Discussing Building Trends

President and CEO says company delivering on client flex-space needs.

By Anthony Birritteri, Editor-in-Chief On Nov 23, 2016

Because of the internet and ramifications of the past recession, companies are consolidating their office spaces. According to Michael Walsh, president and CEO of Parsippany-based Corporate Contracting, Inc. (CCI), “Business dynamics have changed and businesses don’t need the space to accommodate thousands of people, anymore.”

He comments that office flex-space projects are the hot commodity for contractors. There is also the trend in which warehouse/distribution facilities now house main business offices. Walsh calls this the hybrid approach where companies “run their entire business and warehouse operations at one site.”

CCI, which reports revenues of $20 million, has been busy with these and other projects throughout the state. The company, with a staff of 37 employees, handles general contracting, construction management, site development and more, with clients including Rutgers University, MSNBC, CBRE, BASF, Accenture and UBS, to name a few.

For Major League Baseball (MLB), CCI installed a state-of-the-art, 9,000-square-foot studio in Secaucus, part of a larger 33,000-square-foot project for MLB that the company undertook at the site. Working under a tight deadline to have the studio ready by MLB’s opening day, Walsh says, “CCI was hired for a simple reason … we meet deadlines.”

MLB executives were telling Walsh that the project couldn’t be done, based on opinions from other contractors. To which Walsh responded, “Anything could be done if you make the right investments in the project.” From a triple redundant electrical system and air conditioning system to a sound attenuation design that Walsh calls amazing (the studio is built with 13 layers of sound proofing materials between walls and the hallway, while the floor sits on 600 car springs to isolate or minimize vibrations), CCI was responsible for all of this infrastructure work. The project was such a success that CCI built a studio for the National Hockey League (NHL) at the facility.

CCI was recently responsible for a full-building fit out for IMS Health in Parsippany. “The company basically moved its world headquarters to Route 80, relocating people from Connecticut as well as moving in new employees from acquired businesses,” Walsh explains.

He says an industry challenge is still the long-ranging impact of the Great Recession. The industry is very competitive and profits margins are low, he says. However, he sees the warehouse/distribution sector continuing its boom because of the growth of online shopping. What is driving this in the region is the metropolitan area’s mass population and the proximity to the ports of New York and New Jersey.

 

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