Construction News
General Manager's Blog
As General Manager of the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, I thought it only fitting, with so much excitement and anticipation surrounding the opening of our new Palomino Conference Center on 10.11.12, to keep you posted on our progress. So every month, be sure to check back regularly as I share fun facts, photos and personal commentary on this exciting project.
After several years, multiple blueprints, countless meetings and presentations, a few sleepless nights and a couple of prayers to the Man upstairs I am proud to announce that the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess officially broke ground on its new 53,000 sq. ft. conference center on September 9, 2011. Since stepping foot onto this property two years ago, my primary goal --- with the help of my incredible team --- was to restore the Princess back to its original place in the hearts and minds of our local community, officials, meeting planners, corporate clients and transient guests. That being said, with the support of our owners, Strategic Hotels & Resorts, we embarked on a multi-year plan that has resulted in more than $55 million in renovations year to date. But even with all of that, there was still one big piece missing to our proverbial puzzle. Over the past few years, meeting planners began telling us that they needed more meeting space, they needed more load-in/load-out time and they needed more breakouts. Well we listened. This new $20 million addition will bring our grand total of event space to 150,000 sq. ft,. making us the largest meetings hotel within the entire Fairmont Hotels & Resorts portfolio worldwide. I couldn’t be more excited and more proud and look forward to sharing this personal journey with you.
Sincerely,
Jack Miller
General Manager
Palomino Conference Center Update #4:
Posted on February 3, 2012 by Jack Miller
Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and perhaps even found some time to escape to our desert oasis and experience Christmas at the Princess. As promised, this month’s post is accompanied by a video blog to give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what we’ve been up to the past few months.
Since my last update, our team has been busy completing the new parking lot, which required over 2,250 tons of asphalt to be poured. We've also put up masonry walls and finished the ballroom slab. Over the next two weeks, more than 40 miles of underground wiring will be installed while the finishing touches are added to the plumbing as well as steel joists for the ballroom. To see our progress, including live footage of our 25-foot retaining wall being constructed by the loading dock, I invite you to please watch the below video. Thank you for your interest in the Princess and our new ballroom, and I can’t wait to share more with you next month.
Palomino Conference Center Update #3: Trees and lights and everything nice...
Posted on November 23, 2011 by Jack Miller
It’s been a while since my last update, and I can’t wait to share all of the latest construction news with you. We’re ahead of schedule and, as you can see by the aerial photos, the project is definitely beginning to come to life. Over the past two months, several projects have been completed, including the irrigation, curbs and underground utilities. You can even begin to see the re-bar going up as we prepare to pour the foundation over the next few weeks. More than 600 cubic yards of concrete will be poured to form the North Parking Lot – just in time for the New Year. Light poles will be installed and before you know it, trees, bushes and sod will be taking root. Landscaping and accessibility will be a central focus as we dig our way into 2012, with our sidewalk along Princess Drive opening the first week in January. Additionally, our newly completed floodwall will be receiving a beautiful stone finish called Naranja, which is a red Mexican limestone that ties in beautifully with our resort’s Spanish Colonial architecture. As the building begins to be framed in mid January, I will begin accompanying this blog with video commentary…that’s when I get to show you the good stuff. So until then, wishing you all a very safe and happy holiday season.
Palomino Conference Center Update #2: Here’s the Dirt
Posted on September 23, 2011 by Jack Miller
Since the groundbreaking ceremony on September 9th, we’ve made some great progress. So far, the construction team of Howard S. Wright have pulverized the asphalt of our existing employee parking lot, removed 2 ½ feet of elevation from the adjacent dirt lot and moved around approximately 14,400 cubic yards of dirt. Keep in mind that the length of a football field is 100 yards and that’s only taking into consideration linear feet. Cubic feet is a yard by a yard by a yard . . . well, you get the picture. It’s a lot of dirt! In addition, they’ve relocated all of our existing Palm and Olive Trees to the area by their trailers -- creating a “construction trailer oasis” if you will. Over the next few weeks, we will see approximately 20,000 cubic yards of fill (more dirt) being brought in to assist in elevating the existing lot by six feet to become even with the adjacent dirt lot. Site concrete will be poured to begin creating the sidewalk along Princess Drive and the roundabout, and work will begin on the underground wet utilities such as sewer and water. Lastly, we should begin seeing a 4-to-5 foot flood wall going up. Well, that completes our update for this month. Until my next blog . . . .
Palomino Conference Center Update #1: Groundbreaking Ceremony
Posted on September 15, 2011 by Jack Miller
Along with our meeting planner partners, friends from the City of Scottsdale, owners, Fairmont executives and hotel colleagues, we kicked off construction with a groundbreaking ceremony on 9.9.11.
It was another beautiful 100+ degree day in Arizona, but thankfully the sun was tucked behind a few strategically placed clouds throughout the entire ceremony -- giving us just enough time to say a few words of thanks to our owners, city officials, design team, construction team and hotel colleagues before things really started heating up. We then passed the honors over to Scottsdale Major Jim Lane and Senior Vice President, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Jeff Senior who provided a few heartfelt and supportive words. We ended by taking some pictures with our partners and enjoying a glass of champagne. Overall a pretty incredible day . . .
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