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25 Feb

Posted at 08:42h in News, United Team

United Superintendent Andy Jones is hard at work delivering Symmetrix Composite Tooling’s new facility in Minden. Symmetrix creates composite molds used to manufacture products for alternative energy, marine, aerospace, transportation and architecture industries. As the design-build contractor, United Construction is providing in-house architecture and construction services for their new 36,000 SF metal building.

This ultimate makers space will be a machining resource for the including wind energy, aerospace, architecture, infrastructure, marine and transportation industries. Innovative designers from all over the United States can have this plant mill the composite patterns and molds they are creating.

We sat down with Andy Jones and Symmetrix Owner John Barnitt to learn more about the project:

 

United: Is John Barnitt a hands-on kind of owner who visits the site often and pays close attention to the details?

Andy: Absolutely. He is very helpful, and it has been a pleasure working with him.

United: Do innovations flow out of the 26-foot-wide rollup door that opens into the location of the bank of state-of-the-art 5-axis CNC machines?

Andy: They move projects out and over to the north door into a paint booth  The booth is currently not shown on construction documents. It will be a revision at some point. The other rollup doors will be used for bringing in raw materials and parts.

United: Is the building higher on one end to accommodate the viewer platform looking into the bay of 20 CNC machine?

Andy: I believe the overall height was determined for what will be manufactured and clearance needed for the CNC machine. With that, the height of building at the north and south end was determined by slope requirements to meet building codes.

United: John, do you see the Minden facility as bigger or better or different than the facilities in Rhode Island and North Carolina?

John: The Minden facility is actually based on the RI and NC tooling shops with the goal to make these as similar as possible.

United: Will other parts of the facility be more basic machines and equipment?

John: Yes, a smaller a 25 foot 5-Axis milling machine, fabrication area with welding, composite lamination areas and a 90 foot climate controlled spray booth.

United: CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control, which allows a user to dial in a machine to mill a product, but what does the 5-axis part allow a user to do?

John: This machine mills composite shapes in five directions. The word Axis refers to the direction of travel of the cutting head, in this case…

  • X-Axis=82 feet (East and west)
  • Y-Axis=22 feet (North and South)
  • Z-Axis= 10 feet of vertical travel
  • B-Axis= 360° of cutting head rotation
  • C-Axis= 270° of diagonal head rotation

Additionally, I’d like to draw attention to the CNC machine reinforcement in the floor and the recessed steel mounting plates.

Andy: The CNC machine rests on 68 embedded steel plates 31”x10”x ¾”. After leveling it will be bolted down to 545 anchor bolts, with 8 bolts per plate. The footprint of the machine is 33’ x 95’. The footing consisted of upper and lower #6 rebar and about 150 yards of concrete.

John sets the bar rather high for a really cool shop. Don’t try doing this at home.

27 Jan

Posted at 08:20h in News, United Team

United Construction CEO Michael Russell recently participated in a Q&A with the Northern Nevada Business Weekly (NNBW) about the trends in development that we are seeing locally. According to Michael, we are seeing an increased focus on sites that require complicated entitlements and grading.

Text below copied directly from the NNBW article:

Q&A with United Construction: Industrial development outlook

United Construction CEO Mike Russell recently discussed the future of the Northern Nevada industrial market with the NNBW and provided insight into development efforts and the strength of the market for 2021 and beyond. Below is an interview with Mike, slightly edited for clarity.

United Construction CEO Mike Russell believes investors will continue to view the industrial real estate sector as a safe haven for strong investment in Northern Nevada.

NNBW: What factors will impact the industrial market as we move through the year?

Russell: We will continue to have COVID impacts such as personnel health, material supply chain issues and potential project schedule delays. In the last several months we’ve started to see significant material cost escalations related to steel, lumber and sheathing in the industrial sector.

The increase in home building across the country, combined with steel and lumber mill capacities, has created high demand for dimension lumber, sheathing and steel-related construction products (rebar, steel piping, structural and miscellaneous steel, etc.).

This increased demand has created price volatility and escalations which have driven industrial construction costs 5 to 10 percent-plus higher just over the last few months. We’ll keep watch on these cost escalation trends to see if they hold at recent higher levels, or if they recede with future home building and industrial construction demand.

NNBW: Site availability in Greater Reno-Sparks is at a premium. How does limited availability of easily developed sites impact new projects?

Russell: I believe we’ll see a few trends. Over the years here in the Truckee Meadows, industrial development has typically gravitated to sites that have simple entitlements and somewhat flat topography.

One trend we’re seeing is development on sites that require more complicated entitlements and grading.

This trend will drive development delivery timelines longer and project costs higher. Industrial development will look east of Reno-Sparks in TRIC, Fernley and beyond to have more industrial land inventory and potentially less site acquisition and development costs.

We’ll still see industrial development at appropriately zoned infill sites throughout Reno-Sparks over the coming years, and developers will get creative at multiple property site assemblies to accommodate industrial development where possible.

NNBW: How will the ongoing pandemic and social distancing guidelines impact work operations across the county?

Russell: Unless the pandemic gets worse, we don’t anticipate much impact from what we’re already experiencing. We require daily health screening, masks, social distancing, health and safety practices per local and federal guidelines. COVID has already slightly impacted some of our project schedules and material deliveries since Q2 of 2020.

NNBW: Will 2021 be a good or bad year for the regional industrial market?

Russell: Industrial development has a strong future in Northern Nevada for the following reasons:

  • In our current COVID environment, industrial, food, e-commerce and last-mile demand is very strong since people are staying home and ordering goods and food online for local pick-up or delivery.
  • Northern Nevada is experiencing a major influx of businesses and people from around the country (a high portion from California), which will continue to diversify and strengthen our local economy. That in turn will require more industrial sector support.
  • While developers are feeling the impact of construction and land acquisition cost increases, exit cap rates are at all-time lows. Industrial lease rates also are/will be rising.
  • As has been the case for many years, investors view the industrial real estate sector as a safe haven for investment, which is truer today than ever since retail and office sectors are suffering higher risk.

13 Jan

Posted at 07:57h in News, Project Milestone, United Team

 

Digging the dirt today are Tina Iftiger, Chief Commercial Officer, and Darren Griffen, President/CEO of the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority along with Dassault’s Michael Montgomery and United Superintendent Pete Brunner. The ceremony marked the beginning of the expansion of the Dassault Falcon building at Reno Tahoe International Airport. United Estimators Greg Park and Jami Evanson supported the project through preconstruction, while the United team leading the project through to completion consists of Pete Brunner, Project Managers Casey Gunther and Robert Felstead, and Project Administrator Glady Robinette.

Designed by United Design Manager David Eckes with assistance from local architect Fred Graham, the 11,000 sf, two-story addition will feature parts storage, locker rooms, records storage and a second-floor training/event room, avionics work room, engineering, conference room and quality assurance department. United’s in-house architects designed the expansion. Completion is set for late June.

Dassault is a French based aircraft manufacturer of business and corporate jets. The United design-build team also delivered the existing building used by Dassault. United delivered it in 1996 as an aircraft maintenance hangar for Reno Air.