While ONE executives initially intended to build a new factory from the ground up, looming deadlines prompted the search for a building that could be retrofitted to meet the stringent requirements of a battery facility. The search turned up a 660,000 SF precast warehouse distribution center already under construction. The facility’s core and shell exterior, parking lot, and landscaping were complete when the KIRCO MANIX-Ghafari team stepped in to execute the Phase 1 building within a building.

“When you walk in, you literally see another building inside,” said KIRCO MANIX Senior Project Manager Duane Allison. “The building within the building is something you don’t typically see in manufacturing or commercial, because in the environment to build batteries, you can’t just move into a building with four walls and a roof and say, we’re going to condition the air in that building to get to where we need. And that controlled space has to be a manufactured box, so to speak, with walls and a roof where you can control humidity, temperature, and parts per million for the HEPA filters.”