(Houston – March 2, 2022) – Arch-Con® Corporation is breaking ground on Travis Midtown Building at 3310 Travis Street in Houston for McQuilling Partners, Inc. and Link Crude Resources. This 17,330-square-foot, three-story office building is a case study in the benefits of Arch-Con’s design-build services.

When international shipping brokerage McQuilling Partners, Inc. purchased the site in 2012, the 4,100-square-foot existing office building built in the 1950s was a good fit for  the New York-based company’s satellite Houston office. In 2020 Link Crude Resources, a leading US-based crude broker that McQuilling took a stake of in 2018, moved into the building with the plans of an eventual joint venture remodel in the coming years.

“We quickly realized we ran out of space,” said McQuilling’s President Roger Marco, who moved from New York to open McQuilling’s Houston office in 2002. “We went through several attempts to renovate the current Midtown office building and even considered building what would have amounted to an adjacent new building with a walkway to the old building but ultimately realized we needed to improve the entire site.”

After a year and a half of design iterations with an architect and a budget getting out of hand, Marco brought in Arch-Con who proposed their design-build services to keep the design in check with the budget. Design-build is a project delivery system where the construction and design services are contracted by the design-builder, or contractor.

With this specific design-build project, Arch-Con analyzed the previous designs, site and detention requirements as well as types of finishes as it relates to the budget and recommended Powers Brown Architects to provide the design, with Dally + Associates providing Civil and Structural engineering. Arch-Con added Graves Mechanical, Inc. to perform the HVAC, Jomar Electrical Contractors to perform the electrical and CW Mechanical to perform the plumbing, all under Arch-Con’s umbrella.

“Ultimately, we wanted to maximize the square footage per floor to make the office as user-friendly and efficient as possible for Roger and his team,” said Arch-Con Senior Project Manager William Nelson. “We got to a place where they were happy with the budget, size and design in order to finalize the plans and get started.”

Over the course of McQuilling and Link owning the building, the site had numerous, aging utility issues which was another reason to start anew. Arch-Con demolished the existing building to make way for the new office and new utilities.

The design is an urban infill, three-story steel frame office building on spread footings and includes underground detention under the first-floor parking area. The new building more than quadruples the size of the original structure with the second and third floor office space total 16,470 square feet. The 860 square feet of ground level lobby space will relate nicely with the surrounding pedestrian areas that Houston is expanding to make the city more vibrant and walkable.

“The design-build process gives me great pride as it benefits the client,” Nelson said. “I truly enjoy helping guide the details and the budget for the owner.”

This building marks a significant year for McQuilling Partners, Inc. and Link Crude Resources. “I’m excited to see this building come to life in the same year that marks McQuilling’s 50^th anniversary and Link’s 20th anniversary” Marco said.

Learn more about Arch-Con’s Office Division.