Artist's rendering of new Fabiano beer distribution facility in Bay City.

BAY CITY CATCHES SUCCESS IN A BOTTLE WITH FABIANO BROTHERS.

Project Overview

Name: Fabiano Brothers Distribution Center and
Marketplace Business Park
Location: Bay City , Michigan
Project Type: New Construction
Square Footage: 191,000 sf (Business Park: 71 acres)
CSM Project Director: Brad Laackman
Owner’s Representative: James Fabiano II
Designer: HDA Architects, St. Louis, MO
Project Architects: Jack Holleran & Mark Duitsman
Completion Date: December 2008

Fabiano Brothers first started out selling fruit to customers in Eaton Rapids, then in several other Michigan communities. The family business has since evolved into beer and wine distribution; but it’s still bearing fruit in a big way, with a brand new beer distribution facility currently under construction in Bay City, Michigan.

While the Michigan economy has been sluggish overall, Fabiano Brothers has been fortunate enough to enjoy significant growth, requiring expansion. With property and many friends in Bay County, the community-minded company decided to reinvest in the area, and hopefully provide the springboard for additional economic and business growth in the area.

The result? Marketplace Business Park—a 71-acre development that will be home to the new Fabiano Brothers Distribution Center and provide space for as many as eight additional enterprises. The project, named to commemorate the family’s fruit-market origins, will be a big boost to an area where little such development has occurred in recent years.

“It’s a lot of projects in one.”

The facility itself is far from the “big box” warehouse you might picture when envisioning a beverage distribution center. It involves some rather complex and innovative construction techniques, and requires versatile capabilities, with many different types of construction as part of the overall project.

“It’s a lot of projects in one,” according to Brad Laackman, Project Director for CSM Group, Construction Manager on the project. And a look at the planned layout is proof enough!

With attractive architectural detailing, the front entrance is designed to make a beautiful impression. The adjacent office and conference areas are highend, offering advanced high-tech features and inviting meeting spaces.

Further in is an area of more traditional office space, with sales stations and other amenities designed for the utility and convenience of company salespeople.

Next comes the warehouse, which will be built to accommodate trucks actually driving through for loading and unloading.

A building within a building.

Then comes perhaps the most important, and most complex, area of the distribution center: the controlledenvironment coolers in which the kegs of beer are stored, floor to ceiling.Maintaining proper temperature and other environmental conditions is absolutely critical to product quality and freshness.

Multiple coolers will be configured to support current sales in the Northern Region and to accommodate any future growth. And advanced techniques are being utilized in their construction—most notably in the insulated panels that make up the walls.

Reflecting a growing industry trend, plans call for ‘tilt-up” concrete walls. In this process, concrete is poured in a form on the ground. Insulation is added in the center, then more concrete is added to seal it. When completed, cranes are used to tip the wall up into place. The resulting wall provides excellent insulation and offers structural and other advantages over steel framing.

Continuing past the insulated warehouse, we encounter still more areas that require varied construction styles and materials. These include a recycling area for bottle returns, an area for truck refueling, and an impressive truck washing system, which helps ensure that those big, bold Budweiser trucks look their best rolling down the highways!

This one’s for you!

Fabiano Brothers make no secret of their desire to be good neighbors and good friends. As James Fabiano, Sr. told mybaycity.com, “We hope to make many new friends, for that's what our business is all about—making friends.” And they’ve certainly made friends among the ranks of local subcontractors.

Though it was a specialized construction project, the brothers expressed a desire for as much of the construction workforce to be local as possible. To this end, CSM Group conducted a thorough investigation of contractors in the region, and was able to identify many quality subs. In the end, 98 percent of the people it is employing on the project are from Michigan.

“That was important to Fabiano Brothers and to us, too. Michigan has an amazing workforce and it wasn’t hard to find amazing workers,” Laackman said. “And thus far, the results have been great!”