July 2005 - Nelson Builds Panelized Roof for Whole Foods
By Mandi Harding, FCA Executive Director

Nelson Framing has partnered with AGC member Korte Co. to construct the second southern Nevada Whole Foods Market retail store, at Paseo Verde and Green Valley parkways, conveniently located near The District at Green Valley Ranch.

Celebrating 25 years of business in 2005, Whole Foods has coined itself the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket. The company boasts 171 stores throughout North America and the United Kingdom and currently employs 32,000. Its motto – Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet –emphasizes the company’s vision of reaching far beyond just being a food retailer. Its success in fulfilling its vision is measured by customer satisfaction, team member excellence and happiness, return on capital investment, improvement in the state of the environment, and local and larger community support.

The FCA/AGC duo are well underway on the $3.2 million, 50,000-square-foot concrete tilt-up project slated for shell completion in September. At that time the building will be given to the Whole Foods Market’s team of contractors to complete the tenant improvements. The store will be 18,000 square feet bigger than the average Whole Foods Market.

Construction of the Whole Foods Market is only one building in American Nevada Corporation’s Phase II of the District; another three buildings are also slated. A new Cheesecake Factory is one of the projects and is already near completion on the corner of Paseo Verde and Green Valley parkways.

The Whole Foods Market will incorporate a Nelson Framing specialty feature, a panelized roof system.

“This building however, utilizes an all-wood panelized roof system, meaning no steel trusses will be used,” said Nelson Framing president Jerry Nelson. “Although material prices continue to escalate all the way around, it was more cost-effective to use all wood because of the higher increases in steel costs. Another advantage for me as the framer is that I can save a little more on labor because now I can eliminate a lot of the welding necessary when building a steel panelized hybrid roof.”

The Whole Foods exterior has been designed to architecturally mirror the look of The District. Nelson Framing will also have a hand in creating the façade towers atop the completed building.

Although Nelson Framing and Korte Co. have partnered on previous projects, this is the first project together for Jerry Maran, Korte Co. project superintendent who relocated from Scottsdale, Arizona six months ago to take advantage of opportunities with Korte Co.

“Unfortunately, no jobsite goes without a glitch from time to time and that is why having a responsive team assembled prior is essential to an end quality product,” said Maran. “I really admire Nelson Framing’s professionalism as well as how safety-oriented they are. They even provide their own weekly toolbox talks.”

Maran also noted that once Whole Foods is completed, the brownstone façade matching The District’s will possess nice street appeal for passersby from nearby Interstate 215.

“Overall this design-build project has met shortened timeframes with great success, especially through the engineering and architectural phases,” said Maran.

Caleb Grinter, Korte Co. field engineer also attested to the fast-tracked nature of the project. “Design and reconfiguration is part of the job,” said Grinter. “We are receiving a newly modified set of plans about every two weeks. We are working almost everyday of the week on this project and because of the fast track nature there is tremendous detail to heavy utility coordination and the main transmission line.”

Nelson Framing’s portion of the project will be completed in about eight weeks and this includes the roof, the towers and the roof structures to numerous trash enclosures being built throughout the Phase II project.

Towards the latter end of the project Nelson Framing and Korte Co. will be joined by another AGC member Pete King who will complete all of the facade build-out features and painting for the building’s exterior.

All in all, since Nelson Framing’s inception in July 2003 the Whole Foods Market marks the 10th collaborative project with the Korte Co.