PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Coreslab Structures and PONO Construction have raised the saying “give it the old college try” to a new level with their collaboration on multiple projects on the Grand Canyon University campus.
Coreslab Structures, a premier producer of precast/prestressed concrete products, has teamed with PONO Construction for the past 10 years on nine structures on the school’s campus at 3300 W. Camelback Road in Phoenix.
The collaborative effort began in earnest in 2011 when the two teamed on a 1,635-stall, 5-level parking garage. Since then, the two have collaborated on seven additional parking structures and the school’s baseball stadium, Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark.
“This has been such a great partnership,” said GCU President Brian Mueller. “Doing business with local partners is really a big deal for us. We are hoping that eventually there will be internship opportunities for our students.”
This past July, GCU students toured the Coreslab Structures construction yard at 5026 S. 43rd Ave., in Phoenix. Students were introduced to the process that creates the massive concrete panels evident around their campus.
PONO Construction President Butch Glispie tapped Coreslab when he was looking for the right partner to help deliver projects on the bustling GCU campus in a timely manner. The immediate need was a parking garage.
“Butch displayed a fantastic sense of teamwork when he reached out and asked how we could help him deliver; it was teamwork at its pinnacle,” said Coreslab Sales Manager Phil Richardson, SE. “Not only did he come and work with us as a team, to deliver a parking garage, he also asked us what obstacles and site constraints could he help us with to make the erection of the garage go correctly, and quicker.”
The two entities developed the “standard” GCU garage scheme, which was based on being five bays wide, approximately 306 feet by 523 feet long, with an expansion joint in the length, and standing five levels. The standard GCU template parks around 2,465 cars. Four of the eight garages are identical but different in orientation depending where on campus they are.
“PONO went out of their way to give us fantastic site access and plenty of staging area,” Richardson said. “Any problem areas were discussed way in advance. We listened to them as well as they listened to us. There was great communication, and it’s been that way for the past 10 years since that first project.”
How does Glispie view the future of the partnership?
“So, to where we’re headed, we’re about halfway to our buildout unless the enrollment goes further than we think and in which case we’ll keep buying land and keep building,” he said.
Richardson said the partnership is as strong as one of Coreslab’s concrete panels.
“After our third garage with PONO, Butch told us, ‘With your expertise of building, how can we get the biggest bang for our buck.’ We showed him how we could deliver the most cost efficient and most affordable-per-car parking garage,” Richardson said.
“What drives us to do more parking garages for Butch and GCU is to project the demand for more students and them finding additional pieces of property. The more land they purchase offers another opportunity for this team to stay together.”
PHOTO: Grand Canyon University Parking Garage