CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Brad Des Jardin President and CEO DesCor Builders
Sotiris K . Kolokotronis President SKK Developments
Jeffrey Wellenstein Senior Project Manager Hensel Phelps
What projects are you currently working on ?
The Mansion Apartments in Downtown Sacramento at 16th and H streets , a five-story , 183,300-square-foot mixeduse project ; Cathedral Square in Downtown Sacramento at 10th and J streets , a seven-story mixed-use project with 11,000 square feet of retail and 153 apartment units ; The Strand in West Sacramento , 408 luxury apartments located on a 20.5- acre site ; and Capital Public Radio ’ s ( new state-of-the-art headquarters ) in Downtown Sacramento at Eighth and J streets , an 8,600-square-foot event space that includes a gallery and 200-seat community engagement room .
How has the pandemic affected you ?
We were fortunate because early in the pandemic , the Governor had determined that construction was an essential business , so we were able to keep our 20 projects that averaged about 500 people per day working productively … We did have to navigate all state and county COVID regulations . This included formalizing a pandemic response plan and implementing site-specific safety plans that included PPE , social distancing and workplace sanitation measures … We are now seeing unprecedented material cost escalation and supply chain interruption , which is affecting the cost and schedules of projects throughout our industry .
What are you currently working on ?
Currently under construction are The Mansion Apartments ( next to the historic Governor ’ s Mansion in Downtown Sacramento ) and The Eisley , 405 garden-style rental apartment units on 12 acres adjacent to Arden Fair Mall . In our future development pipeline , we have Arden Gateway Phase II , 332 garden-style , multifamily units ; 16J , 73 mixed-use , multifamily units at 925 16th St .; and 17J , 74 mixed-use , multifamily units at 1617 J St .
What do you think your industry will look like in the future ?
We ’ re optimists . We are confident that with vaccinations being more widely distributed and businesses reopening , the energy and attraction to the core is resurging . We ’ re hopeful that the state and other large employers will slowly start to bring their employees back into offices to help this resurgence continue into Downtown . We are feeling as excited as ever about multifamily development and look forward to delivering all types of housing within Sacramento ’ s urban core ... The last few weeks have been encouraging as the velocity of qualified leasing traffic has picked up ... Overall and despite the global COVID pandemic , urban protests and one of the most challenging years we ’ ve seen in recent memory , H16 Apartments — our latest lease-up with 95 units — is outperforming its proforma and is fully leased in less than a year .
What are you currently working on ?
A progressive design-build at 10th and O streets , ( a 10-floor , 472,000-squarefoot building that will temporarily house legislative and executive elected officials during the Capitol Annex Project , after which it will serve as joint office space for the legislative and executive branches ); and the Richards Boulevard Office Complex , ( a 1.25 million-square-foot project of four interconnected buildings designed to be Zero Net Energy and Zero Net Carbon to house DGS employees ).
How has the pandemic affected you ?
There have been material shortages and price increases . Projects have struggled with manpower issues while craft ( construction laborers ) were out sick and / or quarantined . Social distancing limited the number of persons you could have in a hoist or elevator , impacting the ability to efficiently move workers throughout the project / building . There have also been mental health challenges . More deaths in our industry are now being attributed to mental health challenges … Many companies have recognized the mental health challenges of the pandemic , which adds another level of complexity to our projects . Training our leaders to recognize potential mental health challenges and provide tools for engaging in discussions will be key to tackling this issue as an industry .
80 comstocksmag . com | August 2021