White Claw Distillery

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements.

This facility is the first of its kind for White Claw. This design-build project was fast-tracked resulting in a dried-in, 900,000 SF facility in 90 days with the first cans coming off the production line in 280 days. The project was integrated with state-of-the-art processing equipment. The project included coordination with groundwater well designers, reverse osmosis engineers, water reclamation experts, rail designers and laser-guided vehicle experts. The project is one of the most complicated, fast-tracked beverage production facilities in Arizona and was recently recognized and the Industrial Project of the Year by AZRE. The building is approximately 1,456 feet by 468 feet. The building construction type is II-B construction with an ESFR sprinkle system. Concrete tilt panels, steel joist, girders, and metal deck make up the building's envelope with a clear height of 36 feet within. The majority of the warehouse floor slab is an 8-inch reinforced slab with the brewing area having a 12-inch reinforced slab. This highly-technical and extraordinary manufacturing facility also contains a wastewater treatment plant that processes 1.3 million gallons of water per day and four new rail line spurs supported by a dual platform with 12 unloading stations. The office scope consisted of a 2-story, 50,000 SF steel frame, glass, and composite metal building, 2-story full-height curtain wall (hybrid system), large break area for office staff, gym, tasting bar on the 2nd floor, and observation deck/platform. This facility is the first of its kind and required design and construction to occur concurrently. For this to be accomplished, the project team involved the City of Glendale at early stages of the drawings so they could comment on fire, life, and safety issues during the development of the drawings. As a result, when the plans were submitted to the city for a permit, the review and permit times were cut down to days instead of weeks. Here are a few things the project team implemented to ensure success on the project: Suntec, the concrete subcontractor, placed a batch plant on site to support the scheduled milestones. The technology used throughout construction: 3D BIM Model was done by the in-house Layton Construction team, with subcontractor participation, for all underground and process piping. This gave us the ability to prefabricate everything. BIM 360 and StructionSite. DOMO – tracked steel, roofing, and concrete tilt panels.

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

The project was completed on an extremely expedited schedule. Design began on December 1, 2019, and the general contractor broke ground on January 4, 2020. The 155 tilt-up panels were up and in place and the 900,000 SF facility was fully enclosed in less than 90 days. The project team had several all-hands-on meetings every week for the first 86 days to coordinate local efforts with the European counterparts. According to Canam, this project procured and delivered the fastest steel package (joist, girder, and metal deck). As the construction sequence was modified for speed, the team developed project-specific details that allowed it to go faster than any other industrial project, including working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Double and triple crews were used to increase production, while several trades implemented as much prefabrication as possible so they could maximize the construction crew's ability to put work in place in a short amount of time. The utilities (power, water, and sewer) were lagging behind the building. The facility produced more wastewater than EPCOR was able to accommodate. In order to address the power shortage, our team worked with APS to borrow power from another substation. We developed a temporary electrical infrastructure design prior to the construction of a new APS substation. We pulled power incrementally from APS until the facility was at full capacity. The new substation was a year behind the facility, so the temporary power solution was an important aspect of the project.

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

When it comes to industrial buildings, specific process-oriented buildings like White Claw, the “rectangle” is generally a given, but it is the site and building function that plays the largest role in success. The design of the site has to flow for the function of the building. Inbound and outbound trucking, traffic flow on the site, power distribution, water processing [inbound and outbound], rail access, and applied uses of the rail system all need to flow in a logistic fashion that makes the function operate in the most efficient and effective manner. Silos, water treatment facilities, rail platforms, pipework, and other support equipment become a part of the bigger picture of the overall architecture of the building. This building captures all of those elements. The brewing process requires 1.5 million gallons of groundwater each day. The facility contains four process lines producing approximately 70 million cans of White Claw each year. The fermentation process is fed by raw sugar delivered daily by rail and contained in 48 – 60' tall tanks. After the wastewater for the facility goes through a treatment process it is delivered to the adjacent rose farmer for irrigation.

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

This project has super-charged the industrial market in Glendale. There was very little industrial going on in Glendale prior to this project. The success of the project has been the catalyst for the local industrial boom. It has opened the door for the development of millions of SF of industrial projects in the West Phoenix market, creating jobs and revenue. Since this is the first ground-up facility for MAB in the western United States, it has made a very large impact to the success of the client and the ability to meet the demands White Claw has created in the hard seltzer market.