge; Ellis Steel of West Point, Miss.; and Steel Fabricators of Monroe.

"It's doubtful that any one of those three alone could have done the project and met all of the required schedules," Firesheets said. "Normally, you don't break it up like that, but we have separate, distinct building packages."

Obtaining enough concrete was easy because the developer, Creekstone Builders Inc. of Houston, made an early deal with Heck Industries in Baton Rouge to supply the product, Firesheets said. As with the steel, the contractor was able to move forward with the foundations before overall designs were complete.

"We were able to take bids and get some relief from that," Firesheets said.

Although hiring of subcontractors was left to the discretion of the contractor, Buquet & LeBlanc benefited from the opportunity to tap into some of the developer's Texas-based referrals.

Faulk lauded Houston-based Keystone Concrete for facilitating the workflow pace.

"They would come in and pour a 45,000-sq.-ft. slab in a day," he said. "Most contractors would break it up, but they've got the manpower and capability to do that."

Because the contractor has had the opportunity to draw from a larger labor pool, "we had no problem with skilled labor," Firesheets said. "We were able to draw from other parts of the state as well as Creekstone's contractors."

The variety of high-end finishes has required a great deal of "coordinating management effort," Faulk said.

Wade Thibodaux Construction of Baton Rouge handled the stone veneer finishes, one of the high-end exterior architectural features of the project.

"It's something you don't normally see in this area," Faulk said. "It is natural stone pieces, cut and put on in a random pattern with metal lathe and border backing."

Designs also specify clay tile roofs, which are made in Mexico and require a long lead-time for order and delivery.

"The way the design team wanted it done was with a lot of mortar laid between each tile to give it an older look," Faulk said.

Coordinating the setting of roof curves, roof vents and exhaust fans with individual tenants has also been a massive management undertaking, Faulk said.

"We're trying to put in the basic infrastructure for tenants coming in so we must install roof curves for air conditioning and venting needs, plumbing and exhaust fans and mechanical items," he added.

Creekstone Builders is the managing owner's representative and holds the contract for concrete pavement, underground utilities and site lighting, said John Holloway, vice president of field operations.

"We basically did everything on the outside and Buquet & LeBlanc did everything on the inside," Holloway said.

Creekstone mobilized to clear the agricultural property in October 2003, then excavated 70,000 cu. yds. of dirt to lower the parking area by 1 ft. so headlights wouldn't shine into the street.

By March 2004, Buquet & LeBlanc was pouring foundations for what is currently the largest retail project in the state and what will eventually become a "lifestyle center," Holloway said.

"Lifestyle shopping centers have national chain store tenants but they don't look like shopping centers," Holloway said. "They look more like commercial planned developments." Sixty-five stores will eventually be included in the facility, and they will be in various stages of completion from May until July.

The lifestyle concept is referred to as a "leisure time destination" by the design firm, Houston-based Hermes Architects Inc. Lifestyle centers incorporate two primary concepts, said architect Pepe Oleas.

"First is the creation of an 'outdoor' experience that includes lush landscaping, water fountain areas and covered walkways to promote pedestrian circulation," he added. "Secondly, there is a leisure-like quality of the shopping experience that allows one to relax while shopping. "

"This is the biggest thing we've done in Baton Rouge thus far," said Holloway, who set up a local satellite office two years ago to construct The Reserve at Cedar Lodge. That 300-unit apartment complex began leasing in June.

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For more about the lifestyle center concept or other trends in retail development, go to: http://www.icsc.org/rsrch/research.shtml