Wide Awake in West Texas
Spike in commercial development keeps contractors busy

by Bruce Buckley

Contractors in west Texas haven’t gotten much rest in recent years.

Many of the Panhandle’s cities have seen significant new developments get under way, and local firms are chasing plenty of commercial and institutional projects.

Lubbock, sometimes referred as “Hub City,” has lived up to its nickname recently as a center of activity in the region. The city saw 5% population growth between 2000 and 2005, up to nearly 210,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

In turn, the city has seen a recent spike in commercial development. Commercial construction rose to $149 million in 2006, up from $92 million the previous year, according to local market analysis by The Blosser Report.

Despite the increase, the report suggests that the area’s vacancy rates remain low enough to encourage more commercial space development in the coming years.

Craig Wallace, vice president of the West Texas Chapter of Associated General Contractors and owner of Craig Wallace Construction in Lubbock, sees numerous opportunities in both commercial and institutional work. The company is currently building a $22 million facility at the new 160-acre Lubbock Medical Center.

“Last year we did a lot of estimates, but many of those projects didn’t start,” Wallace says. “Now it looks like things are gaining momentum again.”

Lubbock is also home to one of the most ambitious highway projects in west Texas – the Marsha Sharp Freeway, Granite Construction of Watsonville, Calif., is heading up the bulk of the project, landing the first three phases for $245 million. The project will ultimately have five phases.

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The university system has completed $478 million in construction projects in west Texas since 2000. It currently has $144 million in projects under construction with $301 million in planning or design.

“Higher education is competitive these days, so to attract and retain the best and the brightest we’re going to have to continue making investments in good facilities,” says Mike Ellicott, vice chancellor of facilities, planning and construction at Texas Tech.

Among the major work planned for the Lubbock campus is the new $60 million Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration. The project, which university officials hope to get under way in the next few years, would include $25 million in renovations to the existing business school building.

Many of Texas Tech’s expansions will be seen on its other campuses, including work planned at Amarillo and Odessa, Ellicott says.

Amarillo saw a strong burst of major commercial construction work last year and is still working through the backlog, says Tonya Felder, executive director of the Associated General Contractor’s Panhandle of Texas chapter.

“Last year it was the big commercial projects, and now that those are done we’re seeing the smaller projects pick up,” she adds. “These are the projects that were put on the back burner last year because the larger projects were taking up all of the manpower.”

Western Builders of Amarillo is heading one of the area’s larger projects – the $40 million Hilmar Cheese Plant in Dalhart. Work at the 40-acre site broke ground in March 2006 and the plant is expected to be operational by October.

Lee Lewis, one of the largest contractors in west Texas, also has been reaping the benefits during the area’s expansion. The Lubbock-based company has banked primarily on institutional work, specifically higher education and K-12.

Expansion plans at Texas Tech have provided a consistent stream of work for Lee Lewis. Recently completed work includes the $6.7 million Student Wellness Center; the $5.8 million Child Development Research Center and Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery; the $34.5 million University Center expansion; and the $28.5 million Experimental Sciences Building.

Among its current big jobs on the Lubbock campus is the $25.5 million Health Science Center Clinical Tower and Research Center. The 125,000-sq-ft new structure is being built adjacent to the existing Health Sciences Center to provide a new gateway for outpatients.

While the existing HSC works as a collegiate institution, it was not inviting for patients, said Leland Turner, project manager with the project’s designer, FKP Architects of Houston.

“It was like walking into a federal bank,” he adds.

The four-story research tower connects to the existing HSC on the first and second floors. Nearly 24,000 sq ft of space will be renovated to create the link. The exterior features precast and brick to complement the HSC with extensive glass curtain wall to give it a more open and modern feel.

The project broke ground in November 2004. Numerous utilities servicing the HSC ran through the site and had to be relocated. The project also neighbors another Lee Lewis job – the Messer Racz International Pain Center – and required coordination with that project team.

The foundations include a mix of drilled piers and slab-on-grade. In drilling the piers, crews had to work delicately around existing utilities, including a sewer line 27 ft. below grade. Crews took nearly a year getting the steel structure in place.

On another front, contractors are used to weather delays in wind-whipped Lubbock, and this winter was no different.

“We lost approximately two months to weather,” says David Meadow, project manager with Lee Lewis. “There were the standard high-wind days, but this winter was hard on us because we had to do a lot of exterior work.”

The team is scheduled to complete the tower in July.

Even as work continues to flow at Texas Tech, Lee Lewis is staying on top of an influx of opportunities from K-12 school districts in the area. The company is currently completing a new $15 million 100,000-sq-ft performance center for the Andrews Independent School District.

The new standalone facility, being built at the existing high school, will contain a basketball/volleyball arena, concert hall, football locker rooms as well as competitive swimming and diving pools. The arena will seat more than 2,700 people and the concert hall will accommodate 1,000. The project is scheduled to complete this month.

Because the facility will serve a wide variety of functions, Michael Knight, project manager for Lee Lewis, says the architects – Hunter Coral & Associates of Odessa – worked extensively on creating a logical circulation.

“You could have three events going on at once with limited overlap,” he adds.

Work began in June 2005 with the demolition of a small existing field house. Because the grade was depressed in several areas, the job required major dirt work early on for the building pad, Knight said. The building is set on a drilled pier foundation with more than 200 piers. While drilling the piers, crews hit unforeseen rock that slowed progress early in the project.

Although west Texas contractors like Lee Lewis welcome the gust of development opportunities that have blown across their backyard in recent years, it’s been tough to keep up.

Even as the construction industry is in full gear, the oil industry is picking up thanks to rising oil prices, and many contractors in the area are finding it increasingly difficult to staff jobs when eager oil companies offer better wages.

“Prices are going up and everyone is heading to the oilfields,” Knight says. “It’s hard to keep people onsite.”

Texas Tech University Health Science Center Clinical Tower and Research Center
Key Players:

Owner: Texas Tech University, Lubbock
Architect: FKP Architects, Houston
Construction Manager: Lee Lewis, Lubbock
MEP: SkiHi Mechanical, Dallas
Electrical: Temple, Lubbock
Steel Supplier: Falcon Steel, Lubbock
Painting: XCel Painting, Lubbock
Drywall: LRL Enterprises, Dallas
Excavation: Alan Butler Construction, Lubbock
Roofing: Hamilton Roofing, Lubbock
Waterproofing: Centennial Moisture Control, Dallas

Andrews ISD Performance Center
Key Players:

Owners: Andrews Independent School District
Construction Manager: Lee Lewis, Lubbock
Architect: Hunter Coral & Associates, Odessa; Pfluger Associates, Austin
Structural: Frank Lam & Associates, Austin
MEP: Agnew Associates, Austin
Pool: Brannon Aquatics, Tyler
Dirt Contractor: Reece Albert, Midland
Concrete: Bowman Enterprises, Grandview
Steel Erector: Irwin Steel Erection, Lubbock
Mechanical Contractor: National Heating & Air Conditioning, Odessa
Electrical Contractor: ACME Electric, Lubbock
Pool Contractor: Sunbelt Pools, Dallas