Project Falcon

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements.

Situated on 99 acres near the Houston Ship Channel, this 1.5 million-square-foot warehouse features 237 overhead doors, 36-foot clear height, 2.3 million square feet of paving, 260,000 square feet of tilt-wall panels and eight-inch slab-on-grade. The large warehouse footprint, 300 feet short of a half of a mile, is on trend with other major retailers and their goal to reduce shipping times to customers. This regional distribution center is the largest warehouse in the country for publicly traded Floor & Decor. The company selected the Greater Houston area as the distribution hub to meet the company's current and future demands in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. It consolidates and replaces two existing Houston-area Floor & Decor distribution facilities and adds 900,000 square feet. Arch-Con started the project in December of 2020 with a lot of hiccups. Steep supply chain issues resulted in construction material delays of electrical switchgear, overhead doors, structural steel, roofing, paint, caulking and metal studs. In addition to these delays, the project encountered 82 weather delays thanks to rain and 2021's February freeze. With all of these obstacles, the team hit their original construction end-date. To overcome these obstacles, proactive planning and diligently implementing the plan with the entire project team made the project successful. There were often 180-200 workers on the job during most days of construction, peaking at 300+ workers a day. The electrical, steel and concrete subcontractors were extraordinary. In the last two months of construction, we averaged 60 electricians on the job site every day.

What obstacles were overcome related to the schedule, budget, program, specification, site, etc. on this project?

Arch-Con started the project in December of 2020 with a lot of hiccups. Steep supply chain issues resulted in construction material delays of electrical switchgear, overhead doors, structural steel, roofing, paint, caulking and metal studs. In addition to these delays, the project encountered 82 weather delays thanks to rain and 2021's February freeze. With all of these obstacles, the team hit their original construction end-date. To overcome these obstacles, proactive planning and diligently implementing the plan with the entire project team made the project successful. There were often 180-200 workers on the job during most days of construction, peaking at 300+ workers a day. Our electrical, steel and concrete subcontractors were extraordinary. In the last two months of construction, we averaged 60 electricians on the job site every day.

Communicate any engineering complexities or unique features of the panel design for this project.

What is the potential for this project's impact on the community and/or environment?

This regional distribution center is the largest warehouse in the country for publicly traded Floor & Decor. The company selected the Greater Houston area as the distribution hub to meet the company's current and future demands in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. It consolidates and replaces two existing Houston-area Floor & Decor distribution facilities and adds 900,000 square feet. During construction, this project employed nearly 200 workers the duration of the project with the exception of weather delays. The facility now employs 120 full time employees and utilizes additional temporary services as needed. For long-term efficiency, LED lighting was used throughout. Consolidating warehouses from two to one massive warehouse near the Houston Ship Channel streamlines and reduces hauling heavy product. The Floor & Decor Warehouse Management System has designed the facility to be more functional, therefore being more efficient and saving on electricity.