Design & Construction Management, Westin Kierland Resort

Construction & Development Project Manager

Woodbine Development Corporation, Dallas, Texas

1999-2001

Westin Kierland Resort was my final project for Woodbine Development and in many ways the most satisfying of all the projects I have ever worked on.  I had been successful on all of my projects for Woodbine to-date and I was made the lead project manager for the pre-construction and construction efforts on Westin Kierland.  The project had been taken through the design development stage previously by a prior team but placed on hold for several years when financing did not materialize.  With financing now available we were in a race to complete the design and get the project under construction.  Ownership and some members of our project management team had also recently completed the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas Resort and Casino with Perrini as the contractor and we held a competition between Perrini and Sundt Construction to develop pricing based on 50% completed design documents.  Sundt Construction won the competition and was brought in as part of the pre-construction team together with key sub-contractors to work jointly with us to complete the construction documents.  However, we quickly realized that the prior design scheme and theme, basically a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired grand hotel concept, was not achievable with the fixed budget we were working under.  In a bold move by ownership we were allowed to take the hotel design in a new design direction that allowed greater flexibility in achieving the cost targets and also incorporated a completely new structural design.  We were able to fast-track the project by negotiating split permitting with the City of Phoenix to allow the start of site work and then structural work prior to issuance of the full building permit as well as private structural reinforcement inspections in order to allow concrete pours on our timeline.  I left Woodbine and the project reluctantly to tackle the Four Seasons Jackson Hole project just prior to Westin Kierland opening ahead of schedule and under budget.  I understand that the project is one of, if not the most successful project Woodbine has ever undertaken.