Royal Capital, Alderman Russell Stamper II and Greenfire hosted a construction job fair for the Phillis Wheatley School Redevelopment. This was the second job fair the team hosted for the project and more than 20 individuals were in attendance. The job fair was hosted at the Social Development Commission in Milwaukee with the goal aimed at pairing local residents with employment opportunities for the project and with partnered subcontractors. Eleven project subcontractors were in attendance in addition to several certifying agencies including Milwaukee’s Resident Preference Program, Youth Build and Section 3 Job Training agencies.

We’re proud to take an active role in employing local residents and engaging businesses and organizations to deliver quality projects to our immediate communities.

Gateway Lofts is a new housing development in Kenosha, WI. The project consists of an adaptive reuse of a former medical office building into residential housing and new construction of four townhome-style buildings. The site is adjacent to Gateway Technical College on 30^th Avenue and provides affordable and accessible housing for students, faculty, and Kenosha-area residents.

A groundbreaking in July 2021 marked the beginning of construction with interior demolition of the existing office building completed shortly after. The building sits at the southeast corner of the site bounded by residential single-family homes directly to the east and operational businesses to the west. The project team is converting the two-story office building into 42 units ranging from one to two-bedroom units. Amenities include community laundry rooms on each floor with a fitness room on the lower floor and community space and manager/leasing office on the first floor. The lower-floor houses six units with the first and second floor housing eighteen units each. Currently, the team is completing drywall and taping on the second floor with cabinetry and interior finishes ongoing throughout the building. Flooring installation is ongoing for the lower floor as the team progresses upward throughout January.

The four two-story townhomes sit at the north end of the site totaling 28 additional units. New construction includes two eight-unit buildings (B and C), two six-unit buildings (D and E) and four detached garages housing 31 parking stalls. Building B is the furthest along as it is fully framed with the roof and brick veneer installation complete. Siding is scheduled to begin first week of January. All MEFP installation is complete with drywall installation beginning the last week of December. Interior finishes and cabinetry installation follows shortly after drywall is complete. Building C is the other eight-unit townhome with framing and roof truss installation ongoing. Build-out for the rest of the building follows that of Building B, beginning with rough MEP installation. Concrete slab on grade for Buildings D and E is complete with framing beginning once Building C is complete. Each building is turned over individually with the entire project scheduled for Summer 2022 completion.

As with every build, there are unique challenges and situations to overcome; however, one that stays consistent throughout is navigating and coordinating delays and environmental concerns due to COVID. Despite this, the project team maintains the original schedule and keeps all vested parties informed. Some other unique situations are as follows:

• The owner contracted demolition of the existing building independently which required the project team to work closely with the owner to transfer management of contracts upon completion of demolition.
• The project sits on a tight and compact site with minimal staging area. With the limited availability of space, the project team consistently manages a changing logistics plan to accommodate and progress site, exterior, and interior work simultaneously.
• Due to weather conditions and operations of concrete and asphalt suppliers, the project team had a limited window to lay asphalt and concrete sitework. This required detailed coordination and communication between all on-site subcontractors to navigate a congested site and complete sitework while pushing framing ahead to achieve occupancy date.
• Conditions of the site includes operational businesses to the west and single-family homes to the east all while construction occurs along a high-traffic main city road with a single construction entrance. In order to minimize disruption to all concerning factors, the team designed a detailed site logistics plan to mitigate risk, coordinate communications, and maintain a safe and efficient build.

Overall, we are very pleased with the progress of Gateway Lofts to this point and would like to thank Land Quest for selecting Greenfire as the construction manager. The Greenfire project team includes Mike Smith, Project Manager, Dave Kwiatkowski, Superintendent, and Mitch Berti, Project Engineer. We are incredibly proud of our team’s drive, vigor, and innovation to manage this project effectively and look forward to seeing the final product.

The team got together again for our annual Greenfire Ugly Sweater Competition and White Elephant gift exchange. The Milwaukee office got in the holiday spirit and donned our ugly sweaters to exchange white elephant gifts and vote on our favorite ugly sweaters. Congratulations to Brett Christofferson on winning the Milwaukee office Ugly Sweater contest and Sherrie Harenda on winning the Wausau office contest!

For the fifth year in a row, Greenfire was named by Midwest Real Estate News Magazine in their Top Construction Companies list. Each year, the publication honors the top commercial real estate and construction companies in a nine-state proximity for their year-end Best of the Best feature. This year, we came in as the #41 construction company in the Midwest, up eleven spots from the previous year. We are proud to be included as a top midwestern construction company alongside other notable Midwest firms and continue to pursue our vision to be a recognized leader in optimizing construction solutions.

View online publication.

Greenfire attended WEDC’s 40th Annual MARKETPLACE Conference and are thrilled to announce we were awarded the Highest Certified Spend for Construction/Architecture and Engineering with the State of Wisconsin in fiscal year 2021. This is the second consecutive year Greenfire received The Governor’s Award recognition for the largest spend of a minority owned business. The award was presented by Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes along with members of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. The Conference also included an exhibition hall where we were able to connect with other local and minority owned firms and present Greenfire as a viable construction partner throughout the State of Wisconsin. It is an honor to receive the recognition as an established construction company with a further capacity to grow and expand. We are Builders of the Future, but we don’t do it alone. Thank you to our ownership – the Potawatomi Business Development Corporation, to our team of employees across the state, to our customers, and finally to our many partners in the industry and network of amazing subcontractors for contributing to our success!

In partnership with Rafael Gracia, Greenfire hosted the Associated in Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) program and WCREW for a property tour and Q&A at the recently finished 37^th Street School senior apartments. Alexandra Don, an Associate Attorney at AVK Law, led the discussion and asked questions pertaining to project development and financing to construction and building challenges. A group of about 25 were in attendance who were also able to ask their own questions and learn more about the building and the entire process. The tour concluded with refreshments and a networking session. Greenfire project team members who participated in the tour included Paul Hackbarth, Director of Construction, Gage Christianson, Project Manager, and Angelo Rodriguez, Assistant Superintendent.

The Spark | November 2021 2022

No “fowl” play in November for Greenfire. The month was stuffed with quite a few highlights and plenty to be thankful for. We celebrated a groundbreaking and a ribbon cutting, presented the 2021 Urban Spaceship Conference, and presented our best collection yet for an annual community drive. Also, be sure to check out this month’s project spotlight which gives an in-depth overview of the Forest County Potawatomi Community Center.

Read more in our November 2021 edition of The Spark.