PROJECT UPDATE: USAA CROSSTOWN CENTER—PHASE 2

BIM rendering of the underground conduit and gear running from the West Building Main Electric Room (foreground) to the West Building risers that feed other floors (background).

 
Last year, DPR Construction awarded APG a $6 million electrical contract for the second phase of the USAA Crosstown Center in Tampa. APG was especially honored to have been chosen for Phase 2 of this project because the award was a testament to the outstanding service and quality we delivered during Phase 1. We completed that portion of the project in 2015, on time and within budget, and the next phase of construction is already well under way.
 
USAA is a financial services company that specializes in helping military families and veterans. It has a very long history in Florida and this massive new facility will be an expansion to its second permanent location in Tampa Bay. With over 250,000 square feet spread across five stories, the new building will provide enough office space to employ as many as 1,000 people. As USAA announced on its website, “This growth is part of the financial service provider’s strategy to meet the evolving needs of its growing membership by attracting the best people in talent-rich regions like Tampa.” With so many permanent jobs on the way, not to mention the hundreds created during construction, this project is a major win for USAA, DPR Construction, APG, and the local community.
 
In addition to the new office space, the project also includes a 7-story, 383,000 square foot parking garage. APG is providing electrical, fire alarm, and BIM coordination services. We will be installing over 140,000 linear feet of conduit, which is enough to stretch from the project location all the way to APG Lakeland! Because USAA provides a critical service, a 1250 kW emergency generator is being installed to provide backup power in case of severe weather. To provide additional backup beyond the generator, APG coordinated with the design team to devise a way to feed parts of the new building from the existing building’s UPS system. This tie-in requires a lot of planning and coordination and will involve carefully scheduled shutdowns of the existing UPS. Our team will be hard at work on this project for the rest of the year and on into 2019.
 
All of us at APG were excited to earn this contract and we greatly appreciate having been selected for a second time as USAA’s electrical contractor of choice. We are proud of the hard work of our project manager, Anthony Ciquera, our superintendent, Josh Falini, and the entire team on site. Keep up the great work!