DPR Delivers Consistent, Quality Service by Fitting the Right Team for the Job to Meet Customers’ Needs and Exceed Expectations

Whether it is a simple, $1,800 countertop installation or a complex $100 million corporate campus project, customers expect and receive the same value-added service from DPR. In fact, on many occasions, the relationships formed through DPR’s work on smaller jobs have led to some of the company’s landmark projects.

DPR didn’t open its doors 12 years ago and start working on $50 million, $100 million jobs,” said Mike Ballou, who leads DPR’s Special Services Group (SSG) in Redwood City, CA.

“We started with smaller projects and grew alongside some of our clients,” added Ballou. “The Special Services Group is like a ‘full circle’ back to the early days. SSG helps to maintain the small, entrepreneurial company feeling that we foster at DPR, where people make a real difference and every customer - big and small - is equally valued.”

Formally established in late 1998, SSG in Redwood City handles projects ranging from $1,000 to $5 million. In just three years, SSG has posted annual volumes between $45 and $52 million and has been so successful that other seven DPR offices have also launched specialized groups to handle a target range of small- to mid-size projects (see page four).

According to Ballou, DPR started SSG as a result of direct feedback from some of its larger commercial customers. Some customers felt DPR had outgrown them and others wanted the same level of professionalism, service and quality that they had come to expect on larger projects.

“Different size jobs often require a different set of skills from the team,” explained Ballou. “For example, the skill set required of a superintendent working out in the field on a large ground up project that runs 18 months or more, might not be the best person to efficiently handle a corporate TI (tenant improvement) in an occupied space with only a six-week schedule. Through SSG, we’re able to assemble the right people for the smaller jobs, which often come with lack of documentation, tight schedules and budgets, and restricted access. The group provides consistent service to our customers in all of DPR’s primary markets from biotech to corporate to entertainment.”

Ballou noted that SSG is also an ideal training ground for people - young project managers, project engineers and superintendents - who are just several years into their construction careers. “When you start, run and closeout four, six or ten projects a year, you become very efficient and learn quickly how to manage schedules, dollars and, most importantly, customer expectations,” he said.

High-End Finishes and High Security

Effectively managing customer expectations played a key role in one of SSG’s most challenging projects last year, a 14,000-sq.-ft. renovation of an industrial design studio in Cupertino, CA for one of the world’s most innovative computer companies.

“The CEO was personally involved in the approval process for every part of this extremely sensitive project, which included a large number of high-end, custom finishes from the floor to the walls to the ceiling,” said Anna Hochberg, a project manager for SSG. Completed in an aggressive five months, the project, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson of Pittsburgh, PA, featured an industrial concrete floor that incorporated zinc strips typically used in terrazzo and specialized metal perforated ceiling panels in various shapes and sizes, as well as full-height laminated glass partition walls and glass doors with Blumcraft door pulls.

“Security was also a top priority as the owner was concerned about public knowledge of products and design,” said Hochberg. “After we completed a majority of the project and the owner started to move equipment into the studio, we had to schedule visits to our own project site ahead of time to complete equipment connections. This allowed the owner’s project manager enough notice to cover up all of the new products they were designing before we entered the facility.”

“We’re used to operating in restricted areas,” added Ballou. “For all of our biotech clients, we have master contracts and security badging, so we can begin projects within 24 hours, rather than having to wait two to three weeks to obtain access to enter their facilities. For these projects, we also offer the same project team as often as possible - individuals who are familiar with the facility and its users. Naturally, providing the same people also helps to establish strong client relationships.”

Building Trust

Consistent quality service on smaller jobs over the years for customers, such as Sun Microsystems, Genentech, Guidant, LSI Logic, Rockwell and IDEC, has led to opportunities to build larger projects.

“Our whole relationship with IDEC started with tenant improvements that we completed for Alexandria Real Estate,” said Jay Leopold of DPR in San Diego. DPR is currently serving as construction manager on IDEC’s new 400,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in Oceanside, CA. “We worked directly with IDEC, which was one of Alexandria’s tenants, and the scope of work kept increasing and moving into other existing facilities. They got to know us and learned to trust us on the smaller projects and, as the scope of their needs expanded along with their growth, that relationship became a factor in selecting a builder for their larger projects.”

DPR’s relationship with Sun also started in a similar fashion, with a mid-size job that has grown and expanded into more than 100 projects across the nation over the last five years. The projects for Sun have ranged from skylight coverings and damage repair to office space conversions and laboratory expansions to the build out of a 150,000-sq.-ft. engineering site in Austin and a new 680,000-sq.-ft., six-building corporate campus in Newark, CA.

“DPR really knows the client,” said Jacki June Horton, vice president with Jones Lang LaSalle, who has worked with DPR’s SSG in Redwood City as the project manager for Sun’s properties throughout the Bay Area. “As a result, DPR project managers are better able to anticipate any changes or additions in the building process and have contingency plans in place, which is very valuable, especially on tight deadline projects. A contractor that knows to expect the unexpected is the best type of contractor you can use.”

Austin

$2,000 to $2 million
Selected Client List: SBC Technology Resources, Ambion, Guidant, Southwest Airlines, Dell, Motorola, CarrAmerica, & University of Texas at Austin

Denver

$2,000 to $2 million
Selected Client List: Janus, North Colorado Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center, Itros Capital, Jos A. Banks & Fillmore Plaza (Frederick Ross)

Phoenix

$1,000 to $2 million
Selected Client List: Merrill Lynch, ClearChannel Entertainment, Shell Oil Company, Ameriscan, Trammell Crow, Cigna Healthcare & The Travelers

Pleasanton

$2,000 to $1 million
Selected Client List: Thoratec, IKEA, Cingular & Zyomyx

Redwood City

$2,000 to $5 million and above
Selected Client List: Guidant, First Baptist Church of Los Altos, Sun Microsystems, Greater Bay Bancorp, Digidesign, Siebel, Alza & Apple

Sacramento

$2,000 to $2 million
Selected Client List: Barclays Global Investors, Blue Shield of California, Equity Office Properties, E*Trade, DST Innovis & Radiological Associates of Sacramento

San Diego

$2,000 to $5 million
Selected Client List: ScrippsHealth, Nordstrom, The Scripps Research Institute, Raytheon, Ligand, Nanogen, General Atomics & SMAC

San Jose

$2,000 to $3 million and above
Selected Client List: Sares Regis, Novell, Shappell Industries, Camino Medical Group & KLA/Tencor