Citigroup Financial Center – Buffalo, NY

Property Description

Citigroup North America –  540 & 580 CrossPoint Parkway, Amherst, NY 14068

The Challenge

Citigroup North America selected Uniland Development Company to design and build a new Western New York financial center within Uniland’s CrossPoint Business Park. Because Citi would be relocating employees from another office building, Uniland needed to complete construction in time for Citi to occupy the new office workspace before its existing lease expired. Three months into the design phase, Citi increased the project size from 90,600 SF to 107,300 SF, almost 20%, and the time frame remained the same.

Strategy

Uniland’s design and construction teams would need to focus on several fronts to continue to fast-track the project while integrating the additional office square footage into its design, engineering, and specifications. To avoid incurring construction delays, Uniland selected readily available building materials and worked cooperatively with municipal officials to quickly receive regulatory approval for expanding the project. Uniland also relied heavily on its construction manager and site superintendent to coordinate activity among the construction trades.

Results

Uniland successfully met the challenge by completing this construction project within a tight 12-month timeline. It was able to reduce lead times by sourcing readily available materials and adjusted the project size without construction delays by leveraging relationships with local officials. Extensive coordination on site also expedited project delivery.

As an indication of its satisfaction with the project, Citigroup quickly added a Phase II office space expansion at 580 CrossPoint. Although this project included $4 million in change orders from Citi, Uniland delivered the three-story, 157,733 SF office building five months ahead of schedule so Citi could occupy it in April 2008. Both buildings feature redundant HVAC systems as well as emergency back-up power to support the highly technical business systems and capabilities of Citigroup. Coordination between Citi, local and state officials, and Empire Zone representatives brought 600 new jobs to the Buffalo Niagara Region.