Orscheln Properties Co. LLC, based in mid-Missouri, is known throughout the Midwest for developing custom solutions for tenants and buyers, ranging from design-build projects to turnkey facility purchases. When the leadership team decided to construct a mini-store prototype for its Orscheln Farm & Home retail brand to serve smaller, rural communities, the designers looked no further than Star Building Systems, known for their high-quality custom-engineered metal building solutions.
The Orscheln brand’s mission statement sums up the niche approach for Farm & Home stores, which is “to provide the communities [we] serve with quality products, trusted value and neighborly service with the highest level of integrity and appreciation.” It is this very level of appreciation for its rural clientele, along with its close alignment with Star’s mission of quality and value for this market, that provided the roadmap for the value-engineered project.
As quoted in an October 2020 article in Commercial Construction & Renovation, Orscheln leadership shared, “Today’s stores are designed to be aesthetically pleasing and practical at the same time. Consumers have a better opinion of your products if the facility is in good shape and well maintained. Our buildings are designed to be functional, easy to maintain and comfortable for our customers.”
Mini-Store Prototype with Rural Function and Flare
Joe Snodgrass, Director of Design and Construction at Orscheln Properties Co. LLC, and the lead project manager, adds that the goal of this project was to come up with a new mini-store concept for the Orscheln Farm & Homes rural market. He says, “This particular one is about 13,000 to 15,000 square feet total while the brand’s normal store is generally between 40,000 and 60,000 square feet. So, it was a big adjustment to try to get it scaled down and get product to stock in such a small space. Stores like Dollar General and Family Dollar are doing this now, so we decided to jump on the bandwagon with this prototype.”
He notes, too, that the project was fairly challenging because of the very small trapezoid-shaped site they had to work with. This space limitation, combined with the fact that the property was right on the highway in order to ensure good visibility and good access, meant it was “really too small for what we wanted, but we managed to make it fit … without an inch to spare.”
Joe explains that the reason the team went with a pre-engineered metal solution—and Star specifically—is because in this rural location, the customers are mostly rural farmers. He says, “The Star pre-engineered metal building accommodates that market very well. It's very pleasing to look at, it's practical, and it’s designed to be functional and easy to maintain. Since most of the customers are farmers who are coming into the store right out of the field or from the barn, they've got mud on their feet, and we want them to be able to feel comfortable coming into the store. We seek to use materials and products in the overall design to create a more rural farm-like flare. The goal is to try to make it as maintenance free, as durable, and as friendly as we can for them.”
Smart Economics, Design Flexibility, Brand Consistency
As for the Star pre-engineered metal building system utilized, Joe relays that they went with a single-slope, multi-span building with straight columns, explaining that for retail spaces such as this, “you want nice, smooth, unobstructed exterior walls without structural columns encroaching into your space, in order to have flexibility for fixtures and shelving.”
He continues, “We worked with Star to design the mainframe columns to where they would actually nest inside the structure or the girt line and give us optimum retail space around the perimeter. This cuts down on square footage and it just makes the fixturing process and the product stocking process in the store so much nicer and easier because you can put things anywhere you need to or change it around any time you want. … Also, with Star, you're able to make some adjustments on the interior columns for the very same reason—to get them to work out where they're not right in the middle of an aisle or right in the middle of a walkway. Plus, from a maintenance and longevity standpoint, you can't beat a standing seam metal roof. It'll last a long time when it's installed properly.”
For the single slope roof, Star’s Double-Lok® and PBR panels in Galvalume and Colonial Red were used. As for the wall panels, reversed-rolled PBR panels were incorporated into the project. The PBR panel was a great choice as it is a profile commonly used for a wide variety of architectural, agricultural, commercial and industrial applications. PBR is an exposed-fastened panel that can be used for both roof and wall applications.
The number one reason for using PBR, Joe says, was economics. “It's a good standard panel that is readily available. I usually go with reverse rolled in order to be able to get more insulation in the wall, but in this case, we used what we call an energy-saver system, and I didn't really need that extra space on the outside. But, I still like the looks of that panel because it's almost a concealed fastener. You don't really see the fasteners when you're looking at it at an angle, and it trims out and looks a lot nicer; it looks a little better than a barn, let's put it that way.”
Steve Jacobson, the Star sales representative on the project, adds, “The screws end up getting hidden in a shadow line, which gives it the impression of a hidden fastener.”
The medium-gray color, Tundra (a Star Signature® standard architectural color),was a perfect match for the project goals. Joe remarks that before he came on board and started using Star, Orscheln would order special colored rolls from one of their sister companies. Once Joe did a cost analysis, the value engineering proved out that the company was spending $25,000 to $30,000 more per store just to have a custom color when Star had standard colors that were extremely close, so much so that you couldn’t tell the difference.
He says, “I was able to show Farm & Home how much we could save if we could just adjust the outside colors of the building to match what Star offered as standard. And the Tundra is very, very close to the gray that is the store’s brand color. Additionally, the Colonial Red that we trimmed out the building with and used to accent the roofs, the canopies and on the entry tower, was a very close match. We then worked with our sign company to match the colors as well. The exterior and the interior match so well, even Orscheln Farm & Home employees don’t notice the difference, especially since the outside is in natural light and the interior colors are seen under artificial light.”
A Partnership for Success
The Orscheln team designed this building almost 100 percent with Star pre-engineered metal building products—the only exception being some stone on the columns at the entryway and the aluminum and glass entrance at the enclosure of the vestibule. Everything else, with the exception of the doors, is a Star pre-engineered metal building. The project was a Best of District Winner (St. Louis District) of a 2020 Star Master Builder Award.
Joe sums up the project, noting that there were no problems and they were able to get the building up in a fairly short amount of time, citing the fact that he has his own design team that helped him get it all put together, from civil and mechanical engineers to architect. “I primarily did most of the conceptual design myself using Star’s SBS design and pricing software package,” he says, “and I then turned it over to my architectural and engineering design team to do their magic to finish it up, for permitting and actual construction. We CM’d [construction managed] this project ourselves too. I acted as a general contractor, and we hired our own subs, which helped to have everything run smoothly.”
Steve adds that another benefit of the relationship with Star was that the Orscheln team takes advantage of Star’s proprietary design and preliminary engineering and pricing software, in conjunction with the Orscheln team doing all the design work themselves.
This ties in to the value engineering aspect of the project. Joe says, “We're able to go in there and once we get the project entered into this software, we can go through and do a lot of ‘what ifs. ’What if we did this, how much would it cost? And what if we did this or that, what would it cost? Then, if there's anything that we’re questioning, I can always send it in to Star’s estimating team and within 24 to 36 hours, I've got an answer. That's worth a lot to us to be able to do most of that work right here from my desk.”
That seamless process also helped ensure the store was ready to open up on schedule in November 2020. Joe says, “In the retail market, you either open it up early fall for the holiday season or you wait until late spring just before the flowers and garden and harvest season for planting. Our goal was to get this project done before Thanksgiving. And we did.”
Project Details:
Project Name: Orscheln Farm & Home, Salisbury, MO
Builder/GC:Orscheln Properties Co. LLC
Architect: PWArchitects
Civil Engineering: Crockett Engineering Consultants
MEP Engineering: J-Square Engineering
Steel Erector: LVS Builders, Inc.
Project Start Date: March 5, 2020
Project Completion Date: Nov. 20, 2020
Star Building Systems Products:
Primary Framing: Multi-Span Building, Single Slope, Straight Columns
Wall Panel: Reverse PBR, Tundra (9,439 sq. ft)
Roof Panels: Galvalume DoubleLok panels (13,035 sq. ft.) were used on the main part of the building with Colonial Red PBR roof panels (1,101 sq. ft) used on the Entry Tower and front canopies.
Roof Slope: 0.5:12 and 5:12, Single Slope
Accessories: 37'-6" x 8' Structural Canopies on SWA (Each Side of Building B
