How Juneau Construction Makes An Impact In The Competitive Southeast Building Market

When developer Core Spaces had a vision for a 19-story building to house students on a logistically challenging site in Atlanta, it turned to a general contractor with expertise in the sector and a reputation for client service.

Its choice paid off when Juneau Construction Co. saw to it that Hub Atlanta opened on schedule in August to welcome nearly 800 student residents near the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Vice President of Operations Greg Cornwell said Atlanta-based Juneau Construction has been providing best-in-class service since it was founded in 1997, serving clients in the multifamily, higher education, student housing, commercial, mixed-use and hospitality sectors. While universities remain an important part of its customer base, the company has expanded its portfolio to build high-rise multifamily, mixed-use, hospitality, office and student housing developments throughout the Southeast.

Hub Atlanta, like many new buildings, was designed and built to provide the maximum balance of space and density for developer Core Spaces and its residents. But no matter what type of project Juneau takes on, Cornwell said the company approaches it with the same expectations.

“When we show up on a project, we want to execute at the highest level, and that's across the board: We want to be the best partner, teammate and builder both to our clients and our trade partners,” Cornwell said. “We want to execute at a level that leaves everybody impressed and excited about building the next project with us.”

Cornwell said logistics were a special challenge on the Hub Atlanta job, both in terms of potential supply chain delays and because the tight urban site in Midtown Atlanta left little room for laydown space. Early involvement with the project team allowed Juneau to plan for and work around such obstacles.

“As with all our high-rise projects located on tight urban sites in densely populated cities, we supplement with the innovation and technology of our Virtual Design and Construction Department to proactively resolve any potential logistical challenges,” he said.

Juneau's experience in constructing student housing and higher education buildings — all schedule-critical facilities — allowed it to meet the building’s drop-dead opening in August, when several hundred new residents were scheduled to show up for the new school year.

“The students are moving in, and you’ve got to be done,” he said. “They don’t care that a shipping port had shut down, delaying shipments of critical materials like glass for the exterior skin. We've got to figure out how to overcome those delays and get the job done on time.”

Like other contractors, Juneau also has had to contend with a shortage of skilled labor. Cornwell said the company has found prefabrication, among other tools, to be a useful solution to surmounting the industry’s shortages of people and materials.

Working with subcontractor Southern Wall Systems, the GC installed prefabricated exterior wall panels on Hub Atlanta. Cornwell said the factory-manufactured panels helped the team meet its aggressive schedule on a site that didn’t have much room for storage.

“This took a lot of coordination upfront, before we ever got to the construction phase, but because they're built in a controlled factory setting, there's less waste, fewer man-hours on-site, and it makes for a much safer job site,” he said. “All of those factors made prefabrication the right decision to deliver best-in-class service on the Atlanta project.” 

Cornwell said Juneau has applied similar strategies to other recent projects, including Society Atlanta, a 31-story mixed-use structure whose construction got underway earlier this year, and Grove Central, a 1M SF, 23-story mixed-use and transit-oriented development in Miami.

“Project success is about exceeding client expectations, having the right efficiencies in the field and trying to prefabricate anything we can in a factory setting, where we're not dependent on the weather and job site conditions, to save the team and the client time and money down the line,” he said. “All of this plays a major role in helping us provide more predictable outcomes.”

Whether Juneau is solving logistical problems or using prefabrication to save the client time and money, Cornwell said teamwork is key to providing best-in-class service. 

“The most important thing for us is to get involved early in the design process and then work closely with the design team and the owner to help guide the design and schedule to maximize efficiency and stay within budget and time constraints,” he said. “This is the key to getting deals done in the current market, and we will continue to be an advocate and partner to our clients to help get deals to pencil.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Juneau Construction Co. and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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