United Airlines Kitchen Consolidation (Phase 1)

When United Airlines and DIA renegotiated space affecting food operations, Gilmore stepped in to help meet UAL’s continued needs with relocation and renovation.

The airline’s Chelsea Food Services Group was expanding and had reached an agreement with LSG Sky Chefs to swap buildings. The move returned Chelsea Group to the facility it originally built in 1996.  Gilmore’s design-build team stepped in to help meet continued needs with the relocation and renovation of this 155,000-square-foot building.

The design-build team devised a two-phase solution to perform building upgrades, repairs and renovations:

Phase 1, The Pre-Move: The design-build team completed facility and user surveys to determine which repairs and upgrades were required. As a result of the feedback received, Phase 1 construction included an interior refresh of paint, flooring and ceiling tiles; electrical, data and phone upgrades; plumbing modifications; demolition and removal of an abandoned, overhead conveyor system; and installation of a new 2,500-square-foot, walk-in cooler.

Phase 2: Repairs of the Building’s Exterior: Work included new structural support, sidewalks, mud-jacking and pavement replacement, along with the installation of new, cart-washing equipment. As the Chelsea Group settled into its new facility, it continued to turn to Gilmore for additional upgrades to improve operations. We also performed the design and installation of a complete building-security camera system.

During both phases of construction, we successfully addressed several challenges. Among them:

• The building was fully occupied with the kitchen producing and shipping food around the clock, seven days a week.
• During Phase 1, the facility was occupied by LSG Sky Chefs. This required careful coordination and communication to complete work around a tenant with no vested interest in the end product.
• Work restrictions required controlled environments (for example, dust protection) in areas adjacent to food operations. Our team worked off-shift hours to minimize the disruption to food service, and we phased construction to allow relocation of operations to proceed before all renovations were complete.