120-Year-Old Family Business Retains its Legacy in Modern New Location
Crescent Plumbing Supply has been a St. Louis mainstay for 120 years, providing luxury plumbing fixtures, exceptional service and unparalleled expertise to generations of homeowners and tradespeople. For more than half of their history, the family-owned business operated from a building rich with character but lacking in aesthetics and functionality, which is what led the fourth-generation owners to work with us to build a modern and more spacious location just a mile down the road.
Crescent’s new 76,750-square-foot building includes a more efficient warehouse, office space and a product showroom 33% larger than their old one. The new showroom, which features a glass storefront, gives Crescent the needed space to create beautifully designed product displays and branded kitchen and bathroom vignettes. All three distinct building sections are thoughtfully designed for employees, contractors, vendors and customers. The building as a whole allows for improved efficiency and future growth.
Crescent’s new facility is located at 6614 Olive Boulevard – the corner of Olive and Kingsland in University City, Missouri. The site itself, which is just north of the Delmar Loop, previously held three underused buildings and was ripe for redevelopment. The Delmar Loop is a vibrant district just outside of St. Louis with restaurants, shops, music and entertainment venues and the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Among the reasons Crescent chose to work with us is our development expertise and existing relationship with Washington University, both of which were invaluable in what was a complex property exchange between the University and Crescent. Crescent also felt our integrated expertise and design-build approach would help keep the project on budget and on time and best serve them in bringing their vision to life. That vision included honoring the family’s legacy while providing customers with an enhanced experience more in line with the quality of the products it sells.
The integrated team successfully addressed challenges to deliver value for the client from the beginning to end. A large municipal underground stormwater conveyance bisecting the site required the team to use deep foundations for the building to maximize the size of the facility. During construction, the team discovered a larger than standard water main on the site that had not been shown on documents. The team successfully rerouted the waterline into the building.
Crescent opened the doors to the new facility two weeks ahead of schedule and well under budget. It features:
a 65,750-square-foot warehouse with a clear height between 26 and 31 feet, three docks, two drive-in doors and clerestory windows
expansive ground-level windows to add natural light in the warehouse and elevate the building’s aesthetics at the prominent Olive and Kingsland corner
a 7,000-square-foot office space
a 4,000-square-foot showroom with a glass storefront and LED lighting
105 vehicle parking spaces
a section of concrete relocated from the former building with the initials of family members who opened it