Month: April 2018

Harkins’ Columbia Headquarters

Our goal isn’t to build award-winning buildings and spaces. It just ends up that way. Through the dedication and hard work of our project teams, the Harkins Columbia Headquarters has earned an Excellence in Construction award from the NAIOP Maryland chapter and an Award of Merit from the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Baltimore Metro chapter.

In December 2016, Harkins moved into a new 20,000 square foot open-plan office in downtown Columbia, MD. The office includes a mix of team rooms for offices, private meeting rooms with transparent glass fronts, larger spaces for family-like social connections, including a café and a multipurpose room, and open work stations to encourage collaboration. This space reflects our new market-based corporate structure, and was designed to help us take our 50-year history of comprehensive client service to the next level. “We feel the open space environment encourages collaboration and allows us to make more efficient use of our space,” says Gary Garofalo, president and CEO of Harkins Builders. “We’ve found the new space has improved company morale and has brought our employees together like never before.” The design was so successful that we are replicating the design on an additional 4,500 square feet on the floor below, connected by an open staircase. Additionally, we are also redesigning our regional office in the Northeast.

NAIOP Maryland held their bi-annual Excellence in Construction Awards event on April 19th. This event celebrates and recognizes outstanding commercial real estate projects throughout the region. Although the competition was tough in the Best Interior Tenant Fit-Out category, our space earned top honors. This was our first entry into the NAIOP MD awards program.

ABC Baltimore Metro held their annual Excellence in Construction Awards event on April 24th. The Excellence in Construction Awards celebration honors the state’s most innovative and high-quality construction projects and safety programs. In this prestigious program, Harkins took home an Award of Merit in the Interior Fit-Out Over $1 Million category.

Thank you to The Verve Partnership, specifically project leads Erin Deason and Dani Wirtz, led by Principal Kelly Ennis, on their amazing space planning and design. The fit-out was performed by Harkins’ Commercial Group.

Complete List of Winners from the NAIOP MD Excellence in Construction Awards program

The Harkins team attended the grand opening of the St. James Plaza project on Saturday, April 14, 2018 in Alexandria, VA.

Located in the City of Alexandria’s Beauregard neighborhood, St. James Plaza is Harkins’ latest completed project for repeat client AHC Inc. This project transformed three acres previously owned by the St. James United Methodist Church and the Bi-District Office of the Northern Virginia Methodist Church into 93 new affordable apartments. The affordable rental apartments are a mix of efficiencies, one-, two- and three-bedroom units at rents ranging from 40% to 60% of the Area Median Income. The church and office have both moved to an adjacent property.

The structure is comprised of five stories of wood frame construction above two levels of underground cast-in-place concrete construction. It includes underground parking, a fitness center, and a community room for residents. There is also an onsite preschool operated by The Campagna Center that will provide early childhood services to children living in both the affordable building and the surrounding community.

The apartments include Energy Star-certified kitchen appliances, high-efficiency, individually controlled HVAC systems, carpeted floors, and ceramic tile. The building meets the highest EarthCraft environmental certification.

Grand Opening Photos

The Harkins team attended the groundbreaking on the Culpepper Garden I Renovation project on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 in Arlington, VA.

Built in 1975, Culpepper Garden I is an eight-story affordable senior highrise building in Arlington, VA. We are renovating 206 apartments, made up of 74 one-bedroom, seven two-bedroom, and 129 efficiency units, and adding six new apartments. The work inside the units will take place in phases, typically 14 to 16 units at a time, to limit any disruption to the residents. Residents will be relocated to a temporary apartment on site.

The project scope will include replacing all apartment windows, a new roof, repairing the facade with a DOW AllGuard coating for damage and waterproofing, replacing all major systems (heating, cooling, plumbing, and sanitary), substantially upgrading the elevators, installing sprinklers throughout the entire building, and increasing accessibility in units and public spaces. In addition, amenity spaces will be reconfigured to include a multi-purpose and public program space, a wellness suite with a fitness area, a beauty parlor and barber shop, laundry facilities, a commercial kitchen with a bistro and dining area, a trash chute, a mail room, conference rooms, and a management office space.

The apartment renovations will include new flooring, a fresh coat of paint, upgraded plumbing fixtures, new interior finishes, and a full kitchen upgrade with new appliances, cabinets, and countertops.

Harkins also built two other buildings on the Culpepper Garden campus. Culpepper Garden Phase II was built in 1992, and Culpepper Garden Phase III was built in 1999.

Groundbreaking Photos