Cushman & Wakefield and Structural Restoration Solutions received the 2022 Excellence in Collaborative Service Award from CRE Insight Journal. The award recognizes an exemplary partnership between a real estate product or service provider and a single property or real estate management company. Building management teams and product/service providers often collaborate to improve operational efficiency, environmental sustainability, tenant care, and more. The award recognizes excellence found in this type of collaboration.

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Cushman & Wakefield is one of the largest commercial real estate services firms in the world, with approximately 52,000 employees in over 400 offices and approximately 60 countries. Founded in 1917, Cushman & Wakefield offers clients core services including property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, and valuation expertise and other services.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Structural Restoration Solutions, is a specialty and architectural contracting company offering numerous services for building envelopes, parking structures, and numerous other commercial, manufacturing, and industrial facilities. Originally founded in 1993, Structural Restoration Solutions has earned a reputation for successful collaborations across all types of structures including office buildings, parking structures, stadiums, medical offices, industrial facilities throughout the southeast.

Parking Deck Rehabilitation

The parking deck at 3379 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia required prompt mitigative repairs, including spalled concrete and structural repairs. Over the course of the repairs, the SRS team removed and replaced thousands of square feet of concrete, formed and poured 36 double tee stem enlargements, and installed 40 new drop panels and 230 linear feet of vehicular guardrail. They also performed joint sealant work and installed new expansion joints and a traffic coating membrane.

“Cushman & Wakefield and Structural Restoration Solutions have worked together in the past, on both small and large projects,” explained Lezly Robinson, General Manager with Cushman & Wakefield. “We had established a relationship with SRS over time. When we decided to do this project, we were able to build on our prior experience together and after a competitive bidding process, we moved forward with them.”

This $1,000,000-plus project presented challenges due to the deck’s location in the heart of Atlanta’s Buckhead submarket. The most significant challenges were noise issues and logistical phasing, as extensive work had to be performed over the high traffic ticket booth at the main entrance of the deck. SRS overcame these challenges by building custom overhead protection on both sides of the ticket booth, ensuring no interruption to traffic flow and no lost revenue from the parking deck.

To mitigate noise from drop panel work, Cushman & Wakefield and Structural Restoration Solutions collaborated with tenants to agree on performing heavy demo work such as drilling and concrete chipping during select hours, since after-hours work was not an option due to a residential noise ordinance set by the City of Atlanta.

Collaborative Results

The results achieved from the collaboration were extensive. Critical components of the parking deck structure were properly repaired and new structural concrete was formed and poured to provide strength for the vehicular guardrail system, as well as providing additional support for the cast-in-place section of the parking deck. Furthermore, select areas of the parking deck structure were waterproofed to protect vital components and connections of the deck.

Communication was key to the success of the project, with weekly meetings and project updates between Cushman & Wakefield and Structural Restoration Solutions proving vital to keeping all parties on the same page. Project updates were emailed weekly to inform all parties involved of completed work; the schedule for the following week; and a two-week look-ahead schedule.

This project at 3379 Peachtree Street highlighted the importance of communication, showing that open and regular communication is essential to manage expectations and produce a quality project.

“Whenever we get into a situation like this where we are working on a very large, very complex project, I am thankful that the time to build a relationship has already been invested,” said Jenifer Wright, Director of Business Development with Structural Restoration Solutions. “We aren’t building that relationship as we approach the project, we already have that rapport established. Invest the time now, prove yourself on smaller projects and develop those relationships before going into large, complex projects.”

Through their regular communication, flexibility in addressing and overcoming unique challenges, thoughtful solutions to keep revenue streams open, and impressive collaboration, Cushman & Wakefield and Structural Restoration Solutions have received the 2022 Excellence in Collaborative Service Award from CRE Insight Journal.

Commercial Real Estate Insight Journal is the leading, on-demand resource for real estate professionals. It features a rapidly growing collection of real estate industry insight recorded in articles, webinars, publications, and videos. The CRE Insight Journal Awards program recognizes excellence in the real estate industry in areas such as tenant care; environmental sustainability; collaborative service; thought leadership; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and more.

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