Local Construction Firm Set For A Great Year
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
Peter Belluz, President & General Manager of Man-Shield (NWO) Construction Inc. is happy about the way things are looking for his firm in 2008. They have recently been awarded $40 million in local construction work, have several other large projects on the go in Ottawa, Toronto and Red Lake and are moving ahead on proposal for a $ 60 million development of 2 condominiums and a hotel on Thunder Bay’s waterfront. The relatively new company to Thunder Bay has already made a big impact on the local landscape constructing several major projects including Canadian Tire Stores, Home Depot, schools, retirement homes, a condominium project and Thunder Bay’s water reservoir system. Manshield has 20 local staff and are using their office space fully in the building they recently purchased and renovated.
The two major projects Manshield was just awarded are the Youth Justice facilities for the Ontario Realty Corporation, one here in Thunder Bay and one in Fort Frances. Together they total $24 million worth of construction for the Ministry of Youth Services. “ It will be a secured detention facility for youth as an addition to the current facilities. They are separating the young offenders under 18 years old from the main offenders on Hwy 61. They will be two separate
facilities,” noted Peter Belluz. “ We have most of the foundations complete and have been on site for 6 weeks now. The weather was a bit of a factor but we just provided heating and hoarding to get around it. The Thunder Bay facility will finished by mid February and Fort
Frances mid March 2009.”
Manshield are currently finishing off the demolition at McKellar Hospital where the construction of a new Shoppers Drug Mart and a retail facility will occur on that site. The demolition is 95% complete with the structural steel, metal deck and carpentry work ongoing right now. “ Shopper’s will have their own 17,000 square foot building and a similar sized building will be located on the lot as well,” stated Belluz. “ The total project cost is $5 million. We had to demolish some of the older wings of the hospital and the rest will be turned into a
personal care home and some office space. We are a development partner in the project, a first for us in Thunder Bay. We also own a couple of Shopper’s out west and are also partners in several condominium developments in Calgary and Winnipeg.”
Another project for the busy firm is the new OPP Forensic facility which will be a forensic investigation laboratory for the provincial police located just off the MTO building on James Street costing some $5 million. There is also another project for the Ontario Realty Corporation in Red Lake where an administration building had burned down a year and half ago and Manshield has been awarded a $6 million contract to reconstruct. Manshield also haswork ongoing in Toronto and Ottawa. In Toronto they are doing some foundations for the Reichman
Senior Housing Group. They are also just completing a new facility in Ottawa for the same group, a $23 million 132 bed facility to be opened in June. “ It is a high end retirement building that is 10 stories of all poured concrete with some interesting features such as a sloped
metal roof to mimic the Parliament Buildings which are about 4 miles away. In Toronto the Hollandview retirement facility is a 5 storey, 126 unit project. We put the foundations in late last winter and are just tuning up some contractual issues before we start the super
structure. It will be a $20 plus million project,” noted Belluz. “All the projects are administrated out of Thunder Bay. I supervise the projects and we have people from Thunder Bay working there. We have had some very good repeat business from the company.”
Manshield has offices in Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and are currently establishing their office in Toronto. “ Our method of management is to have a partner in charge of each major centre and so we will be looking for some expansion opportunities in the Toronto area as well. Last year the overall Manshield company did about $200 mllion in sales with Thunder Bay accounting for $35 to $40 million of that amount,” stated Belluz.
“ Generally I think Thunder Bay is in a bit of a tough market condition. It’s nice to see these government projects on board and keeping everybody busy. Locally we have shown a willingness to travel and go to places like Red Lake ,Ottawa and Toronto to use our expertise
in those locations to service our clients.It is always harder to do the out of town projects because of logistics.”
Perhaps the most exciting project on the horizon for Peter Belluz and his company is their involvement in the local Waterfront Development. “ We have been asked to put a proposal together for a development of 2 condominiums and a hotel on the property and that is
what we are in the process of doing. We have a team in place to develop it and will own the project with a cost of some $60 million,” noted Belluz. “We will do an indepth design and costing proposal that will be evaluated by the City and the successful developer chosen. Then there is some environment hurdles and rezoning issued to clear out of the way. We will have a pre-leasing period and then we can get into construction. It will be about 2 years before any construction is started. We like the site, feel it holds great potential and are anxious to work there.”
