With the steel frame built, the edging for the glass curtain wall going up outside and heating ducts already on the ceilings in the upper floors, the $60 million FM Global headquarters project is on schedule to be closed to the elements by the time winter weather rolls in – and should be completed by its summer 2009 target date.
The 340,000-square-foot, four-story project broke ground in April on Central Avenue in Johnston and should wrap up close to the budgeted cost, said Hobbs Brook Management LLC Vice President Donald G. Oldmixon, manager of real estate construction and leasing.
During a construction walkthrough Nov. 12, Oldmixon and FM Global Assistant Vice President Steve Zenofsky made clear that the building has been “over engineered,” as Oldmixon put it.
The roof, for example, has a concrete-deck base, instead of a typical metal-based roof. “That’s a 20-year warrantee, instead of a 10-year warrantee,” Oldmixon said.
A 17,000-square-foot data center that’s only partially connected to one end of the main Z-shaped building has two power feeds, two emergency generators and has been constructed to withstand seismic events.
“It’s designed for an earthquake and Rhode Island is an earthquake zone,” Oldmixon said. “So if there’s an earthquake, that building can go right back to work.”
“That’s our business,” Zenofsky said, adding that the commercial and industrial property insurer has to set a good example for its clients.
Overall, adding those above-building-code features likely added about 15 percent to the total project cost, Oldmixon said.
But it’s seen as an investment because FM Global plans to use the building for 50 years, he added. Now, about 867 employees work at the Atwood Avenue campus and the new building will be large enough to hold about 1,100 employees, ensuring room for future growth.
The new building, designed by Vision 3 Architects in Providence, will also cut FM Global’s energy costs down by 40 percent from what it’s using at its current building, Oldmixon said.
FM Global will be seeking a gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design award from the U.S. Green Building Council for the building, which has a 100,000-square-foot footprint. And to add to the “green” quality of the project, FM Global is attempting to limit deforestation on the site. The building’s footprint will fill only about 2.30 acres of the 93-acre site and the tree line sits, in some spots, as close as 45 feet to the building, Oldmixon said. The company also built an estimated one-mile retaining wall to account for the grade difference between the building’s site and the forest on the eastern side. That saves about 65 feet of trees, Oldmixon said.
FM Global owns a total of about 203 acres on either side of Atwood Avenue – including the land under its current headquarters, a building that New York-based REIT CapLease bought in April 2007. That building, CapLease Senior Vice President Gary Landriau said last week, is now being prepped for future tenants.
CapLease earlier this year brought appeals to the Johnston Planning Board – and eventually to Rhode Island Superior Court – saying that the town hadn’t properly examined the drainage and traffic issues at the new site before issuing building permits.
On Nov. 3, the R.I. Department of Administration’s Building Code Standards Committee ruled that the permitting had complied with zoning regulations. The Superior Court still must make a final ruling, though FM Global has made it clear it is moving out regardless of the decision. •
