Chances are, if you frequent restaurants in Hampton Roads, your food has been touched by a SYSCO employee, and with the recent completion of their new 300,000 square foot facility in Suffolk, Virginia, those chances just got better. SYSCO Food Services of Hampton Roads celebrated the opening of their new facility in June of this year at one of the best-catered ribbon cuttings in recent memory. "Like a giant, high-tech pantry", this warehouse contains a cornucopia of food in its cold storage, freezer, and dry storage areas.

How we landed it…
On the recommendation of the City of Suffolk, The LandMark Design Group was contacted by a design-build firm from Seattle, Washington who was responding to the RFP for the construction of then Doughtie's SYSCO's new facility. Impressed with LandMark's responsiveness, the Seattle firm placed LMDG on their team. Seizing the opportunity, LMDG contacted the other design-build firms vying for the job. Of the four firms short-listed for the construction of the project, LandMark was able to align themselves with two of the teams, one of which was the successful bidder on the project.

Sure, we can do it that fast…
This project involved an extremely tight schedule. From the time that we received topographic survey until the building occupation was a scant 12 months. In order to keep this aggressive schedule on track, we had to work very closely with the City on identifying key issues early in the design process. The strategy that we implemented involved developing an early earthwork package, separate but complementary to the ultimate site work, which allowed the builder to obtain a land disturbing permit approximately 75 days after our notice to proceed. While the contractor cleared the timber from the land, installed E&S and rough graded the site, LandMark designers worked relentlessly to obtain City approval of the Site Plan. Frequently we traveled to the City's offices to meet face-to-face and work out difficult issues, short-circuiting the normal comment-response cycle. Ultimately, our efforts paid off, and we were able to keep the design-builders under construction with no breaks in schedule. Final plan approval came approximately 170 days after notice to proceed, and steel for the building was raised that same day.

Looks easy enough…
Like most projects, this one seemed simple on the surface, but as we dug into the details, we found the devils.

Our first hurdle came in familiar form…wetlands. As part of the Master Plan effort for Bridgeway Commerce Park, the developer had struck a deal with the Army Corps to placing protective easements around wetlands in the Park. The language of the easement agreement was extremely restrictive, calling for no increase in flows or velocities or changes to flow patterns. To make matters more interesting, the inlets to the pipes that were placed as part of the infrastructure for the park to direct flow into regional BMP ponds were all protected by these easements. Every outfall from our site was blocked by a protective easement.

The approach that LMDG's designers took was to borrow a design element, called a sediment forebay, which is normally incorporated into larger stormwater management ponds. The sediment forebay is a settling basin or plunge pool designed to attenuate flow and provide the first stage of sediment removal. The forebay can be visualized as a small pond with a broad crested riprap weir outfall. This win-win design satisfied the requirements imposed by the protective easements, and provided the secondary benefit of removing sediment and pollutants that would normally have been directed to the regional storm water management facility. A recent visit to the site after a rainfall event showed that the design was working as anticipated, and no adverse impacts to the protected wetland area were noted.

Another interesting facet was a 250-foot wide Virginia Power easement with high-tension transmission towers running through the site, across the main parking lot, and through the main entrance. Virginia Power requirements restricted such aspects as how close paving could be done to the tower foundations, height of grading below the wires, the type of landscaping that could be used within the easement, the height of parking lot lighting, and even the location of metal structures like fire hydrants and control boxes.

Just the Stats...
Fast-track design-build Cold Storage Office/Warehouse Distribution Center located in Bridgeway Commerce Park in Suffolk, Virginia. The parcel is situated between Harbour View Boulevard, College Drive, and Interstate 664, with access from Harbour View Boulevard. The 41.5-acre site includes approximately 58,000 square feet of office space, a 8,700 square foot truck maintenance facility, and 246,500 square feet of cold storage and dry storage warehouse and an employee roster of 650 people. Employee parking for over 500 vehicles was designed, and additional space was graded for future parking expansion. Parking for 70 dollies and the operations yard for 40 loading docks were designed, along with a detached truck wash, fueling and maintenance building. The construction budget was $39 million. Future expansion in 2 to 5 years will take facility to 500,000 square feet. SYSCO, a Fortune 100 company based in Houston, Texas, had 122 distribution facilities and $19.3 billion in sales in 2000.

The site was engineered to fit the existing master plan for Bridgeway Commerce Park, the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) for the City of Suffolk, and the strict specifications of the SYSCO Corporation. Our services included preparation of the Site Design, Landscape Design, on-site private Pump Station Design, and a Traffic Impact Study.