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APM eyes national expansion

Apr 24 2008

DAVE STEWART
The Guardian

Tim Banks the president of APM will be looking out his new office window this summer with an eye on expanding across the country. "We are in the construction and development business and I think it was important or us to position ourselves regionally, in terms of having a head office and we've chosen to run our company out of Prince Edward Island." says APM president Tim Banks.

APM's new office is taking shape at the corner of the Trans-Canada Highway and Lower Malpeque Road in West Royalty. The new four-storey building is about 50,000 square feet and will cost in the area of $6 million to finish.

Two floors of the building are being leased to the federal government with the balance of the building consisting of APM's new corporate head office. banks says initially there will be 36 employees who will move into the building with approximately 10 people joining the staff over the next six months.

Banks says there have been four new hires already. "Our company has expanded to Ontario and out west. We're doing a lot of work out west. We have half a dozen construction sites out there. Our Ontario operation is doing quite well and we're excited about that. By the end of next year our goal is to be doing construction development right across the country."

APM has been working as a regional contractor and developer for the past 28 years. It moved into Ontario about five to seven years ago. "We've put a permanent home (in Ontario) last year and we're into our second full year with a complete administration up there. Now we have to, as we grow up there, lend more support to them so it means more jobs for (PEI)"

Banks says he doesn't feel the need to have his head office in a more central location such as Toronto (APM does have an office in Toronto). He does acknowledge the challenge in finding specific people they're looking to hire from a professional development standpoint, especially as it relates to skill sets connected to technology and engineering design.

"Our experience has been Prince Edward Island has some very loyal and dedicated employees and we're going to bank on that, even though our resource pool is not quite as solid and as big in other markets. I still think we can grow from here."

Tim Banks lists a couple of examples - Killam Properties and PlazaCorp. both of which Banks was involved with - as examples of developers that succeed running things from the Maritimes. "There's no reason we can't do the same thing here on PEI.

APM originally looked at building a five-storey head office on Water Street at $8 million but things didn't work out. "We have to be able to operate in a reasonable cost and every time we looked for an opportunity in Charlottetown, the site development cost, together with the capital cost, was just too cost prohibitive."

Tim Banks and the APM staff expect to move in to the new digs in a few months with a grand opening scheduled for Aug. 6th.

GOING GREEN

APM's new head office will have some environmentally friendly features:

It will feature and R40 roof system.

Majority of roof is Structural insulated panels, Canadian made roof panels consisting of nine inches of thermal foam sandwiched between sheets of particle board.

The roof system also allows for a vaulted ceiling without the need for specialized custom trusses.

There is no need for a roofing crew, as they can be installed by anyone with general labour skills.

System allows building to stay cool in summer, warm in winter.

the office will also feature R30 walls.

The system achieves the high insulation levels of double wall framing, without the increased labour costs of constructing double thickness walls onsite.

Traditional vapor barrier and air barrier are built in.


Media Contact: MediaReleases@apm.ca