Fort Worth Logistics Hub, Phase II

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

Fort Worth Logistics Hub, Phase II is a 607,074 square-foot distribution center in south Fort Worth, Texas. This facility will serve as the second building in developer VanTrust Real Estate's Fort Worth Logistics Hub. Both projects were Design-Build with VanTrust, Bob Moore Construction, and Alliance Architects. The facility is built on 39 acres and consists of 6,023 square feet of spec office space and roughly 601,000 square feet of spec warehouse space. The project broke ground on February 17, 2022 and was slated to be completed in 2023.

The City of Fort Worth was extremely slow to respond during every critical point in construction, causing significant delays. At the Burleson Cardinal Road and Risinger intersection, approvals, permits, and inspections were all delayed weeks at a time at every juncture. This severely impacted our schedule for this public portion of the project, making it extremely difficult to meet the overall construction schedule. Permit approval and Inspection scheduling also faced weeks-long delays. We often had crews ready for concrete pours, utility tie-ins, building wrap, and other key inspections, only to wait multiple weeks for an inspector assignment or permits to be approved. Our construction team did their utmost to mitigate this by scheduling very early, but still lost many weeks to these delays.

Finally, water meter releases lagged several months behind the shell completion because the city claimed that the meter was tied into a different construction project down the road and the city would not make any exception to release our meter. We were forced to sustain operations on temporary water meters much longer than planned to facilitate testing, landscaping, and other needs.

The concrete subcontractor, whom Bob Moore Construction had a successful decades-long relationship with, faced substantial unexpected financial and personnel changes during the course of this project. Many of the subcontractor's employees left in a very short period of time, essentially causing a revolving door of project leads coming and going over the course of this project. Each time a new project lead was assigned to this project, it was in addition to their existing workload, they knew basically nothing about the project, and had little bandwidth to handle the project. In addition to poor project management, they were unable to maintain flow and schedule due to an inability to procure concrete materials due to their financial and personnel issues, causing further delays to the project.

Phase II construction started just as interior finish-out work began for Phase I next door. With mere weeks separating projects and sharing key subcontractors, our team vigilantly ensured no overlap occurred. Strict confidentiality requirements around Phase I's proprietary systems made this separation even more imperative. We instituted oversight to guarantee that subcontractors on both sites kept work streams and materials wholly distinct. Through continual coordination by the on-site project team, we eliminated cross-contamination, safeguarding each project's integrity. Substantial completion was reached on 6/30/2023, meeting the owner's urgent need for the facility to be ready for tenant leasing or sale.