Longfellow Trusts Hanson Lab Solutions as their Lab Provider
Founded in 2009, Longfellow Real Estate Partners (Longfellow) expands by building and operating best-in-class facilities for life science and technology companies. Often faced with budgetary challenges on projects, they rely on Hanson Lab Solutions to deliver value- engineered casework on time and within budget. On a recent project, The San Mateo Science Center, Hanson developed creative solutions to save Longfellow more than $1 million on casework without reducing quantities, helping them to meet the budget in style.
Background
Best-in-class Spec Lab Partners
Longfellow Real Estate Partners (Longfellow) invests in bio-innovation clusters across the United States and the United Kingdom. The company partners with renowned universities and pioneering life sciences and technology companies to help bring visionary ideas to life.
The Longfellow team acquires, designs, develops, and operates facilities with established and emerging life science and technology companies through custom designs, speculative lab space, and a flexible business model.
Responsive Sole Source
Longfellow has been sourcing its casework from Hanson on the West Coast for at least three years. “It’s been a good relationship. I had a very positive first impression because they were willing to problem-solve and help us out of tough situations. Early on, I was heavily exercising their team through design modification and value engineering solutions, etc. They were quite responsive to a rather difficult client in myself asking them to jump through hoops.” Stinespring related .
San Mateo Science Center
We pride ourselves in offering top-notch Class A Spec Lab Space and on being a partner with our tenants. We’re working with tenants to deliver a best-in-class product and allow them to grow. And our tenant experience arm ensures that even small companies have fun events and enjoy being in the office.
Brandon Stinespring, Project Executive, Longfellow Real Estate Partners
Challenges
Good Value Engineering Solutions Needed
Recently, Stinespring has been working on a project of 262,000 square feet, with about 200,000 feet of lab space. “We ran into some early budgetary challenges with the San Mateo Science Center, ” he related. “We were over budget.”
Hanson builds a consistent spec lab product that fits most tenants with an understanding that they will need to make some modifications. Thus, they often provide good value engineering solutions.
“Casework is one of the highest cost items where we have the option to reduce the quantity or come up with a cheaper alternative when we run into budget problems. On probably 90% of our projects, Hanson gets an initial bid and then we reduce or add things if we have money.” Stinespring explained.
Custom Service Panel and Hybrid Bench
An architect on the San Mateo project had drawn up his vision of the casework. But Hanson identified that it didn’t match Longfellow’s standards. “So, we had several meetings with Hanson to develop a custom service panel with the flexibility we needed without driving a cost premium. We came up with unique solutions that met the architect’s needs as well as Longfellow’s standards.” Stinespring related.
Solutions & Results
Good Value Engineering Solutions Delivered
Because Hanson knows well what Longfellow does, they addressed Longfellow’s budget problems at the San Mateo Science Center by providing multiple value engineering solutions.
“We were on the phone with Hanson talking through options, figuring out what they could do, they offered to generate savings by using a double-sided bench with less material. And we didn’t have to reduce the quantity with a more price- efficient product.” Stinespring explained.
Often “value engineering” in the construction industry means removing things that the client needs and will eventually have to pay for later.
“It was great to find solutions with a more economical version of the same thing,” Stinespring added.
Working with Hanson has allowed Longfellow to deliver predictable, repeatable class A spec labs on time and in a way that meets our budget needs. I view them as a partner. If I ever need something, I can pick up the phone and they’re going to help us out.
Brandon Stinespring, Project Executive, Longfellow Real Estate Partners
$1 Million Saved on San Mateo Science Center
Hanson helped Longfellow hit its San Mateo budget. “They provided value engineering solutions to save us north of a million dollars on the project,” reported Stinespring. “They’ve been very willing to help us even if they’re losing some business to make the project go.”
Quality = Peace of Mind
Casework is a primary feature of the lab environment. “In collaboration with Hanson, we put out one of the better casework products for a spec lab. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback on the unique look of our casework.” Stated Stinespring.
In construction, Lab casework can be viewed as a problem child. “But Hanson doesn’t stress me out. They know what we need and get it to us when we need it. Personally, Hanson delivers peace of mind.” Stinespring added
Fast and Reliable
Longfellow has received its last San Mateo casework delivery. “Hanson has delivered about 150,000 square feet of casework to date. It’s all installed and looks great.” Stinespring reported.
The architect also thought it would be a cool concept to have a black-and-white hybrid bench. “So, we found a solution that worked for everyone that again, didn’t have a cost premium,” Stinespring added. “It was Hanson going to engineering and coming back with good news.”
Building the Relationship
Stinespring likes having one individual who consistently works with Longfellow’s product across multiple contractors. “Hanson is pleasant to work with, responsive, flexible, and willing to dive in early in the design process. They know what Longfellow wants and can communicate that to the contractors.” He reported.
Just recently Hanson invited a few members of the Longfellow team to their facility in LA to see their new product lines, improvements to Longfellow’s standard products, and how to cut more time out of the process.
Client Feedback
Working with Hanson has allowed Longfellow to deliver predictable, repeatable class A spec labs on time and in a way that meets our budget needs. I view them as a partner. If I ever need something, I can pick up the phone and they’re going to help us out.
Hanson has been showing us cheaper and faster products and saying, ‘How can we tailor it to your needs?’. As we move forward, it’s one less vendor to be looking at. Every piece of casework I have put into a project in the last two years has been from Hanson.
Brandon Stinespring, Project Executive, Longfellow Real Estate Partners
