Plocher Construction, Prairie Farms Dairy Headquarters, Edwardsville

By DENNIS GRUBAUGH
    EDWARDSVILLE — Work is proceeding at a brisk pace on the new, $9 million headquarters building for Prairie Farms Dairy that should be completed in mid-summer of 2017.
    Project Manager Michael Garrett of Plocher Construction Co., which is serving as the design builder and contractor, said the building will accommodate office, sales and IT staff that Prairie Farms is consolidating from five other locations.
    “We worked with them on a few different configurations in regards to office space, future offices, current offices, storage and other amenities that they wanted. We have been working for a while  trying to get the right balance.” he said. “They’ve been great, and we really enjoy working with them.”
    Design was done by Hurford Architects Inc. of Glen Carbon.
    The building will be 39,470 square feet, with three stories and a basement. The basement will mainly be for storage, IT use and a fitness center that Prairie Farms added as an amenity, with full locker room and showers.
    The upper floors will be for offices. Some 65-70 employees are expected to be brought in at the start, but there will be room for up to 120 employees, Garrett said.
    Plocher broke ground in late June on the project, located at 3744 Staunton Road. About 15 percent of the structure was complete as of last month, when the company was building the concrete stairwells. The structural steel should start going up in October through November, he said.
    The exterior of the building is all stone, both stack stone and limestone in different patterns.
    “It will be a substantial-looking building,” Garrett said.
    Hurford made an effort to pull in elements of both Scott Credit Union and Hortica — the two other headquarters located in Edwardsville Corporate Center — to make the new building fit in with the rest of the business park, yet stand out on its own.
    “We had a lot of input on what Prairie Farms wanted and it’s a statement of who those guys are,” Garrett said.
    The 303rd Engineering Group of St. Louis is serving as the engineer for mechanical, electrical and plumbing on the project for Plocher.