Case Studies Commercial

Baldwin, Louisiana, a tiny town in the southern part of the state, is small in both size and population. It measures just 3.2 square miles and is home to just over 2,000 residents. But key industries, including carbon black processing—a little known but important chemical powder—and sugar mills, anchor businesses like SAS Construction Inc., a […]

If a big-box store in San Diego loses its air conditioning, the solution may be just a phone call away to a massive command center staffed around the clock in Ohio. Perhaps the issue can be resolved remotely, and, if not, a crew will soon be arriving either from Sodexo|Roth or from a trusted vendor […]

In the medical world, high blood pressure is a “silent killer,” often caused by clogged arteries. The world of foodservice equipment, water heaters, steam boilers, cooling towers and other equipment that uses water, has its own silent killer: scale buildup and corrosion. Much like plaque can clog arteries, scale and corrosion buildup clogs plumbing systems […]

When John W. “Jack” Somerville sold his architecture and engineering firm, Somerville Inc., he wanted to preserve the reputation his family had built over 50 years. He wanted to avoid selling to a large firm that might gut Somerville Inc. of its legacy or its longtime employees. Converting the firm to an ESOP, or employee […]

Bill Swarbrick Jr. used to light the lamp as a productive forward on Northern Arizona University’s Division 1 hockey team, scoring 42 goals over three seasons during the 1980s. Since then, he’s done even more lamp lighting at Superior Lighting Inc., which has offices in Omaha, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa. Co-founded in 1968 by […]

As a general contractor in the Phoenix area, Steve Anderson tired of the bidding game around 20 years ago and identified an underserved niche that he would fill; that is, the building and remodeling of dental offices. “I saw how necessary it was to help dentists get their clinics off the ground,” he says. “There […]

A few years after SRM Development finished Google’s three building office complex in Kirkland, Washington, in 2007, the developer began thinking of ways to expand the project. In 2010, “we started looking at the vacant land across the way from the original three buildings, and started to formulate some thoughts about ways we could expand […]

Dustin Seidel, owner of Seidel Construction, says the challenge of being completely transparent is sometimes telling his clients what they don’t want to hear. Seidel says he’s had clients come to his company full of ideas about the kind of building they want, without considering all the additional costs of new construction like the foundation, […]

Nelson Algaze and Rick Shlemmer, the founders of SAA Interiors + Architecture, work in an industry that is always changing. Each year presents new trends and challenges for their design and architecture firm, which creates interiors for commercial real estate owners and landlords, as well as process driven environments, commercial businesses and healthcare institutions. The […]

When Christopher Porto describes his ideal Oakland, California, he envisions a city almost devoid of cars. But that’s not all he envisions. Through his real estate development company, Smart Growth, he imagines developing the area into tightknit communities that are closer to transit corridors, reducing the need for cars and increasing a sense of place; […]