APM eyes national expansion
Company banks
on successful operation from local head office
April
28, 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.
