DPR Earns Two Zero Defects Letters, Successfully Completes High-Speed Finishout for Technology Giant in Scottsdale

Less than four months after breaking ground, the DPR team celebrated a “winning” completion of a 65,000-sq.-ft. corporate office build-out for PayPal, an eBay company, in Scottsdale, AZ. Even more impressive than meeting the breakneck schedule and the equally aggressive 35,000-sq.-ft. phase two build-out that immediately followed, was earning two Zero Defects letters signed by the owner heralding the quality construction achieved on both projects.

“Our entire DPR team was of a high caliber, and their follow through and determination are what helped make this tight-scheduled project work,” commented Von Seetharaman, senior manager of design and construction for eBay.

DPR was awarded the project, its first for eBay Inc., through a competitive qualification-based selection process, and came on board the job last June along with the architect, Gensler. The team faced an extremely tight schedule, as the owner needed to be up and operational in November.

What followed seemed impossible on paper. Awarded the project on June 16th, Gensler completed programming on June 27th and submitted for permit on July 14th. The city of Scottsdale’s planning department issued the permit in an unprecedented seven days, and based on its strong relationship with the city, DPR was able to set the groundwork and begin hanging drywall by August 6th. The job was off and running, but the team had to overcome a host of challenges to meet the critical completion date.

Chief among those was securing and installing a generator and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for the facility within the compressed, 16-week schedule, both long-lead items that can take 20 weeks or longer to procure. “We immediately tapped into our network of dealers to see what they had, just off the shelf, because that was the only way the schedule was going to work,” said Lew Laws of DPR, who served as the project manager. DPR’s strong local relationships with two dealers yielded a 130 kw generator and 125 kva UPS system delivered on site by September 19, ensuring that the job kept moving forward.

Another major hurdle was related to the HVAC system designed for this brand new speculative building. The system incorporates a number of small water source heat pumps, serving specific areas of the building, and the lead time for those heat pumps averaged about 13 weeks. However, the project team needed to move forward with installation of furniture and other interior components provided by the owner. “We had to turn construction on its head a bit, and actually build all of the acoustical ceiling system and lay down carpet prior to installing the final mechanical equipment—the exact opposite way you would usually do it,” said Laws. When the equipment did come in, it had to be shoehorned into the small spaces to be successfully hooked up. “It was a large challenge that was overcome with creative scheduling,” he said.

Amid the build out of the 65,000-sq.-ft. second and third floors, the owner issued a large change order to fully build out the 35,000-sq.-ft. first floor to attract a short-term tenant with a completed space as opposed to a cold shell. DPR embraced that challenge, and actually assumed the risk to start construction on that floor (with the permission of the inspector) at the end of September, approximately three weeks before permit was issued. DPR turned over floors two and three as scheduled in mid-November and completed first floor construction on January 26 of this year.

Securing the two Zero Defect letters from the owner was just icing on the cake, according to Laws. “This project turned into quite a success, and we were able to keep a good team atmosphere throughout with the owner, the building landlord, with (CM) Cushman Wakefield, and the city,” he said. “It really came down to good preplanning, and then following through.”