Racine construction firm wins major contract at Miller Park

The first major construction contract for a Racine County business that bid on Miller Park was awarded to Nielsen Building Systems Saturday by the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District.

Nielsen Building Systems, 4820 6 Mile Road, has received the $3.5 million contract to provide translucent wall panels for the ballpark now under construction for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The prize is a long time coming for the local construction firm that both designs and builds commercial projects.

Dale Nielsen, vice president of the company, said he first became involved with the project in April 1996, when the company was preparing a bid for the work, which was not bid out until December of the same year.

"So you see how long the process is taking," he said.

Before the company begins construction, it has invested thousands of dollars in preparing a bid without knowing if it would get a contract.

"It is one of the natures of the company," Nielsen said. "We design and build, but sometimes we design and not build."

In this case the Caledonia company is a winner and the first major contractor in Racine County to work on the park, which has an estimated construction cost of nearly $400 million. Nielsen's annual sales are roughly between $12 and $14 million; so the $3.5 million contract is a large one.

"One of the most interesting things that made our company unique is that we have architects and engineers on staff who have worked directly with the architects and engineers on the project in Milwaukee," Nielsen said. "We have e-mailed designs and details back and forth. It has been a very long haul and has taken a lot of time and energy to complete."

Nielsen works with a manufacturer in New Hampshire that makes Kalwall translucent fiberglass wall panels. The panels are very lightweight, which was advantageous because the design calls for the panels to be installed in three major areas of the park building. The panels will go just below the glass on the Miller Park fixed roof, on the operable and fixed exterior outfield walls and on the canopies extending from the building, according to the park district.

"We figured that the panels will be covering a total of 78,000 square feet, about 98 percent of the outfield area.

"One of the biggest problems we will have is the wind," Nielsen said. "We will be 125 feet up, and will be going into the middle of winter. Those panels can be like a kite."

The company expects to start construction on the outfield walls behind first base in November and get to the third-base site by late spring. The glass walls will be made of some stationary panels and some moving panels to let in daylight and to give the park a feeling of openness when the weather is good and the retractable domed roof is open, Nielsen said.

The whole outfield should be completed by December 1999, and then the company will have to wait for the last phase of construction to install the canopies before April 2000, when the park is scheduled to open.

Nielsen Building Systems has 17 employees. The company will be putting together a team of subcontractors to help with the project, Nielsen said. At least two major subcontractors will help -- one in Mukwonago and another in Madison. But there will be about 15 to 20 subcontractors that the company will be interested in for various materials.

"Hopefully we'll get some suppliers from town," Nielsen said."There will be a trickle down to contractors in Racine and the five-county area for miscellaneous materials. Our goal is to purchase as many materials in the area as possible."

The park district covers five counties that pay an additional sales tax to offset the cost of the project. Racine County shoppers pay one-tenth of 1 percent in sales tax to help raise an estimated $17 million for the project. About 10 percent of the $17 million is expected to come from Racine County. Park district officials say they expect a similar amount of contract business to go to the area.

So far there has been one small contract awarded to Carreno Construction Service. The $40,000 contract was for excavation work. In addition, a number of tradespeople are working on the site for several contractors. But the Nielsen contract is the first significant one for a local company.

Michael J. Morgan, communications manager for the district, said about half of the contracts have been bid for the project.

"Nielsen has been known as one of the finest construction companies in Racine County," said Racine County Executive Jean Jacobson Saturday. "The award of this contract attributes to that. I am confident they will do a find job at Miller Park, and it's just great a local firm is able to benefit from this large construction project, which will certainly have an impact on this fine company and its employees.

"I look at this, and it will give them exposure that is not only national but international," she added.

"I'm very happy to be a part of the team," Nielsen said. "The fun part was getting the job, now the work begins."

Journal Times.com