AL GELATO
Krause Construction was selected as the General Contractor for the Al Gelato manufacturing facility in Franklin Park IL. The project consisted of converting an existing 25,000 square foot masonry & steel building into a Gelato factory which produced various Gelato products, quick froze and packaged for retail, restaurants and airlines.
Project Scope
The basis of this project was a 25,000 square foot renovation project which required the demolition of portions of the interior of the building. The new scope of work involved additional mechanical & refrigeration systems, electrical, plumbing and fire protection utilities. The existing structural steel roof was reinforced to accommodate the additional mechanicals located on the roof. Additional scope included a 5000 square foot freezer, Nitrogen Tunnel freezer, boiler room, cook room and refrigerated production room.
Planning
Krause was awarded the project through competitive bidding, however, because of the logistics of coordinating all of the mechanical subs, Krause presented a plan that met the owner’s expectations.
Construction
Much of the interior concrete floor was scheduled to be removed in the production and freezer areas. This created limited areas available to complete rough mechanicals in a timely manner. Because of the complexity of the new MEP work we divided the project into 2 phases within the schedule in order to give all trades access to the facility being able to have manpower on site at all times.
The owner provided all the manufacturing equipment along with the assembly and final connections. Krause worked with and coordinated the owner’s contractors in our schedule to keep the project moving forward at all times. Midway through the construction, the owners changed their production process and added several pieces of equipment, including a boiler room and a room for their sugar cooking process. This portion of the work required many hours of moving and adding utilities required for this equipment. Krause, along with the architect and owner worked to make every piece fit within the remaining floor space available.