Support and Services moves in former Sack ‘n Save building
Administrative services employees moved from the new Support and Services building on Monday that was renovated from the previous Sack ‘n Save grocery store located along I-35. The Support and Services office building will hold staff from the budget office, the human resources office and some of the vice president of finance and administrative support team.
“It’s a great way to get some administrative staff out of the core of the campus and potentially free up more space for faculty and academic spaces,” said Dave Reynolds, associate vice president for facilities. “We thought we’d try a little different philosophy and try this open style concept versus the traditional hard-walled offices. For some people, that will take a little more getting used to, not having that same level of privacy. Others, I think they’re going to enjoy the fact that collaboration is much easier.”
The final cleanup of the building took place last week, removing debris and clutter to prepare for employees to be moved in on Monday, Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the Board of Regents approved a renovation and capital equipment budget of $7 million in August 2015. The project has remained within budget.
Reynolds said the building can hold approximately 150 people and there are 63 total rooms.
UNT staff members work inside the newly renovated office space. Image by: Yecenia Alvarado.
With the open-style cubicles, the office has limited-speed treadmills that have a working desk, new furniture layouts, added technology, a view of the highway and a break room for collaborative meetings.
“One thing that’s really important too, is that it shows that UNT is also really interested in the health of their employees,” Senior Communications Strategist Margarita Venegas said. “Because there are lots of studies that have shown that if you’re standing and you’re walking, then you’re going to be healthier, you’re going to have a healthier environment, you’re going to have a healthier lifestyle. And so this helps kind of give that option to employees. There is no downside to this building.”
UNT bought the Sack ‘n Save grocery store that was built in 1985 for $6 million. The renovations began in late November 2015 with previous discussions on the building becoming a collaborative learning space.
With the growth of facilities at UNT, the decision was made to make the old grocery store into an office building, now known as the Support and Services building, Reynolds said.
“The hardest part of this project I have to say is converting it from a grocery store because of all the structural unknown going in,” project director Kim Nguyen said. “We didn’t know what we had to work with, whether it was stable or reusable. So, we have found that the shelf and the foundation is holding up fairly well. The biggest unknown and the biggest challenge I think was to make it structurally sound for people to have it. This is truly a reuse and repurpose of a site.”
Reynolds said the project was a joint effort between the UNT System Office of Facilities Planning and Construction, who did the exterior of the building and the utility systems and air conditioning, and its Design and Construction team.
“I think right now we’re kind of happy to be here and eager to see what happens next,” said Brandi Renton, associate vice president for administrative services. “And see what it actually ends up looking like when more people are here and when we open it up for the UNT community for trainings and different things like that. So, I think just that kind of shift and change can bring a lot of different workers together. I think right now we just have a lot of anticipation and excitement about it.”
Featured Image: The former Sack ‘n Save building along I-35 now houses the Support and Services department. Image by: Yecenia Alvarado.
A slight correction. The building was not constructed in 1985 by Sack’ n Save. The building was taken over by Sack’ n Save from a Gibson’s department store that was in business in 1975 or earlier.