United Airlines | Concourse B Restack

This project, called “Restack,” was conceived as a consolidation project for United Airlines to reorganize and shed 140,000 square feet of underused, leased space at Denver International Airport (DEN). Gilmore worked approximately 40 separate projects within an overall, phased plan.

Our previous work for United at DEN led to this one-year contract. The work was spread across 29 locations — 25 of them in the airport’s B Concourse. Three work areas were in the main Jeppesen Terminal and the United Hangar. Gilmore also conducted a nine-phase remodel of another 55,000 square feet of the United Operation Center on Level 4 of the B Concourse Center Core. Gilmore also assisted United with the physical relocation of employees into their new spaces as those spaces were completed. Gilmore devised three teams operating in 24-hour shifts five days a week for eight months to reconstruct and refresh employee break rooms, locker rooms, restrooms and public-access areas.

Airline departments affected:

• Airport Operations – renovated in place
• Flight Operations – used swing space and in-place consolidation
• Flight Support – in-place consolidation
• Payroll and Scheduling – used swing space
• Training – relocated to renovated space
• HR– relocated to renovated space
• IT– relocated to renovated space
• Facilities Maintenance – relocated to renovated space and renovated in place
• Ramp Support – renovated in place
• Tech Ops – renovated in place and relocated to Hangar
• Global Services – in place
• Customer Service – in place and relocated

Schedule: United’s struck a 35-year lease with DEN that went into effect in January 2016. The new agreement included a 140,000-square-foot reduction in leased space. However, it also specified that any space still occupied at the time the lease went into effect would be included in the 35-year term. This lease agreement placed a hard deadline of 12/15/2015 for all work to be complete. Proper sequencing and a multi-shift approach involving five superintendents was the only way to accomplish this given the eight-month project duration. Gilmore worked closely with United on the overall sequencing and scheduling to make efficient use of limited swing space and to limit all users to no more than two moves (one into swing space and one into permanent space). Many users moved only once — and into their permanent space. The schedule and phasing continually evolved as construction progressed. Revised detailing and prefabrication and the collaborative efforts of subcontractors and users shaved days off various phases. During the course of the project, United and Gilmore worked closely to look for opportunities to advance the schedule. With the buy-in of the individual user groups, the base project was substantially completed two weeks ahead of schedule.

Occupied Spaces: Every day, more than 73,000 passengers and employees pass though B Concourse, which houses more than 350 scheduled flights. Site security and public safety were of paramount importance — and Gilmore had two main requirements for the completion of our work: The first was to have absolutely no impact on United or DEN operations, and the second was to be invisible to the public. Daily communication and pre-planning were paramount to Gilmore’s success in accomplishing this. By working with UA officials and taking into account United company events, training sessions and employee travel, we made constant changes in the project’s schedule to minimize direct impacts. We also worked closely with other tenants, including shops and restaurants. Because of this careful pre-planning and communication, we completed our work with no disruptions.