FACILITY SPOTLIGHT


Ahead Of Schedule Ho’s company consists of general contrac- tors and construction managers. The Cen- terfield project was the first self-storage project they worked on, but it certainly will not be the last. They’ve finished sev- eral now for Vaultra and are working on finishing their fourth and fifth sites.


“My favorite part of the project was


the challenges; it wasn’t a simple build- ing,” says Ho. “The architect took a lot of ownership, but some of the construc- tion details were hard to achieve. We worked closely with the architect to make it work.”


When Ho and his company were


brought on board, the project was over- budget. They helped Vaultra save be- tween $3 million and $4 million in costs.


Per Ho, one of the most challenging as-


pects to the project were some of the in- terior elements on the first floor, which is where the shared office space is located. “That was difficult,” he says, “as the ma- jority of finishes come from overseas, and the supply chain was stuck at that point due to the pandemic.


“The timing was very big,” says Ho.


“Everyone was watching the project as it progressed. A lot of competitors came to view the construction.”


Chris Lamers, director of Lamers Build-


ing, Inc., in Beaumont, Alta., who has been working in the self-storage indus- try for 28 years and partners with Janus International, supplied and installed all the interior doorways. Lamers’ company successfully coordinated with Fieldgate Construction.


“This project really is the Cadillac of


interiors,” says Lamers. “It was a beauti- ful site to work on, and we had such a great team atmosphere with everyone on the project.”


The project required the delivery and


installation of over 2,200 doors. One of the biggest challenges for his company


January 2022


was getting more than 30 transport trucks in from the United States, as well as making room on the remaining four acres of the site to off-load the deliveries. The project required the delivery and installation.


Lamers says it was one of the quicker builds; his company was on site for


only six to seven months. “Once the project was complete, it was really big and received a lot of attention,” he adds. “We received compliments on the project all the way from the United States.”


The project was scheduled to take 24 months, but despite the pandemic that


resulted in labor and supply chain shortages, the project was completed in just 18 months.


Bells And Whistles Vaultra Centerfield is equipped with everything many state-of-the-art modern facilities have, including over 2,100 climate-controlled units ranging in size from 5-by-5 to 10-by-20. The six-story building also has four industrial grade eleva- tors, two on each side of the building, as well as a fully covered loading area. “Because of the weather and snow fall we get there, we also wanted to have a heated and enclosed loading dock,” says Gunasingham. “Two cars can park side by side, making it convenient for our customers.”


In addition to unique building aesthetics, one of the things Gunasingham’s


company is known for is providing a high level of security. “I always say if my mom would feel comfortable being in the building at 10 o’clock at night, that’s the standard I go by,” he says. “We always want to provide fantastic safety and security for our employees and our customers.”


In addition to high-quality monitoring systems, cameras, keypad entries, and


bright lighting, the Centerfield location provides music as background noise. “If someone is walking through the halls and it’s just silent, that can be scary,” says Gunasingham. “We want to make sure everyone who is there, if they’re alone or not, don’t feel as if they are there by themselves.”


One of the unique aspects to Vaultra Centerfield is that it provides shared


co-working spaces. Michelle Ducharme, regional manager for Vaultra, says there are approximately 50 office spaces and three conference rooms that can be rented by the hour or day. The space also has a kitchen area, as well as every- thing a businessperson needs, such as Wi-Fi and access to printers. Gunasing- ham didn’t know it when the space was designed, but co-working spaces have become very popular throughout the world since the pandemic shifted workers out of dedicated office spaces.


Another service unique to Vaultra Centerfield is what Gunasingham calls


“door-to-door storage services.” “We wondered how we could make the stor- age experience more seamless,” he says. “We have people who may not want to move their stuff, or they don’t have time, or they don’t know how to drive a truck.”


There are two different options to the alternative self-storage. The door-


to-door option allows customers to rent one of the available storage units and have a Vaultra employee pick up their items and store them in the unit for an additional fee. Those customers, like the traditional move-it-yourself customers, have access to their items anytime.


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