PROJECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
North Carolina Construction News staff writer
Here are some projects and op-
portunities recently reported in
North Carolina Construction News.

You can keep up to date on new
projects at the ncconstruction-
news.com website or by subscrib-
ing to the weekly eletter.

LLFlex to invest $7.6 million
in new High Point building
Kentucky-based LLFlex will in-
vest $7.6 million in a new building
in High Point and add 46 jobs, offi-
cials announced on Jan. 7.

Griffin Electric providing
installation work on in-
progress Advance Auto
Parts tower in Raleigh
Electrical subcontractor Wayne J.

Griffin Electric, Inc. says it is cur-
rently providing installation work on
Advance Auto Parts Tower, a
328,600-sq. ft. mixed-use commer-
cial building in Raleigh.

The tower is expected to open in
the fall of 2020 and will stand 20-
stories high. In addition to 11 floors
of office space, the building will
also feature an eight-level parking
garage, retail space, as well as ac-
cess to a conference center and ter-
race-level amenities. Situated in the
heart of North Hills in midtown
Raleigh, the building is adjacent to a
35-story residential tower and is
within walking distance of a variety
of restaurants, hotels, retail shops,
and entertainment options.

HeLLFlex has custom packaging
and lamination solutions for the
construction, tobacco and wire and
cable industries for more than 90
years, the governor’s office said
Tuesday in a news release announc-
ing the investment.

The business will open in a new
building in the Gallimore Industrial
Center, 738 Gallimore Dairy Rd., the
High Point Economic Development
Corp. says.

New five-story office
building to start
construction in Morrisville
Construction will start soon on a
five-story, 198,535 sq. ft. office
building in Morrisville.

Indianapolis-based Strategic
Capital Partners and FCP of Chevy
Chase, MD, said that the Class A
building will be situated on 16.2
acres at 712 Slater Rd. overlooking
the Interstate 40/540 interchange.

The building has been given the
name Forty540 phase II, Triangle
Business Journal reports.

The project is expected to be
completed by mid-2021.

10 — JAN/FEB 2020 — The North Carolina Construction News
The Raleigh-Durham Griffin team
is responsible for the electrical and
lighting systems on-site. Griffin
Electric’s work will also include in-
stalling power distribution, lightning
protection, fire alarm systems, and
a 750 kW unit generator.

The project team, which antici-
pates LEED Certification due to the
building’s high resource efficiency,
also includes construction manager
Holder Construction Company.

Duda Paine Architects, LLP of
Durham is serving as the architect,
while Crenshaw Consulting Engi-
neers of Raleigh is the project’s
electrical engineer.

Middleburg Communities
to build 250-unit
multifamily project in
Wilmington Middleburg Communities is en-
tering the Wilmington market with a
250-unit multifamily project to be
constructed on a newly acquired
9.3-acre site in the Newland master-
planned Riverlights community,
Multi-Housing News reports. Con-
struction of Mosby at Riverlights, a
Class A apartment community at
4027 Watercraft Ferry Ave., is
scheduled to start imminently with
leasing beginning in late 2020.

Middleburg Construction is serv-
ing as general contractor and
McKim & Creed is providing civil en-
gineering services. Cline Design As-
sociates is the architect of record,
interior designer and landscape ar-
chitect. Duke Realty begins
construction on industrial
building near Raleigh
Duke Realty Corp. has an-
nounced that it is building a new,
speculative, 165,921-sq.-ft. bulk
warehouse south of Raleigh.

Located in Garner, the project
dubbed Greenfield North 1201 will
be the eighth industrial building
owned and operated by Duke Re-
alty in the Greenfield North Busi-
ness Park. All of the company’s
other buildings in the park are cur-
rently 100 percent leased.

Construction on Greenfield
North 1201 is underway
and is set to complete in
July 2020.

Greenfield North 1201 will fea-
ture 32’ clear height, 50’ x 50’ col-
umn spacing, 30 – 9’ x 10’ dock
doors, two 12’ x 14’ drive-in doors,
an ESFR fire protection system and
2,400-amp electrical service. Out-
side the building will be a 120’ truck
court and parking for 96 trailers and
129 automobiles.




Diversity and inclusion
How can designers and contractors go
beyond the percentage requirement?
North Carolina Construction News staff writer
How can architects, engineers
and contractors go beyond “the per-
centage requirement” in achieving
diversity and inclusion in teaming
and project execution?
Panelists at a Society for Market-
ing Professional Services (SMPS)
Research Triangle Chapter event
discussed this challenging issue on
Jan. 14.

Speakers included moderator
Candis Parker with Balfour Beatty,
with Renee Jones (All for 1), Chris
Hilt (CLH Design, PA) and Pamela
Gales (HUB program manager for
Wake County Public Schools Sys-
tem). “Each of these panelists drew on
their passions for creating and
maintaining a diverse and inclusive
workplace,” Donna Francis from
Clark Nexsen reported on the chap-
ter’s website. “Their experiences
and insights into the topic left us all
with some provocative thoughts on
how to promote an office culture
that embraces the value of diversity
and inclusion.”
As the panelists reflected on
what Diversity and Inclusion really
means, Hilt shared this quote from
Vernã Myers: “Diversity is getting
invited to the party, but inclusion is
being asked to dance.”
In the past, the thought that we
have people from different back-
grounds and cultures within our
company is enough to claim diver-
sity in the workplace, but as Renee
Jones stated, true inclusion is diffi-
cult. “As our community becomes
more diverse, the workforce must
be shaped to create a safe, accom-
modating atmosphere for all em-
ployees to grow and achieve their
potential. Inclusion is not just the
responsibility of leadership or HR,”
Francis wrote. “Young professionals
need advocates within the work-
place who can recognize their po-
tential and offer pathways to
leadership for development.”
All panelists shared that true in-
clusion happens when leadership
begins to think outside the box
while building our work environ-
ments. “From thinking differently
about potential job candidates, invit-
ing potential partners into our work
environment, to selecting leaders
with opposing viewpoints can help
to build the inclusive workforce that
we are all seeking,” she wrote.

Relating to women in the design
professions, panelists observed that
currently 54 percent of graduates
are women, but only 24 percent of
those graduates seek licensure.

Creating family-friendly workplaces
and providing professional and lead-
ership training can increase the
number of licensed, professional
women in leadership positions.

We should ask ourselves, “does
the culture of our workplace em-
brace diversity and inclusion?,”
Gales said. Change can happen
from a grassroots level.

Gales also discussed the impor-
tance of supplier diversity, in that as
businesses we need to look beyond
the normal way of doing business
and support small businesses to
keep local economic growth stable.

There are many programs in place
to support WMBE firms which offer
training and professional interaction
to grow and learn how to succeed
in the current work environment. Di-
versity and inclusion can positively
impact the bottom line of any com-
pany. “As attendees, we were all in-
spired by the leadership initiatives
of this panel toward creating better
workplaces for all employees, and
better communities through these
efforts,” Francis wrote. “I know that
I left thinking more about how we
can make our firm a place where
‘everybody is invited to dance’.”
The North Carolina Construction News — JAN/FEB 2020 — 11