Senior Vice President Linda Hein, and her team, have handled all of the FF&E projects for Kerzner International, the owners of the Atlantis Resort & Casino on Paradise Island, Bahamas for over 15 years. One of the latest projects was the CRUSH Teen Club, a 14,000-square foot-cutting edge teen nightclub and entertainment center.

Tight schedules and fast tracked jobs are the norm for The Parker Company (TPC), but the “CRUSH” Teen Club project would redefine “fast tracked.” Jeffrey Beers International’s (JBI) specifications were received in August, 2010 with the Teen Club scheduled to open in mid December, 2010. We had only three months to have custom furniture manufactured, shipped and installed on site in Paradise Island. Some of our key coordination factors included:

   •   Identifying and using as many domestic manufacturers as possible to shorten overall lead times.

   •   Coordinating closely with our client and JBI, all of the details related to the completion of 24 custom (totally tricked out) gaming chairs, which now surround a 22-foot floor-to-ceiling gaming tree equipped with 360 degrees of flat screens.

   •   Value engineering, jointly with JBI, the custom designed wall covering that now adorns the girls’ and boys’ restrooms. The design concept remained as specified but the cost was reduced by 25%.

   •   Setting up a visit in Miami with the client at the custom sofa/ banquette manufacturer’s facility. During the visit, the client was able to approve construction details on the spot, eliminating the need to make samples and reducing the delivery time of these schedule sensitive items.

Short time frames can lead to manufacturing problems. In October, we were asked to order all of the OS&E. The extensive list of items included an “Oscar-like” logoed red carpet to be used at the grand opening. The carpet arrived at the freight forwarder in Miami but the logo was wrong. The replacement carpet (obtained by TPC at no charge) arrived slightly damaged, but we were out of time. Being familiar with local sources in Nassau, we quickly arranged for a Bahamian carpet installer to make the necessary repairs.

Finally, TPC reaction time was a key to completing construction. In mid- November, the purchase of floor tile and grout was added to our scope. Within one week both the tile and grout were in the hands of the installer on site in Paradise Island.

We are proud to have been an integral part of this exciting project that opened on time and under budget.