Phoenix Industrial Spec Building

The 500,000-square-foot Phoenix Industrial Spec Building came together in 12 months while overcoming a series of challenges thanks to the partnership of the owner, the city of Beloit and Corporate Contractors.

Located in the Beloit Gateway Business Park, the facility was designed for general manufacturing or warehousing with a precast concrete exterior, structural steel columns, joists and a deck. The building includes 8-inch concrete floors, a 32-foot height interior clearance and 50-by-50-foot bays. There are also 52 loading docks with air-leveling units, overhead doors and shelters

“This Phoenix project stands out because we took a site that was limited to smaller-sized buildings and we rolled up our sleeves and worked as a team with the client (Phoenix Investors), local government agencies, designers and project partners to make this a success,” said Aaron Combs, senior project manager with Corporate Contractors.

“With flexibility in mind, we provided a site that will fit almost any business needs from warehousing to manufacturing.”

The building site posed several challenges, including a 36-foot grade elevation difference from one end to the other with a portion of the site in a FEMA flood plain. Deep expansive clay layers in the soil made fixing the elevation problems difficult.

Corporate Contractors partnered with a soil engineer and subcontractors who used a combination of stone columns, aggregate piers, settling plates and wick drains to improve the soil’s load-bearing strength, effectively drying soil too wet for proper compaction.

Throughout the project, Corporate Contractor’s team designed from a critical path instead of relying on a standard workflow, Combs said. That decision kept the deadlines front and center while maintaining client expectations.