New Toyota Dealership Shines

Sierra Construction recently completed the new Titus-Will Toyota dealership in Tacoma. The project involved the construction of a new 53,000 sf dealership to replace an existing new car sales building.

The new facility includes showrooms for both Toyota and Scion, a 3-lane service drive up, a 3 bay quick-lube pit, a 25-bay service facility with in-ground lifts, a 9,000 square foot parts storage area on two floors, administrative and dealer office and conference/training areas.

The Sierra team broke ground in mid-winter 2010 and the owner moved into the building on October 23, 2010. Sierra was brought on board early to participate in the design process to help direct project focus and to control construction costs.

“Sierra’s realistic estimating and scheduling allowed us to evaluate critical options during the design phase. The outcome of this collaboration was a solid design with few alterations during construction. Early involvement by Sierra led to an on time completion and to a cost under our original estimates” said Todd Ward, owners representative.

Sierra was able to construct this complex building in 8 months from start of construction to owner move-in. “A big part of this is credited to Sierra’s structure crew who overcame adverse weather conditions and site grades changes while still maintaining an aggressive project schedule and producing very high quality concrete work”, said Jim Riley, Sr. Project Manager for Sierra.

The building is a structural steel frame with aluminum-composite metal panel and tilt-up concrete skin. It was designed and constructed in accordance with Toyota and Gensler’s (Toyota’s corporate architect) requirements to ensure compliance with Toyota’s Image 2012 program, whereby dealers are to update their buildings to meet corporate aesthetic and functional requirements.

It was initially assumed that the existing Titus-Will new car building would need to be demolished to allow for construction. However, Sierra worked with the civil engineer to produce an overlay drawing of the new and existing structures, and were able to develop a partial demolition plan which allowed the existing building to remain operational during construction. Bob Carrasco, Sierra’s Project Superintendent, observed, “they only had to lose their service drive-up canopy, and all they had to do there was flip the service drive over to the other side of the building”. This was a major benefit to Titus-Will, with literally no downtime at all during construction.

Sierra and the design-build MEP subcontractors worked together with Helix Architects, the structural and civil engineers and the Toyota personnel to coordinate all design detail and facets of construction to ensure timely delivery of the project.

Sierra’s project team included Jim Riley, Justin Kirk and Bob Carasco. Subcontractor involvement included Tucci & Sons – earthwork/utilities/paving,
Stellar Structures – steel erection, Sound Glass – storefront/curtainwall, Sessler – drywall, Commercial Interiors – flooring and tile, Patriot Fire Protection – sprinklers, All Phase Plumbing – plumbing, Evergreen Refrigeration – HVAC and SME Electric – electrical/fire alarm.