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MRP Design Group wins prestigious award for second year.

MRP Design Group has won an award for best travelcenter design, by Convenience Store News, for the recently opened Arrowhead Travelcenter in Pendleton Oregon. The 18,000 square foot facility has a full size McDonald's restaurant, large retail areas, and trucker amenities including lounges, showers, and laundry facilities. The facility also provides a large fueling area for autos with a separate fueling canopy for diesel trucks.

The previous Arrowhead Travelcenter which was originally built in the 1970's was much too small to provide for the growth the retail facility has seen in recent years. Additional property was also purchased to provide parking for over 200 trucks and an auto parking area with room for large RV traffic.

Coverage of the Arrowhead Travelcenter and MRP Design Group will be in both the September and October issues of Convenience Store News.

MRP Design Group has now won this award for two years straight, with an award in 2008 for the Madison Travelcenter built in Madison Florida. We are proud of our contributions to the travelcenter industry. Please contact us today so we can discuss how we can put our 20 years of experience to work for your next site.    

Think Your Convenience Store Layout All the Way Through

Convenience Store Floor Plans are critical to meeting your sales plan.  If your store has narrow isles, poor lighting, or feels claustrophobic, people will want to get in and out as quickly as possible.  If however your store is well lit, has pleasing graphics, wide isles so people can move comfortably past each other, and is well stocked but not overstocked, your customers will linger and spend money.  With your margins being squeezed at the pump, you need that in store revenue to keep you in business.

Especially if your store is older/smaller, consider an interior remodel.  Your investment is far less than opening or building a new store. When you think layout, think in terms of the newer stores.  If you haven't recently, visit a new QuikTrip, Racetrac, Wawa, or other big regional chain store - shop for ideas.  Look at winners in the Convenience Store News Design Contest and explore design ideas on the internet.

Once you have a general idea of where you want to go, talk to an expert.  Good Design is Priceless, bad design can cost a fortune. Talk with an architect or designer that specializes in Convenience Stores.  Even if you don't engage their services, the ideas you get will be valuable.  You may find that the benefits they bring to the table outweigh the investment in their time.

Recognize that adding design features and reworking your whole convenience store floorplan requires an investment of time, energy and dollars, but the return on that investment is both immediate and long lasting.  With proper planning on the front end of the process however - the total investment can be reduced and the return can be increased.

Metal Building Prototype Cuts Development Cost.

Several fast casual restaurants and retail companies have been exploring and utilizing metal building construction to reduce development costs.

 

An example is a major rent to own retail concept that has used metal buildings for their retail stores for several years.

 

MRP developed a set of prototype building drawings that create an 80’x100’ building and a 100’x100’ building. Coordination with the metal building manufacture optimized the layouts with the needs of the facility to blend with the characteristics of metal building construction.

 

Details, that allow the exterior face of the building to resemble a conventional construction retail storefront, were worked through. MRP has worked many of these projects through local permitting requirements and made required modifications to allow permit approval.

 

The current rate of development with these metal buildings have allowed seventy stores per year construction rate with expectations to increase to one hundred and fifty retail sites per year.

Modern Travel Plaza Design Puts Many Concepts Under One Roof

The Arrowhead Travel Plaza was originally constructed in 1975. The facility is located on Interstate 84 at Exit 216 near Pendleton, Oregon. In 2000 the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation purchased the travel plaza and the surrounding property.

In 2007 the Tribe performed a search of architectural firms to design a completely new facility to be built on adjacent property to the old one. MRP Design Group was selected and began design work on a 19,600 square foot facility to contain a large travel store, trucker amenities, auto and truck fueling, and a full size McDonalds restaurant. The amenities include large restrooms, a phone room, TV lounge, laundry, and eight shower rooms. The travel store was enhanced to include gift items, specialty clothing, and an extensive self serve area for travelers on the go.

In an effort to utilize local materials, stone was used on the exterior along with polished concrete floors with aggregate from the nearby area. The facility was planned and laid out to create an efficient facility that would serve both the over the road truck driver and the motoring public.

The site also has had an extensive area developed for additional truck parking to handle trucks as the winter weather sometimes closes the Interstate from the travel center exit over the local Blue Mountain area.

The Tribe held a prayer service on March 6,2009 to formally open their new facility with the spectacular view of the Blue mountain.  Traffic has increased and sales have been growing ever since.

 

Are Metal Buildings Cost Effective?

A major food service company is currently looking at the advantages of metal building construction to reduce development costs for their restaurants. With stand alone costs climbing the need to reduce development costs are greater than ever.

The concept involves a base construction of a metal building with conventional construction to create a hybrid facility that reduces construction between $20,000 to $50,000 per site. The completed facility is virtually identical to conventional construction when completed.

One example is a major rent to own retail concept that makes use of metal building construction to quickly and cost effectively develop retail stores. Prototypes have been designed with sizes including a 80'x100' and 100'x100'.  These buildings provide the lowest cost per square foot construction while having building elevations that feature conventional construction to give a pleasing appearance to customers.

Benefits have included drastically reducing the construction schedules to allow a current rate of construction that allows 70 ground up retail stores per year with an anticipated increase to 150 stores per year.

Fuel Center Design Considerations

When designing or laying out a new fuel (Convenience Store or Travel Center) retail facility you should consider:

• Typical parking requirements for retail facilities is one parking space for every 200 square foot of building area. Typical parking spaces are around 9' wide and 18' deep. Parking aisles should have 24' for two way access and room for proper backing out of spaces.

• Be sure to consider the tank farm location and how the tanker truck will access site for fuel drops. Tanker trucks usually drop fuel from the right side and clear path from entry drive should be planned. Always try to refrain from placing tanks near building or fueling canopies as future removal or service could be difficult.

• Provide handicap parking in the most convenient location to the entrance door.

• Auto fueling lanes should be a minimum of 24' apart for two way traffic between islands. Allowing 36' will allow two fueling spots for vehicles while allowing for a third vehicle to drive between. While skewing fueling islands will improve the front to rear layout depth of the layout it requires additional canopy area width.

• Be sure you know the landscaping requirements of your sites permit officials. Many sites are requiring dedicated areas for landscaping to include trees. The days of paving a site from property line to property line are long gone.

• Be sure you consider where you will be allowed curb cuts for access to the road way. Many corner sites have certain requirements to keep curb cuts from being too close to intersections due to traffic concerns. Many older sites that are being redeveloped find they are losing the number of drives as part of the permitting of new construction.

• Travel Centers require special attention to try and separate auto and large truck traffic. Dedicated drives and dedicated parking is preferred. Truck drives require additional width for proper maneuvering through site. If possible, consider a central tank farm area that is accessed via the truck drives. This will keep the tanker truck out of the auto areas and allow fuel drops at any time of the day instead of just off traffic times.
  

Key Factors in Good Metal Building Design

• Metal building roofs are best undisturbed. While roof top HVAC units can be installed on the metal building roof, service people access can break down the roof seal leading to roof leak issues. Consider ground mounted equipment if possible.
• Metal building roof have minimum slopes to allow proper drainage. These minimum slopes should be considered in development of the overall building height.
• Consider metal building columns in the floor plan design. Metal buildings have bays of framing usually at 20' or 25' spacings along the length of the building. The columns are usually tapered and typically inside the wall framing for the building.
• Metal building suppliers can provide complete design and construction drawings for the metal building but typically do not provide engineering or design for the building foundation and concrete slab. You will need to engage a structural engineer for this design work.
• Metal buildings are typically designed to only assume loading from the metal panel roof and walls. If you are planning concrete block or other exterior finish material be sure to coordinate this with the manufacture for engineering consideration.
• Metal buildings have certain requirements to assure low cost construction. Metal buildings have engineering requirements and variation to these standards, while available, can add significantly to the building costs. Most metal building suppliers will assure that most anything can be done but costs and fabrication delays can be very cost prohibitive. It is advised that you consider communication with your architect and proposed building supplier before getting too far into a projects development.
  

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Zaxbys Bermuda Conference - Fast Casual Restaurant Design Success

MRP Design Group was recently invited to attend a four day restaurant conference on the island of Bermuda .

Most of you are thinking, how can a company sponsor a conference in Bermuda in light of current economic conditions. Well, this could not have been a more productive event.

Attendees were given an assessment of current sales and predicted next quarter sales for the concept in the first day. Surprisingly sales are performing very well for this concept. Next, representatives from several departments within the company shared upcoming sales strategies and new food items to further increase market share. Findings from several tests were shared along with adjustments to further improve the product offerings.

The second day included private meetings where the licensees were provided additional key information on the sales and marketing of the food concept. A trade show was held where the licensee community could meet with various representatives of companies and share concerns as well as needs.

Particularly impressive was the positive and friendly mood of the attendees. They spoke of upcoming projects and needs that our firm could address. Various training classes as well as planned free time was scheduled so attendees could enjoy the sites while they learned lessons that increase their restaurants success.

Evenings included social events and dinners that were well planned. Not only did this event give us a great chance to meet and talk with the licensee community, we gained a much better sense of the needs for this restaurant and how we can continue to provide for those needs.

The Bermuda islands provided a beautiful backdrop for what was a first class event.