Lab Move Client – GCP Applied Technologies, Inc.
Lab Move Location – Alewife Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Lab Move Destination – Multiple
Lab Move Timetable – March 2021 – December 2021
To say there are a lot of moving parts within any move is more than just a bad pun. It’s a statement of fact. Particularly when move involves the closure of a 300,000 square-foot facility like GCP Applied Technologies at Alewife Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
GCP makes sustainable concrete and cement solutions. Closing the Cambridge, Mass. facility would involve the removal/disposal of materials and chemicals as well as the relocation of labs, administrative, shipping, research and development and other company departments.
The closing of the GCP facility also involved a number of partnerships with specialists. Transporting chemicals require a hazardous materials driver, with manifesting and accounting for each of the items. In this case, those chemicals were stored by Crystal Transport.
Many of the items removed from the GCP Cambridge location would be relocated to a new GCP facility located in Wilmington, Massachusetts. With the buildout of that location in process, GCP needed to store those items. Rather than unload and store those items in BTI’s Hanover, Massachusetts-based facility, we stored the items in trailers. Fourteen trailers to be precise. Those trailers were situated at our Hanover, MA facility and a location in Lakeville, MA, and will remain there until the buildout is complete.
Utilizing the trailers instead of unloading them and storing the items saved GCP thousands of dollars and will simplify the move-in to the new Wilmington location.
Not all the items earmarked for the Wilmington location could be stored in the trailer. Those that required a climate-controlled environment were stored in the BTI warehouse in Hanover, MA.
There was an abundance of items—furniture, computer equipment, etc.—that were being replaced. Ordinarily these items would be decommissioned and disposed of. BTI found a vendor who took these items and shipped them to third world countries. GCP earned a tax credit for this donation.
BTI found a buyer for the gym equipment from Alewife Center. A gym BTI previously moved purchased the equipment.
The nursing station from the Alewife Center location was donated to the Stoneham Public Schools along with a number of pieces of furniture and chairs.
There were a number of relocated items that went to other GCP locations across the country. Utilizing the Mayflower network, we shipped a 5,000-poound slip tester to Monterey, Tennessee. The slip tester is a machine used to test GCP materials used on roofing systems.
Additionally, shipments went to GCP facilities in Downer’s Grove, Illinois and Alpharetta, Georgia.
Starting in March 2021, the GCP relocation required full-time oversight from March to December 21, 2021.
The success of this venture depended on close cooperation with multiple vendors and staff at GCP. That included GCP staff, Newmark, the commercial real estate project management team, and Bob Twomey from Avison Young.
From Michael Piacentino, GCP Lead Project Manager for GCP
“I want to personally thank you for the tremendous amount of assistance and effort that you gave GCP during the Exit Project. Your advice, your responsiveness, your excellent working teams made all the difference in helping to advance this difficult and fast moving project.”