Case Studies October 2020

During recent bouts of looting and civil unrest in cities like Chicago and Minneapolis—in response to police killings of unarmed Black men and women—several Citi Trends stores were destroyed. But, like Billy Graves has always done in his nearly four-decade career with the company, he got the damaged retail spaces repaired and reopened in a […]

Imagine you’re negotiating a real estate lease for a global firm that does most of its work overseas. How do you assess off-hour HVAC/power usage requirements or factor energy use intensity provisions into your lease deal? “If you are managing real estate portfolios, understanding energy consumption patterns is key,” says Christine McHugh, who manages global […]

It sits in rural southeastern Missouri in an area known as the “lead belt” in Madison County. It’s off the beaten track, with both Interstate 55 and the Mississippi River passing by to the east. Yet the Madison Mine in Fredericktown was once a regional economic driver. Opened just as Missouri was becoming a state […]

When Gelson Da Silva II returned from a 10-month globe-trotting sabbatical—a journey that took him to France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and ringing in the new year in Cuba—he brought back more than just a newfound appreciation for history, culture and food. He brought back a new mindset. Having a resume filled with fintech […]

A pandemic still in progress, it might seem like an inopportune time for a company to be moving into new offices, but Gina Belleci says otherwise. She’s been part of other office relocations that have essentially been done on the fly. “The standard office move? Over the weekend and little attention to detail,” the friendly […]

There’s a smell test that must pass John Murray’s muster daily. Sight and sound tests, too. Senior director of facilities at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital since its new facility opened in June 2010, Murray is much more hands-on than his counterparts at the bigger institutions on the mainland. He has to be, this being a small, […]

When we last spoke with Jon Fahning and Minnesota-based Bremer Bank in July 2019, the 77-year-old financial institution was working to launch new branches in locations throughout the upper Midwest. As with any construction project, having the right architectural plans was critical. But there was another document that proved equally indispensable: Bremer’s 100-plus-pages design playbook […]

It may not be a traditional banking space, but Josh Meyer of Bremer Bank says the tried-and-true approach needs to give way to something better. The new Bremer location accomplishes just that, opening in the Holiday Center in Duluth, Minnesota, in July 2020. Instead of the typical customer service windows, enclosed offices with paneled doors […]

There was a 60,000-square-foot renovation project in Charlotte, North Carolina, a 5,000-square-foot build-out in Alabama, and several smaller renovations and upgrades at other sites across the country. All would provide AvidXchange with enough space as it designed and built a second facility in Charlotte over the next two years—a 200,000-square-foot space that would accommodate five […]

It’s not just customers who rave about Chicken Salad Chick as a healthier alternative to run-of-the-grill-and-fryer food. Landlords have also taken a liking to this Alabama-based hybrid of fast-casual and sit-down dining that commenced with franchising in 2012. That was just four years after its founding by Stacy Brown and her late husband, Kevin. Chicken […]