Cushman & Wakefield and Everclear Enterprises

Property Management Company: Cushman & Wakefield and Everclear Enterprises

Cushman & Wakefield and Everclear Enterprises received the 2022 Excellence in Collaborative Service Award from Commercial Real Estate Insight Journal. The award was created to recognize an exemplary partnership between a real estate product or service provider and a single property or real estate management company. Building management teams and product/service providers often collaborate to improve operational efficiency, environmental sustainability, tenant care, and more. This award was created to recognize excellence in this type of collaboration. 

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Cushman & Wakefield, at the time of receiving the award, was one of the largest commercial real estate services firms in the world, with approximately 52,000 employees in more than 400 offices in approximately 60 countries.  

Since it was founded in 1993, Everclear Enterprises, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has grown to become a specialty and architectural contracting company offering numerous services for building envelopes, parking structures, and numerous other commercial, manufacturing, and industrial facilities.  

Parking Deck Rehabilitation  

The parking deck at 3379 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia required prompt mitigative repairs, including spalled concrete and structural repairs. Over the course of the repairs, Everclear’s team removed and replaced thousands of square feet of concrete, formed and poured 36 double tee stem enlargements, and installed 40 new drop panels and 230 linear feet of vehicular guardrail. They also performed joint sealant work and installed new expansion joints and a traffic coating membrane. 

“Cushman & Wakefield and Everclear have worked together in the past, on both small and large projects,” said Lezly Robinson, General Manager with Cushman & Wakefield. “We had established a relationship with Everclear over time. When we decided to do this project, we were able to build on our prior experience together and after a competitive bidding process, we moved forward with them.” 

This $1,000,000-plus project presented challenges due to the deck’s location in the heart of Atlanta’s Buckhead submarket. The most significant challenges were noise issues and logistical phasing, as extensive work had to be performed over the high traffic ticket booth at the main entrance of the deck. Everclear overcame these challenges by building custom overhead protection on both sides of the ticket booth, ensuring no interruption to traffic flow and no lost revenue from the parking deck. 

To mitigate noise from drop panel work, Cushman & Wakefield and Everclear Enterprises collaborated with tenants to agree on performing heavy demo work, such as drilling and concrete chipping, during select hours, since after-hours work was not an option due to a residential noise ordinance set by the City of Atlanta. 

Collaborative Results  

The results achieved from the collaboration were extensive. Critical components of the parking deck structure were properly repaired and new structural concrete was formed and poured to provide strength for the vehicular guardrail system, as well as providing additional support for the cast-in-place section of the parking deck. Furthermore, select areas of the parking deck structure were waterproofed to protect vital components and connections of the deck. 

Communication was key to the success of the project, with weekly meetings and project updates between Cushman & Wakefield and Everclear Enterprises proving vital to keeping all parties on the same page. Project updates were emailed weekly to inform all parties involved of completed work; the schedule for the following week; and a two-week look-ahead schedule. 

The project at 3379 Peachtree Street highlighted the importance of communication, showing that open and regular communication is essential to manage expectations and produce a quality project. 

“Whenever we get into a situation like this where we are working on a very large, very complex project, I am thankful that the time to build a relationship has already been invested,” said Jenifer Wright, Director of Business Development with Everclear Enterprises. “We aren’t building that relationship as we approach the project, we already have that rapport established. Invest the time now, prove yourself on smaller projects and develop those relationships before going into large, complex projects.” 

Through their regular communication, flexibility in addressing and overcoming unique challenges, thoughtful solutions to keep revenue streams open, and impressive collaboration, Cushman & Wakefield and Everclear Enterprises received the 2022 Excellence in Collaborative Service Award from CRE Insight Journal.