Projects

Currently in progress, Kalahari Resort is a 975-room hotel and a 200,000 square foot convention center inside a 1.5 million-square-foot resort. When completed in late 2020, it will boast America’s largest waterpark that will feature an indoor theme park, six full-service restaurants, a piano bar, full spa, delis, pizzerias and retail space. The Porter Co. is currently contracted on the hotel and the waterpark.

The Porter Co. is ensuring quality distribution systems are installed efficiently throughout the Hotel Towers, further participating in developing a schedule alongside all other trades that will allow a timely completion of the project.

Situated in the heart of downtown Austin, across the street from the convention center, the White Lodging hotel features over 600 guestrooms, 62,000 square feet of meeting space, three levels of below grade parking, and elevated dining concepts unlike anywhere else in the city. Additionally, the hotel includes a 7th floor rooftop deck with a pool, bar, a contemporary modern American restaurant, and a grab-and-go market.

With the project scheduled to conclude in the summer of 2020, The Porter Co.’s project management team has found itself ahead of schedule. We attribute our success to planning for efficiency. One of our biggest successes has been stocking guestroom floors. We subcontracted out delivery and setting of the VFCUs and shower pans. This allowed us to ship everything to our subcontractor and dial in the delivery for after-hours which put us on a once per week delivery per floor which made the project smoother.

Additionally, we sent guestroom plumbing fixtures to our shop to be unpacked, preassembled, and staged on carts by floor. This ensured that we had everything we needed prior to installation on each floor and eliminated most of the packaging waste that otherwise would’ve needed to be removed by buck hoist.

Now officially the tallest building in the Austin city skyline, the Independent is a residential building containing 61 floors and 370 condominiums. Nicknamed the “Jenga Tower,” this 690 foot-tall skyscraper boasts amenities such as a heated pool, club room, fitness center, yoga deck, playground, and dog park.

Thinking fast on our feet, The Porter Co. team overcame a manufacturer defect by mobilizing a separate crew on the fly to focus solely on the issue while the rest of the team charged ahead, causing only minimal time lost. Additionally, we adapted to numerous architectural design changes while pushing ahead to finish the project.

The Independent is an excellent example of The Porter Co.’s mentality of tenacity, leadership, and focus.

3M Parmer 7.2 is a one-story, 128,771 square foot commercial office and lab finishout built in the new Parmer Technology and Research Park in North Austin.

The Porter Co. project management team stood up to tight scheduling requirements and worked with ACI to readjust schedule expectations. During the design/BIM process, our team worked hand-in-hand with MEJ to come up with a successful coordination plan. We brought our leadership skill to the project and turned over each phase to the owner on time.

The Aloft/Element Hotel in downtown Austin is a 34-story dual-branded hotel development. The LEED certified 278-room Aloft Austin Downtown and 144-suite Element Austin Downtown features a restaurant and bar with outdoor, street-level dining along Congress Ave and a 2nd floor open-air bar. The hotels share amenities including a street-level terrace overlooking Congrees Ave., an oversized 24-hour fitness center, and nearly 2,500 square feet of flexible meeting space.

Early on in the BIM coordination phase, we encountered unfinished design on the lower levels of the podium and kitchen areas. We shifted our original plan of attack to step aside and allow the design to be finished while we moved ahead on upper levels then revisited the lower levels when design was finished. This allowed us to keep the momentum going in order to stay on track.

One of the most important things we were able to bring to the project was our communication skill. We believe prompt and open communication is the only way forward when it comes to effective project management. This, along with a reciprocated belief from DPR, only strengthen our relationship and improved the project success of the Aloft/Element Hotel.