Four projects in one

What we did

Jim Thull wanted to build another successful convenience store complex.  The franchise owner of the McDonald’s restaurant in Kewaskum wanted to relocate.  They teamed up and found a site they thought would work — three acres of undeveloped land on the expanding south side of town.

Designing and building a convenience store plus gas station plus car wash is a logistical challenge.  Adding a McDonald’s restaurant into the mix heightens the challenge.  So they called Construction Solutions Midwest to manage the multiple projects within the larger project, make sure it all happened, and make sure it all happened at the same time.  The whole project was completed in 120 days.

One challenge was planning for multiple, conflicting traffic patterns.  We needed to plan for cars approaching the gas pumps, driving through the car wash, and parking.  We needed to plan for McDonalds’s menu order lane and food pickup lane.  We placed the restaurant and convenience store in the same building, then putting the carwash building on a separate area of the site, so the queuing lanes and traffic patterns wouldn’t conflict with each other.

Another challenge was working with McDonald’s standards for new franchises, both in terms of materials and construction processes.  Typically, the building of a new McDonald’s restaurant is managed by a McDonald’s regional project manager.  McDonald’s decided, however, that having Construction Solutions Midwest as General Contractor for the entire project would make the whole job go more smoothly.

The key to getting a project finished on time and on budget is preparation, organization, and communication.  In Kewaskum, we helped our clients design and build:

• A 2,400 square foot convenience store
• A McDonald’s restaurant
• Four multiple product dispensers (gas station islands)
• Single-bay car wash designed to be expanded to two bays

How we did it

The sooner we can get a project completed, the sooner our client can open and start making money.  This doesn’t mean that we sacrifice quality.  What we do is integrate scheduling more efficiently than most other contractors.  We develop a site plan, building design, and interior finish plan, lay the site out, and get all the subcontractors and deliveries scheduled before shovel hits the dirt.  We put together a budget, negotiating costs with all the benders, suppliers, and subcontractors to the best value for the owner’s investment.  We establish an overall completion date from the beginning, and we do everything we can to move the schedule along, making sure everyone is coordinated and knows how everything needs to happen together.  We actively manage the schedule on a daily basis.  We manage the work, rather than the work managing us.

Taking a project from conception to reality can only happen smoothly if we’ve done our job to forge a solid relationship with our clients, built on mutual respect and trust.  Construction Solutions Midwest is committed to working toward the best interests of our clients.