HardHatChat

MARCH 21, 2023

Adaptive Reuse in commercial construction is nothing new. For years, smart Real Estate Developers and property owners have been repurposing everything from old warehouses and industrial properties to shopping malls, hospitals, and historical buildings into creative mixed-use residential and commercial spaces. Two recent examples in Chicago are the Green Exchange and the Regal Mile Movie Studio Complex: Both were former large warehouses adapted to bring new life and usefulness to the community.

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HardHatChat

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

With Baby Boomers aging, it is no surprise that Senior Housing construction and renovation are… well…BOOMING. In recent years, we’ve been working with Senior Housing developers and operators to update existing facilities, add new amenities, and retool common areas to be more competitive with new-construction senior housing options. In addition, many national senior housing operators are in “acquisition” mode and are boosting their portfolio by snapping up value-add properties they can remodel a

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HardHatChat

JANUARY 17, 2023

If there were one word that summed up our experience from 2022 and our approach to the year ahead, it would flexibility. You succeed in a challenging environment by being adaptable to change, open-minded to new ideas, and focused on solutions. As we mentioned in previous posts, last year presented various challenges for the commercial construction industry.

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HardHatChat

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Between 2018 and 2022, Englewood’s national construction work in the cannabis retail industry grew by 100% and we expect that trajectory to continue as more states legalize recreational marijuana use and cannabis firms expand into new markets. Like any CRE sector, the cannabis industry comes with its own set of nuances for planning and executing construction projects – particularly since it is relatively new and highly regulated.

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HardHatChat

JUNE 29, 2022

Addressing Commercial Construction Supply Chain and Labor Issues. It’s summertime, and the commercial construction season is “heating up.” The Englewood management team senses real momentum in the market: Our clients are active and back in the field addressing the backlog of projects that have been on hold. And we are making good things happen for our restaurant, hospitality, automotive, warehouse, senior living, and retail construction clients.

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HardHatChat

APRIL 21, 2022

Commercial Construction is beginning to take off. Take a look at some projects we are kicking off or just finished. Olive Garden, Delafield, WI. One sector of Englewood Construction’s disciplines hit the hardest during the pandemic was the restaurant and food service industry. We are so fortunate to have so many restaurants under way nationally with more on the way.

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HardHatChat

JULY 27, 2020

Earlier this spring, I had the opportunity to talk with Restaurant Development + Design Magazine for an article on “How to Find the Perfect Construction Partner” that just published in the July/August issue. The final piece is a great resource that’s relevant to pretty much every commercial real estate sector – not just restaurant development – and covers important points that should be on anyone’s checklist when vetting and choosing a construction partner for a commercial real estate project.

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HardHatChat

JUNE 29, 2020

For anyone that owns or operates a commercial property, there are bound to be unanticipated repairs or surprise construction issues that pop up. But every once in a while, the truly unexpected strikes. And so far in 2020, we’ve already experienced two nationwide instances where CRE owners are dealing with situations they probably never imagined. As a national commercial contractor, Englewood Construction was able to tap resources to assist a national retail brand client with boarding up location

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HardHatChat

MAY 27, 2020

A version of this post was published in Illinois Real Estate Journal as a bylined article from Englewood Construction. According to Englewood Construction, prepping commercial facilities to reopen should include reviewing mechanical systems and rescheduling missed preventative maintenance appointments (*photo taken pre-pandemic). Across the country, states are in various phases of reentry and preparing their plans to roll back stay-at-home orders that were put in place to help mitigate the sprea

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HardHatChat

APRIL 15, 2020

Tara Fox is a senior project manager with Englewood Construction. As our Englewood Construction team works together to continue serving our commercial construction clients while also navigating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our industry, we are more thankful than ever for our staff of dedicated and experienced employees. For this month’s blog post, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight one of those employees: Tara Fox, a senior project manager.

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HardHatChat

MARCH 30, 2020

Bill Di Santo, president, Englewood Construction”. This is undoubtedly an unprecedented time in our country as efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) are impacting all of us on both personal and professional levels. We are in uncharted territory, but amid this “new normal” Englewood Construction remains open and committed to serving our clients — while also following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as industry associations, to en

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HardHatChat

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

CRE developers and owners are continuing to think creatively about filling vacant shopping mall space, and recently the idea of bringing in “ghost kitchens” to fill obsolete retail square footage has started to gain traction. The Wall Street Journal recently covered this trend in an article noting a major mall owner is partnering with a hospitality group to create ghost kitchens – stand-alone food service facilities dedicated to fulfilling app-based delivery orders for either an existing restaur

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HardHatChat

JANUARY 6, 2020

Englewood’s business development team attended ICSC’s CenterBuild conference in December, where conversations revolved around retail activity and opportunities in 2020. The event also included ICSC’s 2019 North America Design and Development Awards, where Englewood, along with client American Girl and project partners, was recognized for its work on the American Girl Place store in New York City.

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HardHatChat

DECEMBER 3, 2019

With the countdown on to 2020 – and the start of a brand-new decade right around the corner – it’s time for our annual look back at the commercial construction industry “highs” and “lows” from 2019. From positive trends and new business opportunities to ongoing challenges that impact how we do business, here are five factors and industry trends that shaped our work in the past year.

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HardHatChat

OCTOBER 28, 2019

With our firm’s long track record in retail construction, we’ve witnessed firsthand the ebb and flow of activity across this sector over the years. So when I came across an article recently asking if “ flagship stores are losing their shine ”, it gave me pause. It’s true the retail mix among flagship stores in prime locations is changing. Not too long ago, premier shopping districts like Chicago’s Magnificent Mile or New York’s Fifth Avenue were lined with not only luxury brands like Tiffany, C

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HardHatChat

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

In 2009, amid the business challenges of the Great Recession, our company made the decision to start a blog as an outlet to share commercial construction trends, insights, news, and observations on a variety of topics. If you had told me then that we’d still be publishing Hard Hat Chat a decade later – and that it would become an award-winning blog – I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

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HardHatChat

AUGUST 7, 2019

A version of this post was published in Illinois Real Estate Journal as a byline article from Englewood Construction. Earlier this summer, Englewood Construction’s home state of Illinois passed a bill making it the 11 th state in the U.S. to legalize the use of recreational marijuana. Given that our firm already has experience working with clients on medicinal and recreational marijuana dispensary construction projects in other states, we know firsthand that this legislation will quickly lead to

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HardHatChat

JULY 16, 2019

This column from Chuck Taylor, Englewood Construction’s director of operations, was originally published by GlobeSt.com. An adaptive reuse construction project, such as the conversion of this former grocery store into Englewood’s headquarters in Lemont, Ill., involves extra planning and special considerations. While it’s always thrilling to create a new building, some of the most rewarding construction projects to work on involve the adaptive reuse of an existing property.

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HardHatChat

JUNE 3, 2019

Englewood Construction’s business development team hosted a cocktail party at the Bellagio Resort and Casino during RECon 2019. Last month, our Englewood Construction business development team had a great trip to Las Vegas for RECon, the global retail real estate convention hosted annually by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). It’s always valuable to attend this conference, not only as an opportunity to network with new and existing contacts, but also to gauge activity in the

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HardHatChat

APRIL 12, 2019

Any long-time readers of Hard Hat Chat have probably picked up on the fact that I’m a big fan of the negotiated bid. Our firm takes pride in being a true partner to our clients, and we believe a great way to elevate that client relationship is to work on a negotiated basis – a process where the client hires a general contractor early-on in the project after agreeing on general conditions and a contractor fee.

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HardHatChat

MARCH 14, 2019

Most people think of commercial construction as a physical, “bricks and sticks” industry. But if you ask me, commercial construction is first and foremost about relationships. After all, the strongest foundation you can give any commercial construction project is a solid partnership between the client and the commercial contractor. That’s why at Englewood Construction, we work hard at building relationships at every phase of business – starting with our business development efforts and continuin

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HardHatChat

MARCH 4, 2019

One of the biggest challenges for commercial construction firms today is the tighter project timelines that have become the norm at every phase of a project – from shorter deadlines for submitting initial bids and budgets, to quicker resolution on addendums and change orders, to compressed schedules for construction and delivery. Today, we push to build out a restaurant in 22 weeks instead of the 30 that used to be typical, and our target turnaround for a hotel project has gone from 10 to 12 mon

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HardHatChat

JANUARY 30, 2019

After nearly 10 years of publishing Hard Hat Chat (more to come on our blog’s 10 th anniversary later this year), we know there’s never a shortage of fresh topics and trends to discuss in the commercial construction industry. At the same time, some subjects seem to come up again and again, whether on this blog, in the news media or in conversations with clients and colleagues.

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HardHatChat

DECEMBER 19, 2018

A strong pipeline of senior living construction was a “high” of 2018. After a busy and eventful year in commercial construction, we always find it valuable to reflect back on the last 12 months and review the positives and negatives that impacted our business – including those that are specific to our company as well as the commercial construction industry as a whole – as we prepare for the opportunities and challenges the New Year is likely to bring.

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HardHatChat

DECEMBER 6, 2018

It has been another successful year for Englewood Construction, and with the calendar flipping over to December we’re excited to see what 2019 will bring. Here are our predictions of the four commercial construction industry trends we expect will shape our work in different sectors – and the construction landscape overall – in the year ahead: Senior Housing Communities Woo Workers with Facility Updates.

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HardHatChat

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

Earlier this month, the Englewood Construction team was honored to be recognized as one of the Best Restaurant Contractors in Chicago by Chicago Architects. Given how much restaurant work we do and how important those clients – from national restaurant chains and food service groups to independent eateries – are to our business, it was rewarding to be called out for being among the best in our field.

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HardHatChat

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

For the most part, a commercial construction firm’s job is pretty straightforward. But because we have such a broad range of expertise and the know-how to weigh in or provide services for so many aspects of the construction process, there are times our clients don’t even realize they could and should be calling us for assistance. Here are three examples of when you should reach out to your commercial construction general contractor.

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HardHatChat

AUGUST 28, 2018

Budget is always a major consideration for our commercial construction clients, and as a general contractor we devote significant time to the budgeting process. While we do our best to provide budget estimates that are as accurate as possible, there are inevitably times when projects bids come in higher than the client expected, or that unanticipated costs push the job over-budget.

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HardHatChat

JULY 24, 2018

It’s already been a busy year for Englewood’s Restaurant Construction division, with a wide variety of projects ranging from ground-up new construction and interior renovations to commercial kitchen work. As such, here are four commercial construction trends our team has observed and anticipates we’ll see shaping more restaurant and food service construction projects in the near future: Tapping Into The Craft Beer Boom.

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HardHatChat

JUNE 26, 2018

Earlier this year, one of our favorite clients, American Girl, announced plans to take its brand on the road via an American Girl musical debuting with a nationwide tour this fall. At Englewood Construction, we’re proud to say we’ve already been “on tour” with American Girl for the last 10 years, working with the popular retail brand to build, remodel and maintain American Girl Place stores across the country.

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HardHatChat

MAY 31, 2018

Earlier this month, the Englewood team headed to Las Vegas for RECon , the global retail real estate convention hosted annually by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). Attending this major event is always a terrific opportunity for us as a national commercial construction firm to meet with our national retail developer clients, network with new connections from across the country, and really take the temperature of the retail construction sector.

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HardHatChat

MAY 1, 2018

One of the things we’ve been most proud of at Englewood Construction over the last several years is the growth of our Facilities Management Group. This division started as a way for us to extend our relationship with clients to include planned, preventative and emergency commercial facility maintenance; while it certainly wasn’t typical, then or now, for a national construction firm to also be a facility maintenance provider, we saw a lot of benefits to a general contractor offering these servic

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HardHatChat

MARCH 27, 2018

Prefabricated elements such as pre-cast concrete walls, which Englewood installed for a Blain’s Farm & Fleet store in Romeoville, Ill., can have a positive impact on a construction project’s schedule and budget. Something we’re hearing a lot about in our industry right now is the growing trend and popularity of prefab and modular commercial construction solutions.

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HardHatChat

FEBRUARY 27, 2018

As noted in January’s Hard Hat Chat post about commercial real estate trends shaping Englewood’s work in the year ahead, we expect 2018 will maintain the same strong momentum we’ve recently experienced working with owners and operators to update existing senior communities. What’s driving the uptick in renovation and remodeling activity in this sector?

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HardHatChat

JANUARY 15, 2018

Happy New Year to all of our Hard Hat Chat readers! As we flip the calendar over to 2018 this month, it’s a great time to share some of the commercial construction trends we predict will shape our work in the year ahead. #1: Grocery Sector Ripe for Change. The grocery sector has been keeping a steady pace in recent years, but it is definitely an area to watch in 2018.

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HardHatChat

DECEMBER 20, 2017

As we close in on the final days of 2017, it’s time once again for our annual commercial construction blog post reflecting back on the positives – and the negatives – that have impacted our business and the industry as a whole over the last 12 months. Here’s a rundown of our top commercial construction trends – both the “highs” and “lows” – from 2017: High – Guys and Dolls: Englewood Completes New American Girl Manhattan Flagship Store.

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Commercial Construction Retail New York 240

HardHatChat

DECEMBER 5, 2017

When it comes to choosing a site for a commercial construction or CRE project, finding the perfect match between a brand or concept and an available space is one of the most important steps in the planning process. And for business owners and developers looking for guidance as they vet different options, there’s no better “matchmaker” to consult than an experienced commercial contractor who can point out the pros and cons of a location and the construction considerations that can make or break a

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