All you need for a home ... under one roof

Camerons was appointed by the Channel Islands Co-operative Society, as main contractor for the construction and internal fit-out of the new Grand Marche Homemaker store in St Helier. This appointment was made very early in the project enabling the project team to tap into the knowledge of an experienced contractor, Camerons with regards buildability issues, programming and procurement logistics.

Work began in January 2010 and was completed on time and to budget in August 2010. Working alongside architect, Digby Gibbs Architects; engineer, Rothwells; Jersey Energy, mechanical and electrical consultants and quantity surveyor, APD, the team overcame all challenges to finish this unusual project to the highest standards. The architect was responsible for interpreting interior designer drawings and pragmatically putting those drawings into a format that could be implemented/built – they did this very well. The quantity surveyor assisted Camerons in cost control management and procedures in order to ensure that the project completed under budget – this was inclusive of numerous additional works made to the upper floors.

The works were comprised of the conversion and fit-out of an existing first floor car park to provide a Homemaker retail unit of approximately 3,500 square metres. Working in an operational supermarket car park did provide the project team with some challenges – the store had to remain open so as not to inconvenience customers while deliveries of materials had to be co-ordinated carefully with the store’s own regular deliveries. The team of 40 from Camerons worked many evenings, nights and weekends in order to complete the project.

Tom Mee, Project Manager, Camerons, said: ‘Converting a first floor car park into a retail outlet did prove a challenge for the whole team. However, through meticulous planning and by always remaining flexible to finding alternative solutions should the original, planned option not be suitable, we were able to complete the task with no problems.’

‘Camerons was main contractor for the project and therefore had to ensure that the construction ran to time in order to allow the contracted fit out team from Germany to enter the site for their four week fit out process,’ added Mr Mee.

Before handing over to the German contractor Camerons completed the conversion works which included thermally insulating the walls and ceiling linings, fitting new windows and internal walls, partitions and doors and then completing the floor, wall and ceiling finishes and decorations. The Fit out contractor then installed the shelf units, display cabinets, till points and desk units. Service installations including electrical, mechanical, alarms and data were all installed under the management of Camerons.

A new goods lift, linking the ground floor goods and storage area to the first floor was installed and the existing customer lifts were refurbished.
The works also included work on the upper floor car park to change the look and feel from that of a municipal car park to more of a shopping mall. This entailed cleaning and painting the floor andwalls, upgrading the lighting and creating welcoming entrances to foyers.

The result is a family friendly shopping environment which accommodates both a play area and the island’s first Coopers coffee shop.

‘Most of the people I’ve spoken to who have been inside the new Homemaker just can’t believe that it was a car park only eight months ago. The final outcome is a ‘one stop shop’ for customers complete with parking, food halls on the ground floor and Homemaker on the first floor – making it convenient and easy for shoppers,’ concluded Mr Mee.

Jersey Evening Post - Friday 1st October 2010

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