West Valley Shopping Mall Fire

Project Scope & Objectives

Kowalski Construction had quite a task ahead in one of its recent restoration projects: Smoke damage from a large fire ravaged approximately 1/3 of Arizona’s largest mall. Kowalski was asked to perform restoration services, but with a twist. Mall managers wanted to keep the mall open for business during the restoration process. Fire suppression efforts, as well as the deployment of the sprinkler system, caused major water damage to the building. Water extraction and structure drying was our first order of business. Blocking off and containing the damaged areas from the unaffected areas of the mall was our second priority. We also had to keep a keen focus on protecting individual stores from cross contamination of any sort. Once these priorities were managed, our attention shifted to cleaning. This herculean effort inside a massive mall required three 65’ boom lifts and 20 scissor lifts manned by 50 employees to reach the open-air designed ceilings. All this work was completed in just a 10-day period. The timeframe was so compressed in an effort to provide minimum downtime and loss of revenue for both the individual stores that were affected, as well as the mall. Finally, Kowalski focused on the reconstruction process. Our goal was to deliver both the mall and the stores back to their pre-loss condition, so that shoppers would never know that anything had ever happened. This large-scale reconstruction process took only 14 days to complete. The logistics of coordinating with various insurance companies, mall ownership, management & personnel, as well as the individual store’s management and building departments, required constant communication to keep everyone informed of the progress, set expectations, and maximize efficiency. The cost of this project in total was $746,193.04

Challenges and Solutions

The project scope was massive. The damage spanned two floors, with common area ceilings that were open framed construction
soaring 65’. But there were quite a few other challenges that had to be overcome as well. A mall may seem spacious when you’re shopping, but when you’re trying to move large, unwieldy pieces of machinery through it, there are many restrictions along the way. Kiosks were generously peppered throughout the common areas restricting the usable width our machinery drivers could maneuver through. Add to this the fact that the second floor would not support any equipment over 5,000 pounds. That meant those 65’ high ceilings had to be accessed from the first floor. Additionally, there was only one door large enough to
allow such enormous equipment through and that was located on the other end of the mall. This end was not affected by the fire, smoke or water and remained open to customers during the entire process. Content processing was another overwhelming challenge. One store alone had more than one million
items to be inventoried, packed, transported to our facility, processed and returned. This was in addition to the substantial number of contents that were collected from all the other affected stores. Each store also had its own insurance, in addition to the mall’s insurance. So rather than being one very large job, it was more like many jobs wrapped into one. This placed quite a load on our team to maintain communication and very accurate records. Keeping unaffected mall areas open and accessible to merchants and shoppers and free from cross contamination during our restoration efforts required a high degree of coordination and vigilance. We staffed this project with approximately 100 workers running simultaneously, requiring tremendous coordination & communication in order to finish in such a compressed timeframe.

The Results

Reopening the damaged portion of the mall and getting stores back to business in such short order made mall ownership and management extremely happy. It’s important to remember that the fire and water affected a third of one of Arizona’s largest malls. Our work of completing the restoration project
so shoppers could never tell it even happened made merchants particularly thankful. It was also a job that was very gratifying to us. Finishing such a large project in an extremely compressed timeframe is a testament to Kowalski employees who put who put so much time and attention into it.

Prior to the fire, the mall was struggling with the effects of Covid-19 and dealing with a loss of shoppers and revenue. The fact that this fire was another major setback heightened the need for Kowalski to complete this job in the shortest amount of time without sacrificing quality. That, in turn placed a higher demand on our staff to provide excellent coordination, exemplary customer service and the highest level of communication. The mall and its’ merchants were ecstatic to open their stores as quickly as we finished the restoration work. Remember, the fire had come on the heels of the Covid-19 shutdown. At that time, stores had just reopened only to experience a fire days later. Several of these clients told us they couldn’t believe so much work was accomplished in so little time. They mentioned it was impossible to tell that there had ever been any damage and that many of their stores looked better than before the fire. In addition, the insurance companies were pleased that their business interruption claims were kept so minor. Cost containment was achieved on almost every front
due to the high degree of coordination, allowing our crews to work both efficiently and effectively. Kowalski Construction faced quite a task in a recent restoration project: Smoke damage from a large fire ravaged approximately 1/3 of Arizona’s largest mall. Kowalski was asked to perform restoration services, but with a twist. Mall managers wanted to keep the mall open for business during the construction process. The mall and its’ merchants were ecstatic with Kowalski’s work, finishing the project on time and with a close eye on cost containment.

Once again, Kowalski’s A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and nearly 55 years in business shows
they are the company to choose for jobs big or small.