Project Spotlight: Avion Water
Griffin Construction was hired to build a new 6,700 sqft. office building on an undeveloped site in Bend, Oregon. The team broke ground in May of 2021, in the midst of the COVID supply chain crisis. Procurement became the first challenge for the team to overcome, not only to ensure material availability at the time of install, but also to lock in pricing and prevent runaway cost escalation from impacting the project.
Avion Water Company is a local private utility provider in Deschutes and Crook counties. Due to the critical nature of the operations, and the need to provide uninterrupted water service to their customers, Griffin installed an emergency backup generator to seamlessly keep their pump controls and monitoring equipment active during a power outage. The building consists of several private and semi-private offices, open office space, and a crew room for field personnel. The design provides the additional office space Avion needed to support operations, with the flexibility to adjust with them as the business evolves.
Griffin was able to complete this project in less than 10 months despite the supply chain crisis and workforce shortages. Our key to success was maintaining control over the schedule by self-performing large portions of the project. This protected the Owner and Griffin from “market forces” that would have delayed completion. Another win for this project is we came in about $300k under our budget and will be giving back about half the un-used contingency allotted for this project saving the owner money is always a plus.