TOP PROJECTS - 6-20

6) Miami Intermodal Center, Rental Car Center and Associated Ramps
Cost: $$325.5 million

Florida firms have heard about the $1.4 billion Miami Intermodal Center for years, and now it’s finally becoming reality. Located across from Miami International Airport, the MIC is a massive transportation hub that will provide connectivity between a variety of ground transportation types, including rail.

Turner Construction Co. won the first major portion of the MIC, a $325.5 million contract to build the Rental Car Center and associated ramps. The four-level RCC will measure approximately 3.4 million sq ft and provide ready/return rental car service, fleet storage and fueling and washing facilities. The facility will also include a customer service lobby for 16 rental car companies. Additionally, Turner will oversee roadway improvements, including site utilities, lighting, signalization and elevated pavement for the MIC’s terminal access roadways.

7) Met 2
Cost: $310 million

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Suffolk Construction Co. of West Palm Beach is the contractor for the Met 2 office and hotel in downtown Miami. The project will feature 753,200 sq ft of Class A office space in a 47-story tower. This space will be linked to the 42-story Marquis, a JW Marriott Collection Hotel with 376 guest rooms. The two towers will rise from an 18-story, 833,883-sq-ft podium that includes the office and hotel lobbies, nearly 18,000 sq ft of column-free ballroom and meeting space, ground-level retail shops, restaurant and lounge and 1,500-space parking garage.

Suffolk reports the project team is planning to obtain LEED Silver certification.

8) Bonnet Creek Resort
Cost: $277.8 million

While the start of the new Hilton near the Orange County Convention Center grabbed big headlines when it happened, there was actually a bigger hospitality project, also involving Hilton, moving forward in Orlando. Hunt Construction Group, one of the nation’s largest hospitality contractors, is building this project, which includes a 1.4-million-gross-sq-ft hotel with two towers, including a 634,388-sq-ft, 17-story Hilton with 1,000 rooms and a 532,337-sq-ft, 14-story Waldorf-Astoria with 500 rooms. Hunt’s contract also includes construction of a 265,898-sq-ft, two-story conference center.

9) Military Barracks Project, Fort Benning, Ga
Cost: $243.9 million

This design-build Military Barracks project at Fort Benning, Ga., is the first task order of a $500 million Single Award Task Order Contract (SATOC) awarded to the joint venture of Clark/Caddell.The contract includes approximately 200 acres of combined sitework and construction, with work taking place at two different sites. The Sand Hill site will be an addition to existing trainee facilities, and the Harmony Church site will be a new development of trainee facilities.

Each site will consist of a basic-training complex to serve two battalions and will require 10 two-story barracks buildings, two battalion headquarters buildings, one dining facility and two consolidated lawn maintenance and battalion storage buildings.Additionally, each site will have two running tracks and 10 physical training pits.A brigade headquarters building and parade field will be constructed at the Harmony Church site.

10) Shands Cancer Hospital, University of Florida
Cost: $242 million

The largest health-care project on this year’s Top Projects list is Skanska USA Building’s construction of a nine-story, 480,000-sq-ft patient tower expansion for Shands HealthCare at the University of Florida. The new tower will provide 192 additional private rooms, diagnostic and therapeutic oncology care, burn ICU, SICU to support operating rooms, general surgery beds, operating suite of 12 rooms and support areas, level-1 trauma center with helipad, expandable central energy plant, site utility infrastructure and 900-space parking garage.

The Shands Cancer Hospital project is pursuing LEED certification.

11) Hilton Orlando Convention Center
Cost: $205 million

When announced, the Hilton Orlando Convention Center project was one of the biggest hospitality projects to start moving forward in the entire country. And it will definitely be a major addition to Orlando’s tourism corridor near the Orange County Convention Center.

WELBRO of Maitland is managing the construction of this 1,400-room, 18-story, 1.6-million-sq-ft hotel and convention meeting facility. The hotel will include 77,595 sq ft of ballroom space, 33,630 sq ft of meeting space and 6,097 sq ft of boardroom space.

A four-level, 844-space parking garage will connect to a 264-space, two-level valet parking garage located adjacent to the hotel’s front-drive entrance.

12) Interstate 20/I-520 Interchange Reconstruction
Cost: $191.9 million

The Southeast’s second-biggest highway project to move forward in 2007 consists of 6.25 mi of widening for additional lanes along Interstate 20; addition of collector-distributor lanes along eastbound and westbound Interstate 520 and eastbound I-20; and reconstruction of the I-20 / I-520 interchange including the addition of two flyover ramps and a grade-separated interchange at Scott Nixon Memorial Parkway and I-520.

The reconstruction of the Interstate 20/I-520 interchange is designed to replace the existing interchange configuration, increase capacity and reduce area noise pollution.

The project includes increased stormwater retention to reduce discharges into Cranes Creek Drainage Basin as well as the installation of sound walls.

13) Plant Scherer Unit 3
Cost: $187 million

BE&K Construction won contracts totaling $187 million for this project near Macon, Ga. The job involves the engineering, procurement and construction of fabric filter (baghouse) systems and the associated ductwork, steel, foundations and other related equipment for Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer Unit 3, a 900 MW coal-fired power plant.

BE&K is providing the project management and construction services, and WorleyParsons Corp. is providing engineering services. BE&K has also been selected to provide similar services for the other three 900 MW units at the site.

14) Prospect Park
Cost: $184.7 million

VCC is moving forward on the largest retail-focused mixed-use development on this year’s Top Projects list. Prospect Park is a high-end mixed-use development consisting of 600,000 sq ft of retail space, 285,000 sq ft of office space and three parking garages with more than 3,200 spaces. The development will be anchored by a Whole Foods grocery store and a theater complex.

15) Mercato
Cost: $165 million

Yet another major mixed-use retail center is under construction in Naples, Fla., where Hoar Construction is building the Mercato. Compared to Prospect Park, this project is slightly more “mixed,” with less retail and office space in lieu of an additional residential component. The development will include 350,000 sq ft of retail, 140,000 sq ft of Class “A” office space and 92 residential units.

It will be anchored by a 50,000-sq-ft Whole Foods market and will also include an 11-screen cinema with a full restaurant inside. The center includes ground-level parking and two separate parking decks with spaces for more than 2,300 cars.

16 (tie) Sarasota Hospital Central Energy Plant and Patient Tower
Cost: $160 million

Skanska also is leading the second-largest health-care project on this year’s Top Projects ranking, the new Central Energy Plant and Patient Tower Expansion at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

The central energy plant will contain four new chillers totaling 5,000 tons of cooling capacity, three new steam boilers, a chilled-water pumping system, five new cooling towers and four new emergency generators. The structure will be hardened to withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds.

The patient tower will house expanded services for pediatrics, labor and delivery, orthopedics, cardiology, women’s services, infant care and oncology services. There also will be 160 new beds and additional isolation rooms.

16 (tie) Dames Point Container Terminal
Cost: $160 million

The project consists of the development of approximately 158 acres of infrastructure for a new marine container terminal. Approximately 1.5 million yds of dredge material from the St. Johns River will be removed and used to bring the site to grade elevation, with the excess and spoils being deposited in holding cells. A docking facility more than .5 mi long will be constructed along the shoreline to accommodate the ship-unloading cranes.

The project scope includes installation of all underground utilities, including stormwater conveyance, water pipes, sanitary-sewer pipes, conduits and duct banks for power and communications. The site will receive approximately 146 acres of stone base and asphalt paving and striping.

18 (tie) Trump Hollywood
Cost: $150 million

The highest-ranked condominium project on this year’s list is the 42-story Trump Hollywood under construction in Hollywood Beach by Coastal Construction. The 228-unit, 986,000 sq-ft structure is made up of post-tension slabs, masonry, stucco and glass exterior. A four-story precast garage also is being built.

The condominium units feature flow-through floor plans that showcase views of both the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway. The project includes two penthouses with more than 7,000 sq ft. The two- to five-bedroom residences range from 2,000 to 5,000 sq ft.Terraces add another 400 to 1,000 sq ft.

The development also will feature a two-story lobby that opens to an ocean-front pool deck and spa with 34 cabanas.

18 (tie) Hilton Pompano Beach Resort
Cost: $150 million

Yet another hospitality project involving Hilton is the Pompano Beach Resort project, under way on Highway A1A in Pompano Beach. This six-acre parcel is divided by Highway A1A, with the east side providing ocean frontage and the west side facing the Intracoastal Waterway.

Hilton Hotels will have a 10-story, 256-room oceanfront hotel and another 250-room structure on the west parcel with an accompanying marina.

The east hotel will feature a 6,500-sq-ft ballroom, 5,000 sq ft of meeting space, spa and exercise facilities and full-service restaurant. A pedestrian bridge over A1A will connect the hotels. The parking structure will be lined with garden-style guest rooms on the A1A frontage.

18 (tie) Halifax Medical Center Expansion
Cost: $150 million

Halifax Medical Center’s $150 million expansion marks the facility’s first addition of private rooms to the hospital’s main campus, located about 1 mi from the Daytona International Speedway. (Southeast Construction, April 2008)

The project includes a 10-story, 180-bed, 540,000-sq-ft tower addition with a new emergency department that is four times as big as the existing one. All new rooms will be private and will be able to accommodate all levels of patient treatment so a patient will not have to be transferred to a different area of the hospital.

The structure will house the hospital’s new main entrance and will connect to the existing main building.

18 (tie) Brickell Financial Centre
Cost: $150 million

The 40-story Class A Brickell Financial Centre office tower’s core and shell have been “pre-certified” under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program. The project team hopes to obtain silver- or gold-level LEED certification upon completion. Along with offices, it will also feature restaurants and retail space, along with a 30,000-sq.-ft. public plaza. The project is touted as being modeled after New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza.

The 1.1 million sq-ft tower’s frame features a hybrid structural design of concrete and steel, which has helped expedite the schedule. A concrete core centers the structure from its base to its roof. The first 12 floors feature post-tensioned reinforced concrete floor slabs. From floor 12 on, the balance of the framing is structural steel.