Aramark, a leading global food, facilities management, and uniforms company, relocated it’s Headquarters to a new location at 2400 Market Street in Philadelphia. This once-vacant landmark structure built in the 1920s is located along the Schuylkill River Trail. The 650,000-square-foot building was already a significant part of the city’s skyline, but with Aramark’s support, it was transformed into a modern, innovative, and sustainable green development.

Watchdog provided the firm with project management services from design development through completion of construction. During the preconstruction period, the Watchdog team secured project consultants, facilitated design reviews, and oversaw bidding and permitting. The team worked with Aramark and other project members to establish a schedule that allowed employees to move into the new location within their set timetable in alignment with their existing lease expiration.

This project required extensive coordination, which made it essential for Watchdog to track the schedule performance for both the tenant fit-out and core and shell construction teams. The build-out of the LEED ID+C certified interior space was phased by floor and carefully coordinated at hand-off between the core and shell construction team to the tenant fit-out construction crew. This process required meticulous scheduling and supervision to make sure the crews completed all activities timely.

The project was awarded funding from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which Watchdog provided support services for including grant compliance for bidding and procurement, as well as documentation submission and reporting.

In addition to design and construction, Watchdog provided project management and oversight of several related workstreams including client experience strategy and design, change management, move management and operations planning for the new facility.